President-Elect Joe Biden really is an old hand at steady, no-drama leadership. He’s just so damn presidential. Of course, America is a traumatized nation and we’re desperate for anyone to step up in a calm, measured, self-assured manner, as opposed to the four years of violent melodrama and utterly unhinged fascism. The president-elect also knows that people want to see him, especially in Trump’s absence (Trump has not been on camera since he lost the election). So Biden has been going in front of the cameras every day. On Tuesday, he and Kamala Harris gave brief speeches about the Affordable Care Act (a case involving the ACA was up before the Supreme Court yesterday) and then the president-elect took questions. I’m including the full video, but the Q&A part starts around the 11:30 mark.
He says that Republicans will work with him, even if they’re posturing like they won’t. He said that he hopes to have a list of names for Cabinet positions by Thanksgiving. When asked specific questions about a certain Baby-Fisted Madman throwing a giant temper tantrum in the White House, Biden said that the Trump admin’s refusal to authorize the transition “does not in any way change the dynamic of what we’re able to do…We have already started the transition, we are well under way.” When asked about Trump’s refusal to concede the election, the president-elect said: “I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly…The fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge that we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we’re able to do between now and Jan. 20.”
Another thing: as former Vice President and current president-elect, Joe Biden should have access to the most sensitive and top-level security and intelligence briefings. He should have been getting those briefings when he was simply the Democratic nominee. Apparently he isn’t? The Office of the Director of National Intelligence “says it is not permitted to meet with Biden’s transition team.” That’s not how any of this works. Biden was asked about the Presidential Daily Briefing (which he is not getting, but should be) and he said: “Obviously the PDB would be useful, but it’s not necessary. I’m not the sitting president now.” Yeah, sorry, this is f–king bonkers.
Something I was thinking about is what happens when Biden begins to announce Senate-confirmable nominees to major positions? The first thing that will need to happen will be background checks, usually done by the FBI. Is the Trump administration going to shut down the FBI to get Biden’s background checks jammed up? Probably.
Biden is having calls with heads of state around the world though, and he’s releasing summaries of their boring and perfectly diplomatic conversations. Dude has his eye on the Good Friday Agreement!
Here are the latest readouts of the president-elect's phone calls with foreign leaders: pic.twitter.com/UzQILIr2FD
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2020
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I hope he and his team are taking things more seriously behind the scenes.
While it is an embarrassment, no one should be laughing it off. What he is doing could have major impact on national security and right now he still has all the power and the backing of the GOP. It doesn’t matter if it is pathetic nonsense – he can still do grievous wrong. And he will.
Unfortunately I will not be happy or comfortable until Biden is actually being sworn in and 45 no longer has any access to things in the White House.
It doesn’t come across as they’re laughing it off. It comes across as a successful attempt to inspire confidence in his transition team and tamp down panic about cheeto mussolini’s temper tantrums.
I think he doing this to try and counter the fear coming off Dump and GOP – he’s acting the a President plus he’s been playing the political game a lot longer than Dump so he knows how it works. Am also he’s worked alongside some of the main players for years and he knows their game so am sure he has a game plan of their own – he’s letting them hang themselves in their desperate bit to steal the vote and stop the transition. Unless the rip up the Constitution between now and 20th Jan there is nothing the can do to stop Joe being sworn in – they all know this.
Dump is trying to hide his own misdeeds and give himself some bargaining power – i.e. if you don’t ‘forget’ me and my families traitorous deeds then I might sell these national secrets to my pal Putin. Plus am sure that they are already manufacturing intel on Hunter Biden as we speak plus her emails.
I agree. I’m sure Biden and his team know way more than we do and know the game. Trump has said he would call voter fraud if he didn’t win way back in 2015 or so. He knew this would happen.
I think this is exactly it. He’s trying to create a bargaining chip he can use to avoid being prosecuted.
Apologies for the typos – was multitasking.
I think Biden and Harris are taking this series of unfortunate events very seriously behind the scenes. I also believe they are well aware of the consequences this is having and will have. They are treading lightly. As people must when dealing with a crazy lunatic. We have a modern day Nero.
