Biden interview, Harris: President-elect says he will ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days after taking office

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“Just 100 days to hide, not forever. 100 days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction,” Biden told Tapper in his first joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since winning the election. The full interview will air at 9 p.m. ET.

Biden has said that where he has authority, such as in federal buildings or interstate transportation on planes and buses, he will issue a standing order requiring masks to be worn. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says wearing a mask can help protect both the person wearing the mask and those around them from transmitting the virus.

Biden also said he asked Dr Anthony Fauci to become chief medical adviser and be part of his Covid-19 response team when his administration begins next year.

Biden said the conversation took place Thursday afternoon. CNN reported earlier today that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, had a meeting scheduled with Biden’s transition team.

“I asked him to stay in exactly the same role he had for the last presidents, and I asked him to also be a chief medical adviser for me and to be part of the Covid team,” said Biden to Tapper.

Biden added that Ron Klain, his new chief of staff, knew Fauci well and spoke to him “all the time.”

Biden and Trump have long taken diametrically different approaches to the virus, an issue that has come to define the presidential election. Trump has fought many of the coronavirus recommendations made by his own administration, including wearing a mask, while Biden scrupulously followed the coronavirus guidelines during the campaign.

Trump’s struggle with the coronavirus recommendations often puts him at odds with Fauci, one of the more outspoken members of Trump’s task force. These clashes made Fauci the center of public attention, often seen as a hero on the left for his commitment to science in the face of Trump’s comments, and a villain on the right, especially among Trump loyalists.

Biden described his plans for the coronavirus as a balance between making sure Americans believe the vaccine is safe and instituting a number of plans that will help curb the spread of the virus without shutting down the economy.

Former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton volunteer to publicly obtain coronavirus vaccine to prove it's safe

Biden also said in the interview that he would be “happy” to get a coronavirus vaccine once Fauci says he is safe and will get the vaccine publicly to demonstrate his confidence.

“This is the time when I will stand in front of the public” and receive the vaccine, Biden said. “People have lost confidence in the vaccine’s ability to work. Already, the numbers are extremely low, and what the president and vice-president do matters.

Biden’s comments come a day after three of his presidential predecessors – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – said they would publicly obtain the coronavirus vaccine in order to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness.

“I think my three predecessors set the pattern for what should be done, saying, once it’s declared safe … then obviously we take it and it’s important to communicate with the American people,” he said. Biden said.

Biden also said he was concerned about reports that Trump was considering a slew of preventive pardons for his adult children and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, as well as the possibility of getting one for himself.

“It concerns me in terms of the kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world views us as a nation of law and justice,” Biden said, adding that his Justice Department “would operate independently on these questions “and how to respond to Trump’s pardons.

“I’m not going to tell them what to do and what not to do,” Biden said. “I’m not going to say, ‘sue A, B or C’, I’m not going to tell them. This is not the role, this is not my Department of Justice, this is the Department of Justice. of the people. So the people or the person that I choose to lead this department will be people who have the independent capacity to decide who gets prosecuted or not. “

Biden concluded that his administration would not approach pardons the same way Trump did, adding, “It will be a whole different way of approaching the justice system.”

Biden has yet to choose an attorney general, but is considering a range of names, including former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates; Doug Jones, soon to be a former Alabama senator who was defeated in November; and Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security Secretary under Obama; among others.

The White House has held several thanksgiving meetings since the election

Harris echoed the sentiment of Biden’s remarks about the Department of Justice.

“We won’t tell the Department of Justice how to do its job,” Harris said. “And we’re going to assume, and I say this as a former elected attorney general of California … that any decision by the Department of Justice … should be based on fact, it should be based on law not must not be influenced by the political period “

Biden interjected, “And I guarantee you, this is how it’s going to be.”

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