‘Ebola tsar’ becomes Biden’s chief of staff | First Thing election special | American News

Hello.

Joe Biden has appointed Ron Klain, who led the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola outbreak, as his chief of staff. Klain, who has sharply criticized Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, is a White House veteran and a longtime ally of Biden. The couple first worked together in the 1980s, and Klain continued to work on Biden’s presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2008 before becoming his chief of staff when Biden’s vice-presidency began.

Announcing his appointment, Biden said Klain had been “invaluable to me over the many years we have worked together” and praised his experience in combating the 2008 financial crash and the Ebola outbreak – two additions useful for a resume in current public health and economic crisis.

His deep and varied experience and ability to work with people from all political walks of life is precisely what I need in a White House Chief of Staff as we face this moment of crisis and bring our country together again ” , Biden said.

• The political response to the coronavirus must combine economic recovery and anti-virus control, said public health researchers and economists. Gregg Gonsalves, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine, said that throughout the pandemic, “economists were saying the same thing as public health: stop the virus”.

Pressure on Trump hits boiling point

Biden’s popular vote advance has risen to more than 5 million votes, adding to growing pressure for Donald Trump to finally concede the election. Instead, Trump has blocked Biden’s access to briefings and federal funding, the latter preventing background investigations and security clearances for potential staff.

Senior Republicans are increasingly alarmed by his actions, with former US Senator and former Defense Secretary William Cohen calling Trump’s behavior “closer to a dictatorship than a democracy.” Senator Bernie Sanders said yesterday that Republican senators were “afraid to stand up” to Trump, when they knew he had lost. “One of the other things we should all be nervous about and fear is the degree to which Trump intimidates and frightens Republican members of Congress,” he said.

Experts said there was no constitutional path for Trump to stay in power. In this article, they answer the questions of whether the president can actually stage a coup.

There is a strange fascination with various imagined dark scenarios, possibly involving renegade state legislatures, but it is more of a dystopian fiction than anything that is likely to happen, ”said Richard Pildes, professor of law. at New York University.

• What’s next for Pence? As he says goodbye to the White House, the former governor of Indiana could return to conservative radio or even start planning his own presidential run.

• Trump’s defeat is a blow to the rightwing populists around the world, some of whom have yet to recognize Biden’s victory. Is the “populist wave” of recent years beginning to subside?

Texas politician offered $ 1 million for evidence of voter fraud

An ultra-conservative Texas politician offered citizens $ 1 million to provide evidence of voter fraud. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said the money was there to “entice, encourage and reward” citizens and would be paid in installments of $ 25,000 to each person who provided information that led to a conviction. This is not Patrick’s first foray into the political limelight – he made headlines earlier this year when he said the elderly would rather die than let the pandemic take its toll. economy.

• Twitter reported another Trump conspiracy theory which marketed the election fraud allegations as “misleading” – but not before they had been shared more than 70,000 times. The platform flagged more than 40 tweets and retweets on Trump’s profile for disinformation in the days following the election.

In other electoral news …

• Trump made his first public appearance since the election results were announced yesterday, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark Veterans Day. It was the president’s first outing since his loss to Biden, other than to play golf.

• Pfizer CEO sold $ 5.6 million worth of shares after an interim analysis found her coronavirus vaccine to be over 90% effective. The company did not participate in Trump’s Operation Warp Speed ​​drug development program and used $ 2 billion of its own money to develop the vaccine.

• US allies have welcomed Biden’s presidency as a crucial opportunity to tackle the climate crisis, Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron have made green action their top priority for cooperation with the president-elect.

Stat of the day

Wednesday, the judges six states dismissed at least 13 lawsuits brought in by the Trump campaign to challenge the election result. Meanwhile, the proportion of Biden popular vote victory rose to 50.8% Wednesday, the highest percentage for a challenger since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932.

Don’t miss it

Georgia turned to Democrats for the first time in 28 years in this election, and the shift drew attention to the organizational power of black women, whose large-scale campaign efforts appear to have led to massive turnout. people of color.

Last Thing: Congress attendees are heading to thrift stores

Cori Bush, who made history this year when she became the first black woman to be elected to Congress from Missouri, reminded Us All of the realities of life in the limelight last night, tweeting that ‘she would go to thrift stores to buy him new clothes. role and offer to do a “fashion show”.

Bush, a single mother of two, quit her full-time job as a pastor and ordained nurse to run for office. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was open to thrift stores and borrowing clothes after quitting her waitress job to attend Congress, offered to go shopping with her, while Ayanna Pressley offered makeup advice. .

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