WASHINGTON – Elected President Joseph R. Biden Jr. promised an accelerated response to a frightening and growing range of challenges on Friday as the economy showed new signs of weakness, the coronavirus pandemic killed more Americans than ever before, and Congress weighed in on accusing Trump. second time.
While Washington faded on Wednesday with the fallout from the Capitol storms and Democrats made their efforts to defeat Mr. To hold Trump accountable for his role in inciting the attack, Mr. Biden indicated that he intended to keep his focus on work and the pandemic, and refused to consider whether the House Mr. Trump must be accused.
On a day when the Labor Department reported that the economy had lost 140,000 jobs in December, ending a seven-month growth period after the country plunged into a recession in the spring, Mr. Biden said there’s now a serious, serious need to act now. ”
He promised to move quickly once he becomes president to push a stimulus package through Congress to provide relief to struggling individuals, small businesses, students, local governments and schools.
Mr. Biden and his associates have not yet finalized the proposal or settled the full amount. Forecasters expect further job losses this month, a victim of the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic and the imposition of shutdowns by government and local officials and other restrictions on economic activity that are slowing the spread.
“The price will be high,” he said. Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del.
“It is necessary to spend the money now,” he said. He apparently referred to his entire range of economic plans, including immediate assistance and a larger bill that includes infrastructure spending. “The answer is yes, it will be in the trillions of dollars.”
The Biden team is also preparing a spate of economic action that does not require congressional approval. The assistants of mr. Biden said Friday that the elected president will instruct the education department to extend a break over the payment of student loans that were initially under Mr. Trump was issued. Mr. Biden called on Congress Friday to act quickly to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $ 15 an hour.
He also promised to make efforts to slow down the spread of the virus, which now claims 4,000 lives daily – more than those killed during the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 or the terrorist attacks. . on September 11, 2001. The team of mr. Biden said the president-elect will immediately provide more vaccines to states when he takes office, sharply breaking that from Mr. Trump’s practice of holding back a few shots for second doses.
“People are really, really, really in desperate shape,” he said. Biden said.
While he said that the question of the accusation of Mr. Trump belongs to Congress, he once again attacked the president for his behavior in office, even though he wanted to try to focus himself as focused on the issues that immediately concern voters: their health and economic security. .
“I thought President Trump was tall, unfit to hold the post,” he said. Biden said. ‘I focus on the virus, the vaccine and economic growth. What Congress decides to do is that they decide. ”
“But,” he adds quickly, “they will have to run the ground.”
Along with the powers of the presidency that he will assume on the afternoon of January 20, Mr. Biden accepts the responsibility to lead the country through a crisis clash that is more diverse and intense than its recent predecessors face. In addition to the pandemic and shaky economy, it includes racial tensions that require reconciliation after decades of depletion, and a deep political divide that flared up Wednesday in violence and shook the country’s assumptions about its tradition of peaceful transfer of power.
“It’s bigger than his presidency. It’s going to take a generation to work on all these things, ‘said Rahm Emanuel, who was former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff when he took office more than a decade ago during the economic crisis.
“He will take the first steps,” he said. Emanuel on mr. Biden said. ‘But you’re not going to deal with twenty years of change in a week or two. It’s a generation’s work. ”
Mr. Biden – who on Friday reiterated his promise to work with Republicans to advance his agenda – now faces the real prospect that Mr. Trump could stand trial in the Senate for revolt in the Senate.
The work begins in earnest within twelve days, and assistants of mr. Biden said he expects lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to get to work quickly, although the issue of Mr. Trump’s fate dominates the conversation in Washington.
The presidential transition
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s steps to accuse Trump a second time come after a surge of anger by members of both parties over what many people call an uprising by the president’s supporters. Mr. Biden called them on Friday “a bunch of thugs, insurgents, white supremacists, anti-Semites” who “had the active encouragement of a sitting president of the United States”.
