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      'Our democracy was tested this year': Joe Biden's Thanksgiving address – video

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      Joe Biden urged Americans to put aside their political differences as he called for unity in his Thanksgiving address to the nation.
      ‘We need to remember, we are at war with the virus, not one another,’ said the president-elect. ‘Our democracy was tested this year, and what we learned was this: the people of this nation were up to the task.’
      Joe Biden says ‘Let’s be thankful for democracy’ in message of unity – live More

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      Biden appeals for resilience and unity in Thanksgiving address to America

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      In an eve-of-Thanksgiving address on Wednesday, Joe Biden drew on historic hardships and his deep personal loss to make a passionate appeal for resilience, asking Americans to endure a national holiday amid restrictions on travel and gatherings imposed to fight the pandemic.
      More than 12.6m cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the US and more than 260,000 people have died. Vaccines are imminent but hospitalisations and deaths are surging, straining infrastructure to breaking point as leaders warn of impending disaster.
      His speech struck a note of unity. “We need to remember, we’re at war with the virus, not with each other,” Biden said from Wilmington, Delaware, where he is continuing transition work before his inauguration as the 46th president in Washington on 20 January.
      The tone was in marked contrast to speeches by Donald Trump, who shortly after Biden spoke announced in a tweet that he was giving a full pardon to Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with a Russian official.
      While Trump has allowed the Biden transition to proceed he has not conceded defeat or stopped making baseless claims of electoral fraud. On Wednesday the president cancelled a trip to Gettysburg meant to support efforts to overturn his defeat in Pennsylvania, after at least two aides to lawyer Rudy Giuliani tested positive for Covid-19. Trump instead addressed state Republicans remotely, claiming: “This election was lost by the Democrats. They cheated. It was a fraudulent election.”

      On the national scene, such words increasingly seem like ambient noise. In Wilmington, from a podium emblazoned with “Office of the President-elect” and in front of an austere golden backdrop, Biden opened by quoting from a plaque at Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania which commemorates 18 December 1777, the first official Thanksgiving, celebrated in the midst of war with Britain.
      Echoing previous speeches informed by the historian Jon Meacham, Biden said George Washington’s army marked the day “under extremely harsh conditions and deprivation.
      “Lacking food, clothing, shelter, they were preparing to ride out a long, hard winter … In spite of the suffering, they showed reverence and character that was forging the soul of the nation. Faith, courage, sacrifice, service to country, service to each other and gratitude, even in the face of suffering, have long been part of what Thanksgiving means in America.”
      Almost 250 years later, families across America are preparing for a holiday with loved ones distant or lost altogether. Switching from the epic to the personal, Biden remembered his own family’s first Thanksgiving without his wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and young daughter Naomi, both killed in a car crash in 1972.
      “I know this time of year can be especially difficult,” he said. “Believe me, I know. I remember that first Thanksgiving. The empty chair, silence that takes your breath away. It’s really hard to care. It’s hard to give thanks … It’s so hard to hope, to understand.
      “I’ll be thinking and praying for each and every one of you this Thanksgiving.”
      In a year marked by bitter partisan divide, the president-elect also saluted “simply extraordinary” turnout and said: “Let’s be thankful for democracy itself. Our democracy was tested this year, and what we learned is this. The people of America are up to the task.”
      Biden is the first presidential candidate to receive more than 80m votes. But Trump was only 6m behind.
      “Out of pain comes possibility. Out of frustration comes progress. Out of division, unity,” Biden said.
      His words also struck a contrast with Trump’s actions. The president has won one election lawsuit in a battleground state – but lost 36. Regardless, he continues to solicit donations to benefit future political moves, including a possible White House run in 2024.
      Nonetheless, in 56 days’ time Biden will replace Trump in office. He has unveiled his nominations for key foreign policy and national security posts and will reportedly name his economic team on 2 December. From Monday, he will receive the president’s daily intelligence briefing.
      Democrats and Republicans in Congress are preparing for Biden to abandon Trump’s state-by-state approach to fighting the pandemic and build a national strategy instead. Democrats believe a Biden plan should include elements of the House’s $2tn coronavirus aid bill which aims to revive the US economy. Republicans have resisted big spending but agree new funding is needed.
      Biden must also plan for the vaccination of hundreds of millions.

      In an interview with NBC broadcast on Tuesday, he said: “The [Trump] administration has set up a roll-out [of] how they think it should occur, what will be available when and how. And we’ll look at that. And we may alter that, we may keep the exact same outline. But that’s in train now. We haven’t gotten that briefing yet.”
      Last week, some lawmakers expressed anger over a lack of federal coordination with Biden. On Tuesday, health secretary Alex Azar said his department “immediately” started working with the president-elect after the General Services Administration acknowledged the election result. It did so on Monday, more than two weeks after the race was called.
      Biden told NBC he thought vaccine distribution should focus “on obviously the doctors, the nurses, those people who are the first responders. I think we should also be focusing on being able to open schools as rapidly as we can. I think it can be done safely … Now, maybe, the hope is we can actually begin to distribute it, this administration can begin to distribute it before we are sworn in to take office.”
      In his speech in Wilmington on Wednesday, Biden hailed “significant record-breaking progress in developing a vaccine” and said the US was “on track for the first immunisations to begin by late December, early January.
      “We’ll need to put in place a distribution plan to get the entire country immunised as soon as possible, which we will do. It’s going to take time. And hopefully the news of the vaccine will serve as incentive to every American to take simple steps to get control of the virus.”
      Biden listed such steps, including wearing a mask, social distancing and more.
      “There’s real hope,” he said. “Tangible hope.” More