If you follow Kamala Harris on Facebook, part of their legal team did a Zoom conference (right after Biden’s speech about Healthcare yesterday) discussing how Trump’s antics will fail and what is happening on the legal side of things. I’d suggest (esp for peace of mind) to subscribe and watch.
This is going to be a Iron Fist (Harris) and Velvet Glove (Biden) presidency. Biden will show how “nice” he is and how he wants to play fair while Harris goes in for the kill. JMO.
I also think Biden’s deprecating humor that he is showing during his press conferences is because he KNOWS it will get under Trump’s skin. Trump hates not being taken seriously and being ridiculed. The way Biden paused and said “I don’t know how to say this – but I think it’s frankly embarrassing” was a shiv in Trump’s orange ass. Done like we say in the south “butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.”
I said that in the Pompeo post – this is so embarrassing for them. I have such second hand embarrassment on their behalf.
Obviously this is some pathetic, petty, infantile bullshit on the part of the Trump administration, but could Biden’s experience as VP give him a bit of a head start, despite their attempts to sabotage him?
Biden has done a transition before with Obama. I’m confident he can get the majority of the work done without their cooperation. When baby fists finally accepts reality, they can do the final step of getting staff in offices, on payroll and get them onboarded.
Biden is playing it cool and acting Presidential. I’m also sure that once he’s in office he will prosecute every last one of these MFs for all of the crimes they committed while in office. In fact, I could see him putting Kamala in charge of it and she will do it with GLEE.
That might be the #1 thing I love about Kamala, she is NOT subtle. Biden is acting so presidential, which is what we need from him, but Kamala is so gleeful after defeating these assholes and barely even tries to hide it. It seems like she’s always just moments away from yelling “SUCK IT!” at all the Republicans. And I think we can all relate to that sentiment.
Information about the transition is posted to Biden’s official buildbackbetter website. Names and other details about the review teams dealing with each of the agencies (Commerce, Defense, Education, etc.) were posted yesterday. Many, many people, from many different backgrounds and affiliations.
Biden and his team obviously got started on this a long time ago, to have these groups formed and ready to go. They knew this BS was likely and aren’t waiting around for a concession to start doing the work for which they were elected.
Agree about Biden & his team getting starting on this a while ago because over the last 6 months Biden has basically setup a shadow administration that will be ready the day he enters office. It’s pretty remarkable so this alone gives me a small piece of mind even though the trump admin is trying to cause havoc.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/31/inside-biden-campaign-foreign-policy-team/
Trump and his sons want scorched earth if they can’t get their way. It’s more than embarrassing, it’s DANGEROUS not to concede and continue to push the narrative that this election was stolen. The absolute worst members of Trump’s base are particularly seedy people and they’re already angry and looking for a fight which is why he appealed to them in the first place. These people are going to go absolutely mad when they finally realize that Trump is NOT getting that second term, and they’re going to think it was stolen from him and that his defeat means the country is dead. This is sick and it’s going to potentially be a big issue that results in violence.
I was particularly horrified by Donald Jr sending out tweets right after the election calling for “war.” Trump is surrounded by sycophants who are completely content to stir the pot and try to create some kind of alternate reality.
There’s a clip getting shared on social media from one of the debates between Hillary and Trump where she points out that Trump has a LONG track record of crying foul play and blaming others whenever he loses or fails at something. Hillary makes a great point about how dangerous that mindset is and she gives quite a few examples. It’s a must-watch.
Reported Donny Jrs war post to Insta they don’t care
Biden is being extremely charitable saying they make work with him. I’m just going to dump any money I can into the Georgia races or, pending that potential miss, the 2022 races because I don’t trust those moral cowards at all. They’re literally edging us closer to total breakdown in democratic process by egging on his supporters and indulging Trump’s tantrum. How long until one of his more fanatical supporters gets it into their head to “strike back” in the name of their idea of democracy? And what are the chances it won’t be a heavy urban center, one that is likely a heavily tilted minority one like Detroit, Philadelphia, or Atlanta?
Did anyone else think Joe might be using some type of psy-ops?
At first I thought he was being far too calm, then I thought he might have coaching on how to deal with mega-narcissists. He was ignoring the tantrum, pointing out how embarrassing the behavior is, and how his losing opponent’s legacy might be impacted. To top it off, Joe dropped the hint that those lawmakers seemingly supporting the man-baby will come around.
