President-elect Joe Biden is moving quickly and taking care of business.
He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, after last week’s briefing on the novel coronavirus, on Monday morning named a new 13-person COVID-19 task force and advisory board made up of physicians and health experts. The group will help shape the Biden/Harris response to the pandemic, which has now surpassed 10 million cases and nearly 238,000 deaths in the United States.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump still refuses to concede defeat in the Nov. 3 election. Instead, he and his administration continue to push frivolous lawsuits to challenge the election without evidence. Even Georgia’s Trump-supporting Republican election officials have pushed back on the president’s allegations of widespread fraud, warning that a recount will not fundamentally change the voting results.
What’s more, Trump’s appointed General Services Administration administrator Emily Murphy is refusing to sign a letter allowing Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week. It is just one more broken norm and one more sign that Trump intends – at least for now – to making every effort to disrupt an orderly transfer of power.
But Biden’s decades of experience with running a government show that he will not be slowed.