The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden sets to work amid post-election limbo

 

 

 

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Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported this morning: Monday, 237,584.

 

The United States has now exceeded 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a world with more than 50 million cases. It took just 10 days for another 1 million infections to be reported in this country (The New York Times). 

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris say they will forge ahead with transition plans today while President Trump contests ballot counts in court and withholds a concession of defeat.

 

Much of official Washington and allies in international capitals quickly pivoted to a pending Biden administration, even as pro-Trump supporters demonstrated their displeasure with an electoral count that on Saturday propelled Biden and Harris past the threshold of 270. Several states remain too close to call (The Associated Press and The New York Times).

 

The New York Times and The Washington Post: The international reaction to Biden’s victory was relief.

 

Biden, who made Trump’s response to the worsening COVID-19 crisis a centerpiece of his bid for the White House, said he will begin his transition planning by naming a team of experts to lead a new 12-member coronavirus task force. Trump’s coronavirus team has not met since October.

 

“Now is when the hard work begins,” Harris said on Saturday.

 

The former vice president named three of his campaign advisers, Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon general during the Obama administration; David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor of internal medicine, public health and management and the founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale to be co-chairs.

 

Biden also named Rick Bright, the ousted Trump administration chief of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Zeke Emanuel, a physician and former adviser to the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act (and brother of former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel); and Atul Gawande, a surgeon and author who advised both the Clinton and Obama administrations (CNN and Politico).

 

The task force, with a nod to scientific expertise and diversity, is to be part of a weeklong focus on health care and the pandemic as urgent priorities in the new administration (The New York Times and Axios).

 

Reuters: Biden team held COVID-19 talks with Operation Warp Speed drugmakers before election.

 

 

 

 

The Associated Press: Biden team sets to work amid limbo.

 

The Hill: Biden is expected to hold public coronavirus briefings from now through the inauguration to help steer the country through what is expected to be a deadly winter season as COVID-19 surges through most states. “On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on Jan. 20, 2021,” Biden said on Saturday. “That plan will be built on bedrock science.”

 

The Associated Press: Biden moves quickly. 

 

The former vice president is required by law to begin a transition process (his website is buildbackbetter.com), and the Trump administration is also required to lend assistance to the incoming administration. Although former President Clinton focused on his Cabinet picks at the outset of his transition in 1992-1993, the consensus view since then among transition experts is that it’s preferable to begin by naming incoming White House senior staff and continue with speed from there to announce nominees who must clear the Senate confirmation process to lead departments and agencies.

 

There is a hitch, however. General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy has no immediate plans to sign over federal office space and resources to the Biden team for the transition. “An ascertainment has not yet been made,” said a spokeswoman for GSA. The refusal could create a delay in a cooperative shift in power (The Washington Post). GSA’s pause for “ascertainment” raised new questions about whether Trump and his appointees will try to impede Biden and his team (The Associated Press). By law, GSA is to provide support “beginning on the date on which such candidate becomes President-elect.” Inside the Trump administration, agencies and departments have been advised to prepare for a hand-off since September, alerted to legal requirements outlined by the Office of Management and Budget.

 

The Associated Press: Transition challenges await Biden.

 

Reuters: Biden likely to rely on a trusted inner circle as he staffs a new administration.

 

Bloomberg News: Biden embarks on a transition, but Cabinet picks are weeks away.

 

The former vice president has outlined an ambitious 100-day agenda for legislation and executive action. Observers are closely watching to see how Biden decides to order his priorities and whether his to-do list responds to uncertainties about whether the Senate remains under Republican control in January.

 

During his campaign, Biden promised a swift federal response to the coronavirus, the resulting economic wreckage and inequities COVID-19 exposed as well as a bipartisan push for more stimulus funding. He also promised to reverse Trump’s push to jettison the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and to create a pathway to citizenship for applicants. Biden vowed the United States will reenter the Paris climate accord and rejoin international alliances.

 

The former vice president said he would name a new task force focused on reuniting migrant children separated by the Trump administration from their parents, and appoint a presidential commission to study judicial reforms and the effects of decades-old crime bills. Biden promised his supporters that his administration will move quickly to unwind a slew of Trump executive orders (The Washington Post). It is not uncommon for an incoming president to make a show of abandoning the policies of a predecessor with replacement orders signed on Jan. 20.

 

NBC News: From COVID-19 to climate change, Biden laid out a comprehensive agenda.

 

The New York Times: Community college professor Jill Biden says she will continue to teach while in the White House, a first. 

 

NBC News: How Black voters in key cities helped deliver the election for Biden.

 

The Hill’s roundup from Sunday talk shows: Biden’s win reverberates.