He may have also been playing to the audience of one who was undoubtedly watching from his bedroom.
This 100%. He’s been coached by the best. This is exactly how this needs to be handled. He most likely has an entire psychology team dealing with 45 himself and the cult of 45 and ways to make inroads with both.
What bothers me is not that Biden isn’t receiving the PDB right now, it’s that Trump will continue to receive it after he’s out of office. Trump is a security threat and nightmare. He won’t have
access anymore to give to Putin, but he can certainly let him know everything that Biden is being briefed on. Trump has already proved that he can’t be trusted with sensitive information, so he shouldn’t receive any.
Trump ended former CIA Director Brennan’s security access out of spite. So I’m assuming Biden could cancel Trump’s access too, especially if there are legitimate concerns he’d endanger national security.
Biden will be able to cut off Trump’s access to the PDB as soon as he is sworn into office. Access is a courtesy, given to former Presidents because prior occupants of the office wanted to be able to talk to their predecessors and get their opinions on subjects that were not public knowledge, but where they had personal experience. It is not legally mandated.
Biden is doing what he should – instilling confidence and calm into the public when our current president is doing nothing of the sort. I have no doubt that he is working behind the scenes to make sure everything is ready to go on January 20th and getting his people to take decisive actions once in office. This is not his first rodeo and he knows how Washington works.
I’m trying to remember 2000. I think Gore conceded and then took it back while recounts were happening. I’m not surprised Trump is waiting for recounts. But the unsupported fraud “allegations” are different entirely from a recount.
Because of the extended deadlines for receipt of mail-in/absentee ballots, some states are potentially still receiving eligible ballots.
For example, in NJ and NY, ballots must have been postmarked by Election Day/Nov 3, but the deadline for them to be received and still count was 7 days afterwards, which was considered to be yesterday, Nov. 10 (except I think NY gives certain military members 13 days post election to arrive). In NC, the deadline is 9 days, which will likely be tomorrow. In Indiana, the deadline is Nov. 13.
In Michigan, ballots must have been postmarked by the day before the election, Nov. 2, but can still be counted if received within two weeks of Election Day.
At this point situations like the above undoubtedly involve very few potential votes, and the outcome won’t change, but strictly speaking, the actual election itself isn’t totally over, which may give certain GOP windbags the idea they have some ammunition to keep spouting off for their base.
Publicly, Biden/Harris may be quietly waiting out the week for the rest of the deadlines to expire, but I’m sure behind the scenes they’re prepared for whatever may need to be done, while continuing the work on the transition.
Gore/Bush was about 500 votes in one state. Nothing analogous to now.
I’m curious to hear from overseas celebitchies. How is this shit show being reported in the foreign press? Is it generally understood that Trump’s claims are without merit or is he being taken seriously in certain countries?
I’m in Switzerland and it’s basically being reported that’s Trump is a giant loser. The comics are fantastic. Here’s an example:
https://twitter.com/alnaazenathoo/status/1325697258432696320?s=19
The Der Spiegel cover is amazing too
Foreign leaders who want to talk to Biden are bding stonewalled as well. This is treasonous. He is hampering the security of the US by getting in Biddn’s way.
One of the hallmarks of the Obama administration was that they were playing chess, not checkers. Things were done with discretion and not put to record until they were indisputably complete. Biden’s following this model so far. And I’m digging it. I like transparency. But I also like people who know what the fuck they’re doing. I’m confident the Biden administration knows and has known what they’re doing.
Just here to echo that I also like people who know what the fuck they are doing. The problem with the GOP “ideologues” (Biden’s word) is that not only are they wrong, they’re grossly incompetent and harming every American with their stupidity and feeble-mindedness. History has unfortunately given us both hypercompetent fascism (Nazism before its leadership succumbed to methamphetamine addiction) and bumbling trip-over-their-own-shoelaces fascism, and I have absoultely hated living under the latter. (And definitely wouldn’t want to live under the former.)
It’s just nice to see leaders and a team that knows what the fuck they are doing.
Heh–Der Speigel is always on point.
Trump lost, now all eyes on Biden. He should be held to the same standard by the media and his words and actions watched just like trumps. Neither was my first or ideal choice. Old white man or old white man.