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Joe Biden will sign a series of executive orders in his first days in office, attempting to reverse the damage done at home and abroad by Donald Trump, whom the Democrat will replace as president on Wednesday.
Biden, 78, has previously described his intention to send an immigration bill and a Covid stimulus and relief plan to a newly Democratic-controlled Congress. On Friday, he said he was going to shake up the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine, mired in chaos under Trump.
Biden plans to bring the United States back to the Paris climate accords and the Iran nuclear deal, overturn Trump’s travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries, restrict deportations and seizures in part of the pandemic and institute a mask mandate on federal properties.
In a note released on Saturday, the new White House chief of staff Ron Klain said: “These actions will change the course of Covid-19, fight climate change, promote racial equity and support others. underserved communities, and rebuild our economy in a way that strengthens the backbone of this country: the workers who built our nation.
“While the political goals of these executive actions are bold, I want to be clear: the legal theory behind them is well founded and represents a restoration of an appropriate constitutional role for the president.
The memo did not mention the return to the World Health Organization, previously mentioned as a priority. Klain said subsequent ordinances would address “equity and support communities of color” and address criminal justice reform, access to health care and other priorities.
Trump is stepping down twice indicted, the second time over an attack on the U.S. Capitol he instigated that left five people dead. The coronavirus pandemic is out of control, with the death toll approaching 400,000, the number of cases close to 24 million. There were nearly 3,300 dead on Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The economy collapsed as unemployment rose sharply.
Among historians assessing the challenge Biden faces, Roosevelt and Lincoln biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin told the Washington Post that it was “huge.”
“History has shown that when you have crises like this,” she said, “it’s an opportunity for leaders to mobilize resources from the federal government. All the presidents we remember have faced a crisis. When you are given this chance, the question is: are you ready for this moment? “
Biden will enjoy democratic control from both houses of Congress, if by a narrow margin in the House and by Kamala Harris’ casting vote as vice president in a 50-50 Senate. But Senate affairs, including the confirmation of Biden’s cabinet candidates, will soon be dominated by Trump’s impeachment trial.
On Sunday, Klain told CNN’s State of the Union: “It is important for the Senate to do its constitutional duty, but also to do its constitutional duty to move forward on these appointments, on urgent action which the country needs.
“During President Trump’s last trial, the Senate was able to hold confirmation hearings for the candidates in the morning. [and] was able to conduct other business. I hope that the leaders of the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, will find a way to advance all their responsibilities. This impeachment trial is one of them, but bringing people into government and taking action against the coronavirus is another of those responsibilities.
If Trump is convicted, he could be barred from running again. Ten members of the Republican House voted to impeach the Capitol Riot, making Trump’s second most bipartisan indictment in history. Senior party officials are eager to move on, but a clear majority of Republican voters back Trump and back his baseless claim that the election was stolen by voter fraud. In Congress, 147 Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the results of the constituencies.
Biden urged unity and pledged to use his experience in Congress – he was a senator for 36 years – to reach the aisle. But in Sunday’s Guardian, former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich sought to urge the new president to take sweeping action and move away from seeking meaningful Republican support.
“I constantly hear that Joe Biden will rule from ‘the center’,” Reich wrote. He has no choice, they say, because he will have razor thin majorities in Congress, and the Republican Party has moved to the right.
“Garbage. I served several Democratic presidents who needed Republican votes for what they wanted to do. But the Republicans currently in Congress are nothing like those I have dealt with. Most GOPs in today live in a parallel universe. There is no “center” between the world of reality and theirs. “
Speaking to the Post, House Majority James Clyburn, a key ally of Biden and a leading African American voice, said he reminded the president-elect of the power of executive orders, which Harry Truman used to desegregating the army and Lincoln used to begin the end of slavery.
New White House press secretary Jen Psaki is due to give a briefing Wednesday, inauguration day – four years after Sean Spicer launched the Trump presidency by aggressively lying about the size of the crowd for the inaugural address of Trump.
Biden will speak and be sworn in amid massive security, a lockdown in Washington sparked by fear of further attacks in the wake of the Capitol Riot.
Clyburn urged Biden to “expose your vision and invite people to join you in the effort.” But if they don’t join you, whatever your authority, use it.
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