 

This morning, Trump’s allies continue to insist the president is in no mood to embrace defeat while some GOP lawmakers said gently over the weekend that the president is within his rights to pursue claims of voting irregularities in court — where there is evidence and if lawsuits could make a material difference to the outcome rather than simply serve as public relations. Trump maintains through protests on Twitter that “illegal” ballots in key states helped Biden win. Some believe the president’s next move may be shaped by his assessment of what might prove most helpful to his ambitions in his post-presidency, either in business or in politics (or both) (The Associated Press).

 

ABC News: Inside the Trump campaign as it grapples with defeat while plowing forward with legal fight.

 

The Hill: Former President George W. Bush says the election winner is “clear” and that Biden “has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”

 

USA Today: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was his party’s presidential nominee in 2012, said during Sunday interviews on CNN and Fox News that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. “I think it’s important for us to recognize that the world is watching,” he said.

 

AZ Central: Cindy McCain, widow of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the GOP presidential nominee in 2008, joined the Biden-Harris transition board after endorsing the former vice president before the election.

 

New York Post: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani on Sunday teased the possibility of up to 10 new election lawsuits. … Republicans on Saturday dropped a lawsuit in Arizona over the use of Sharpie pens on ballots (The Hill). … The Trump campaign on Saturday filed a lawsuit in Arizona alleging that in-person ballots were improperly rejected in Maricopa County (The Hill).

  

The Hill: Washington braces for an unpredictable post-election period.

 

The New York Times: In Pennsylvania, Trump voter fury foretells a nation still divided.

 

The Hill’s Niall Stanage: The Memo: Trump lost but is not vanquished.

 

 

 

LEADING THE DAY

CONGRESS: An incoming president also means drastic new changes in the relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill. However, what’s new is old this time around as Biden will likely have to deal with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the coming years.

 

The two leaders have a deep history dating back to their time in the upper chamber and the Obama era; they have a close relationship, as they have hammered out deals on a number of issues and a mutual respect that has been rare on Capitol Hill in recent years. Notably, the relationship between Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has deteriorated to the point where they have not spoken in more than a year and have traded deeply personal barbs in that time. 

 

That is not expected to be the situation between Biden and McConnell, who served alongside each other in the Senate for 24 years. As The New York Times’s Carl Hulse details, McConnell spoke glowingly of Biden at the end of the Obama presidency, describing the former vice president as a prime and trustworthy negotiator in a speech on the Senate floor. 

 

“He gets down to brass tacks, and he keeps in sight the stakes. There’s a reason ‘Get Joe on the phone’ is shorthand for ‘time to get serious’ in my office,” McConnell said at the time. 

 

CNN: Democrats fear McConnell veto over Biden agenda.

 

With the election largely out of the way, front and center for the two sides is a coronavirus relief package, with McConnell saying last week that he will take over negotiations for the GOP. However, those talks could speed up in the coming days and weeks as Pelosi presses for a speedy resolution. 

 

“We must also move swiftly for a new coronavirus relief bill because we can do that. We want the Republicans to come back to the table, the White House, the leadership, whatever,” Pelosi said on Friday at her weekly press conference, noting the rising case totals in recent weeks. “The imperative to act could not be greater. … I’m calling on the administration to come back to the table.”

 

Lawmakers will descend on Washington today for the first time since last week’s election, though the marching orders on relief talks remain unclear at this point, as the president is preoccupied with post-election lawsuits across a number of states. Congress will also have to pass a government funding bill in December. The deadline for a deal is Dec. 11. 

 

The Washington Post: Lame-duck Congress and lame-duck president face huge challenges in coming weeks.

 

The Wall Street Journal: Stimulus fight reboots after Election Day.

 

The Hill: Next Congress expected to have record diversity.

 

 

 

 

> Senate fight, cont.: The battle for the Senate will continue for two more months, with Republicans remaining confident that they will keep hold of their majority, depending on a pair of Georgia runoff contests in January, as The Hill’s Alexander Bolton writes. 

 

While Democrats have a puncher’s chance, there’s not a lot of optimism they will sweep in what has been a solidly conservative state — though Biden has a narrow lead there. Democrat Jon Ossoff ran 1.5 percentage points behind the president-elect in his race against Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who fell just shy of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. In the other race, Democrat Raphael Warnock scored only 33 percent and will square off against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) on Jan. 5. 

 

The New York Times: What’s a runoff, and why are there two? Here’s why Georgia matters.

 

The Washington Post: After Biden’s win, parties gird for ferocious Senate runoffs in Georgia.

 

The Hill: Democratic hopes on health care rest with Georgia Senate races.

 

Politico: Biden’s win sets off a rush for Harris’s Senate seat in California.

