Joe Biden Gives First Interview Since Winning Election
President-elect Joe Biden gave his first interview since he won the election earlier this month, speaking to NBC News’ Lester Holt about the transition of power, COVID-19 and his administration’s first priorities.
Asked about the Trump administration finally clearing the way on Monday for the formal transition to his administration to begin, Biden said, “I must say, the outreach has been sincere. [It] has not been begrudging so far. And I don’t expect it to be.”
In the NBC interview, which aired Tuesday evening, Biden said they’re “already working out” how he’ll get presidential daily briefings and he expects those to begin as soon as Wednesday.
Emily Murphy, head of the General Services Administration, had sparked outrage by declining until this week to find that Biden had won the election. Without her sign-off, the Biden team could not obtain millions of dollars in transition funds and access to current officials.
Trump himself has yet to concede the election, despite his repeated losses in court cases challenging election results in several states and those same states — including Pennsylvania and Michigan — certifying their results showing Biden as the winner.
Biden told NBC that he has personally “not heard anything from President Trump” since the election but that he believes their chiefs of staff have spoken.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks exclusively with @LesterHoltNBC in his first interview since the election.
Click here for more: https://t.co/Ff0LkdQimgpic.twitter.com/eG1VSgD2qd— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) November 25, 2020
Biden is set to inherit a growing coronavirus crisis, with the number of cases ballooning across the country in recent weeks, reaching over 160,000 confirmed cases per day over the past week. More than 259,000 people in the US have died from the virus so far.
The president-elect told NBC he expects to meet soon with the coronavirus team at the White House. On the key matter of...