Biden warns of dire consequences, urges Trump administration to aid transition

US President-elect Joe Biden on November 16 warned that many more Americans are at a risk of dying from coronavirus if Republican incumbent Donald Trump continues to refuse to coordinate with his transition team. While speaking in Delaware, Biden called for co-ordination in a bid to tackle the unprecedented pandemic. He even called Trump’s refusal to acknowledge he lost the election, despite call to do so from both sides, “totally irresponsible”. 

Biden said, “More people may die if we don't coordinate”. 

Further, while calling nationwide vaccine distribution a “huge, huge undertaking,” he added, “A vaccine is important. It's of little use until you're vaccinated. So, how do we get the vaccine, how do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? What's the game plan? It's a huge, huge, huge undertaking to get it done, prioritise those greatest in need and working our way through, and also cooperate with the World Health Organization and the rest of the world in dealing with this”. 

Biden’s recent remarks marked his toughest comments to date on Trump’s failure to acknowledge his election loss and cooperate with the incoming administration for a peaceful transfer of power. According to US media projections, Biden has won the November 3 election. However, Trump has repeatedly alleged voter fraud and mounted legal fights in a number of battleground states. 

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Biden’s action plan 

The 46th President-elect and his aides, on the other hand, have emphasised the importance of being briefed on White House efforts to control the pandemic and distribute prospective vaccines. While Trump is working on its own distribution plan, Biden’s chief of staff indicated that his transition team will proceed with their own planning separately because of the obstruction. As of now, Biden has said that his action plan is to deal with every individual, organisation in the country from business to labour, Republicans to Democrats, to try to pull together a serious and consistent plan so that he is ready on day one with everything from staffing to ultimately naming cabinet members. 

Meanwhile, irked with outcome of US Election 2020, incumbent Donald Trump claimed he “won” the race to White House on November 16, a day after acknowledging president-elect Joe Biden’s victory earlier. Lambasting the media for ‘assuming’ that Biden will descend to the US Presidency, Trump said that his side is not even being shown. While Twitter labelled all posts by 45th US President as “disputed”, Trump said that the presidential elections “attacked like never before”. 

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