But Mr. Biden was apparently aware of the political risk of becoming the primary spokesman for the punishment and removal of his predecessor, and the danger that a protracted indictment and trial could delay or derail his hopes of the speedy passage of his biggest agenda items.
He said he might openly support accusation if the Capitol attacks took place when Trump was six months into his term. But he has repeatedly suggested that the best way to get rid of the current president is to wait until Mr. Biden be inaugurated.
“The question is, what happens with 14 days left to go, or 13 days left to go?” Mr. Biden said, adding later that “I am now determined that we as President and Vice President should take the 20th, and that our agenda can move as quickly as possible.”
The president-elect said he thought the events at the Capitol on Wednesday could be a moment that drives people together, and he singled out Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Mitt Romney of Utah, both Republicans, as examples of political opponents. anger over what happened.
“Many of them are so angry and disappointed and embarrassed and killed by the behavior of the president as I am,” he said. Biden said.
But in the same breath, he underlined the divisions that remain in Washington and spoke out against Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, because he led the attempt to win the election on behalf of Mr. To stop Trump and for spreading misinformation to supporters of the president who helped whip them into a frenzy.
He said he agrees with some Republicans who said “how shameful it is how Ted Cruz and others deal with this, how they are also responsible for what happened.”
When asked if Mr. Cruz must resign, Mr. Biden said: ‘I think they should just be beaten flat the next time they run. I think the American public has a good, clear look at who they are. They are part of the big lie. ”
Mr. Biden said he would unveil on Thursday, six days before his inauguration as the 46th president, his legislative program to address the coronavirus crisis and its economic consequences.
Mr. Biden’s economic team is deeply involved in developing proposals for a second stimulus bill and a larger economic package, including spending on infrastructure and tax increases for the rich. Aid workers and top congressional Democrats hope to speed up the package by Congress as soon as Mr. Bid accept the office.
“A devastating pandemic, an economic crisis, a country plagued by political divisions and mistrust, institutions that have been severely damaged and global alliances shattered,” said David Axelrod, who during his first two years in the White House as political adviser to Mr. . Obama served. . “He has his hands full.”
Mr. Biden and his assistants were particularly hit by two grim numbers in Friday’s job report: the loss of nearly 500,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry in December, and thousands of jobs in public education – a warning sign budget cuts could recover in the coming months further withhold.
They are particularly focused on direct investigations into individuals, a policy that candidates of Mr. Biden and the Democratic Senate have hammered in Georgia’s run-off elections that gave their party control of the chamber, and on efforts to fight the pandemic by speeding up testing for the virus and deployment. of vaccines.
The contours of these proposals are beginning to take shape. The stimulus package contains the call of mr. Bid for an additional $ 1400 direct payment to adults and children who qualified for $ 600 payments approved with the lamb-duck stimulus passed last month, bringing the total benefit to $ 2000 per individual Bring.
The challenge of sending his stimulus plans through a narrowly divided Senate was seen Friday when a moderate Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said direct payments of $ 2,000 should not be the first priority for legislation not and that he prefers to have checks. targeted “to those who need it. ”
The package also includes additional benefits for the nearly 11 million Americans still classified as unemployed by the Department of Labor, assistance to tenants and assistance to small business owners, focusing on businesses owned by women and minorities. It will contain what Mr. Biden promised to be tens of billions of dollars to help reopen schools safely, tens of billions to help state and local governments keep essential workers at work, and billions of dollars to get vaccines from a vial into someone’s arm . ”
Senate leaders – such as Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, who will chair the budget committee, and Ron Wyden, Democrat from Oregon, who will chair the finance committee – said in interviews this week that they are preparing to act quickly. together with mr. Biden’s team to draft new economic rescue legislation.
Mr. Sanders said he met with Mr. Biden talked about proposals and that the staff of mr. Sanders has already worked to portray details.
“He knows, I know, everything in his power to address the economic and health care crises our country is facing,” he said. Sanders on mr. Biden said. “The crisis is very serious, and we need to move as quickly as possible.”