Thursday, March 28, 2024

Biden pushing ahead

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Washington/Wilmington – US President-elect Joe Biden moved ahead with planning his new administration on Thursday as his fellow Democrats in Congress blasted Republican “shenanigans” challenging Donald Trump’s election loss and urged action on the coronavirus pandemic.

The Republican president has refused to concede the election and his allies in Congress have declined to acknowledge Biden as the winner while Trump’s campaign pursues legal challenges to vote counts in several states, based on unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud.

The two top Democrats in Congress – House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer – on Thursday urged Republicans to join them in passing legislation to address the pandemic and buttress the battered economy.

“We just had a divisive and hard-fought presidential election,” Schumer told reporters. “But instead of working to pull the country back together so that we can fight our common enemy, COVID-19, Republicans in Congress are spreading conspiracy theories, denying reality and poisoning the well of our democracy.”

“The Republicans should stop their shenanigans about an election that President Trump has already lost and focus their attention on the immediate issue at hand – providing relief to a country living through the COVID health and economic crisis,” Schumer added.

Efforts to pass such legislation before the election stalled.

Biden has won enough of the battleground states to surpass the 270 electoral votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the next president. He is also winning the popular vote by more than 5.2 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points, with a few states still counting ballots.

Biden in the last few days has not publicly engaged with Trump’s long-shot challenge, instead focusing on planning his administration. He named longtime adviser Ron Klain on Wednesday as White House chief of staff, his first major appointment before taking office on January 20.

Trump’s campaign has filed a series of lawsuits aiming to challenge vote counts in pivotal states as he makes unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud. State election officials have said no such widespread fraud occurred.

“They’re engaged in an absurd circus right now, refusing to accept reality,” Pelosi said. (Reuters)

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