 

The New York Times: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Biden’s win, House losses, and what’s next for the left. RELATED: Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) responds, says he’s “frustrated” by progressive rhetoric and policy proposals.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

CORONAVIRUS: Spurred on by a recent second wave, coronavirus infections eclipsed two notable markers on Sunday, as the U.S. has now totaled 10 million cases, with the global count climbing past 50 million as the virus shows no signs of letting up.

 

The seven-day average of new U.S. cases now exceeds 100,000 per day, far more than any other country, with the U.S. totaling more than 128,000 new infections on Saturday — representing a single-day high — and 105,000 additional cases reported on Sunday. The timing of the rise in cases comes as Americans are set to convene in more than two weeks for Thanksgiving, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending that people take into account how fast the virus is spreading in each community as they weigh the risks of traveling or of hosting out-of-town guests (The New York Times).

 

On Saturday, Texas became the first state to total 1 million cases of the virus, with infections climbing in Harris, Dallas and El Paso counties (The Hill). California trails closely behind, as it has more than 970,000 confirmed cases. 

 

The Associated Press: Nursing home COVID-19 cases rise four-fold in surge states.

 

60 Minutes: Inside the Operation Warp Speed effort to get Americans a COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Scott Gottlieb: The states are laboratories for COVID control.

 

The New York Times: A “terrifying” coronavirus surge will land in Biden’s lap.

 

 

 

 

> COVID-19 in animals: Mink can be infected with the coronavirus, as well as dogs, cats, tigers, hamsters, monkeys, ferrets and genetically engineered mice — and of course bats. Public health experts worry that any species capable of infection could become a reservoir that allows the virus to reemerge at any time and infect people. The virus would likely mutate in other animal species, as it has been shown to do in mink. Although most mutations are likely to be harmless, SARS-CoV-2 conceivably could recombine with another coronavirus and become more dangerous. Conservation experts also worry about the effect on animal species that are already in trouble (The New York Times).

 

The Associated Press: Convention centers, museums become classrooms amid pandemic.  

The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@digital-staging.thehill.com and aweaver@digital-staging.thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE! 

OPINION

Is there a Trumpism after Trump? by Ross Douthat, columnist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/2IkCMEt 

 

Biden leads a gerontocracy that could bode ill — or good! — for democracy, by Charles Lane, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3n2xVqI 

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session and will not meet for votes until Nov. 16.

 

The Senate reconvenes at 3 p.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of James Ray Knepp II to be a judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

 

The president has no public events scheduled.

 

Vice President Pence leads a White House coronavirus task force meeting at 3 p.m.

 

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will receive a briefing in Wilmington, Del., from the transition’s COVID-19 advisory board. Biden will speak about the coronavirus and the economy. In the afternoon, Biden and Harris will take part in briefings with transition team advisers.

 

Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-staging.thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10:30 a.m. EST at Rising on YouTube. 

ELSEWHERE

➔ ADMINISTRATION: The Trump administration is readying a barrage of new sanctions against Iran by Jan. 20 (Axios). … Trump could decide to oust his Pentagon chief, according to reports, at a time when there are concerns that his political team might refuse to work with a Biden administration as part of the transition process. The United States is grappling with hot spots across the globe, including in Afghanistan, Iran and China. National security experts view U.S. domestic unrest and a period of limbo before Inauguration Day as a risk factor for tensions internationally (The Hill).

 

➔ TECH: The passage of Proposition 22 was a huge win for gig companies in California, and top executives at Uber and Lyft would like to replicate nationwide the same independent contractor classification achieved in California. Such an objective could pull more power away from labor (The Hill).

 

➔ WHAT IS “A LEGEND”: Alex Trebek, the longtime host of “Jeopardy!” died at age 80 on Sunday from pancreatic cancer. “Thank you, Alex,” the show said about its host since 1984. Trebek announced his cancer diagnosis in March 2019 and updated fans about his treatment as he continued working (The Associated Press). 

THE CLOSER

And finally … There is more to the universe than politics. How about magnetars, which are more than a trillion times more magnetic than the Sun and Earth and create mysterious radio bursts in space? 

 

California Institute of Technology radio astronomer and doctoral student Christopher Bochenek spotted a rarely seen radio burst in April with handmade antennas that included cake pans. Bochenek and a separate team in Canada tracked that fast radio burst to a weird type of star called a magnetar that’s 32,000 light-years from Earth, according to four studies published last week in the journal Nature.

 

Seeing the radio bursts has been described as a flash of luck. “You had to be looking at the right place at the right millisecond,” said Cornell University astronomer and research scientist Shami Chatterjee, who was not part of the discovery. “Unless you were very, very lucky, you’re not going to see one of these.” 

 

Although the phenomenon is a frequent occurrence outside the Milky Way, astronomers have no idea how often these bursts happen inside our galaxy (The Associated Press).