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      Here's something to give thanks for this Thanksgiving: our democracy survived | Art Cullen

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      Going on 40 years I’ve been writing columns about giving thanks, and this year I mean it: thank God that America stood up for democracy again.
      This year is among the worst. Pandemic is our parlance. Covid runs wild over Iowa while its government stands back and does little. The president thumbs his nose at the virus and at the rule of law, skirted impeachment thanks to feckless senators, and would steal a win through a faithless electoral college, if he could.
      But he can’t.
      The people spoke. They elected Joe Biden with the most votes ever, and by a convincing margin, as a rebuke to it all. It was a vote for Biden – made by millions, in hopes of good will – but it was as much an act of revulsion for what Donald Trump represents.
      Biden promised to govern with fairness and decency. People endorsed a middling approach with a split Congress. They demand that government gets along somehow. Fair enough. There’s wisdom in that vote.
      It was a record turnout. So many have lamented a lack of civic engagement for good reason. Our local school board elections typically muster 10% turnout. This year, however, the people were engaged. Especially in Iowa, where they came out in awful weather, young and old, to hear Julián Castro or John Delaney campaign during the run-up to the caucuses. Dr Jill Biden, first lady in waiting, talked education to a handful of folks at Better Day Café. It was something to behold. We had a ringside seat.
      Trump and company tried to keep people from voting. They tried to slow down the mail. They tried to sow fear that the system was rigged. But the people came out the first day they could and stood in line for hours, if necessary, to make sure their vote counted. County election officials, no matter their politics, tried to make it as safe and smooth as possible and it was, for the most part. That, too, was something to behold.
      The judicial system worked. Judges appointed by Republicans threw out Trump’s efforts to suppress or overturn the vote. A score of lawsuits filed following the election, claiming unspecified fraud, were dismissed. Chief Justice John Roberts has held the center and protected the judiciary’s independence under great trial over the past year.
      None of this was destined. It could have gone the other way. The attorney general tested whether there were limits and discovered them when his field offices told him no fraud was to be found in the balloting. The military brass wanted nothing to do with any of it.
      The Republican secretary of state in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, stood up for the integrity of the system. So did the FBI and CIA directors and the head of cyber-security, who got the boot from Trump for vouching for a safe vote. So did the Republican governor of Maryland. If only Republican senators would have stood up with them to get Trump to move on. Democracy isn’t perfect. But when Trump personally asked Michigan Republican legislative leaders to rig their electoral college delegation, they refused. When it counted, people stood up. That is no small feat.
      It should never have gone this far. Now we know. About a third of Americans think Biden stole the election and that Rudy Giuliani should be allowed to practice law. Many of us were suckered by Trump and wised up. Most of us voted for sanity and a little bit of respect.
      Mainly, the people demonstrated that liberty means something. They knelt in the park for Black lives that are not fully free. They objected to caging families at the border. They demanded their franchise as citizens. It could not be denied.
      From time to time this year, I had my doubts. Iowa voted for Trump, after all. It was too close for comfort in Wisconsin. The rants and ravings still echo in the crazy chambers of social media. Pray Biden will have a way of defusing things. Actually, he already has. Reporters asked the president-elect the other day about Trump refusing to allow an orderly transition. Biden stopped and thought, and just said that Trump is reckless. He left it at that. Lord, what a relief in restraint. I give thanks. Democracy prevails.
      Art Cullen is editor of The Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. He is a Guardian US columnist and author of the book Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America’s Heartland More

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      'This is not a third Obama term’, says Joe Biden in first sit-down interview – video

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      President-elect Joe Biden says his presidency would not be ‘a third Obama term’ after announcing a slew of cabinet nominees that included many former Obama administration staffers. In his first sit-down interview since the election, Biden said the appointments reflected the spectrum of the American people and the Democratic party. ‘This is not a third Obama term. We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,’ he told NBC’s Lester Holt, adding that Donald Trump’s ‘America first’ approach meant ‘America alone’. He also said he would consider appointing a Republican in upcoming appointments.
      President-elect says ‘this is not a third Obama term’ in first sit-down interview More

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      Trump's coup failed – but US democracy has been given a scare

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      In the end, the coup did not take place. In the most grudging manner possible, Donald Trump signalled on Monday night that the transition of power could begin.That, a White House official told reporters, was as close as Trump will probably ever come to concession, but the machinery of transition has gathered momentum. Joe Biden’s incoming administration now has a government internet domain, is being briefed by government agencies and is due to receive federal funding.The Pentagon quickly announced it would be providing support for the transfer of power. And one by one, senior Republicans – an especially timid category – are recognising the election result.But there is no doubt US democracy has been given a scare. As the sense of imminent threat begins to fade, the convoluted inner workings of the electoral system are coming under scrutiny to determine whether it was as robust as its advocates had hoped – or whether the nation simply got lucky this time.“I had long been in the camp of people who believed that the guardrails of democracy were working,” Katrina Mulligan, a former senior official in the justice department’s national security division. “But my view has actually shifted in the last few weeks as I watched some of this stuff play out. Now I actually think that we are depending far too much on fragile parts of our democracy, and expecting individuals, rather than institutions, to do the work the institution should be doing.”Trump made no secret of his gameplan even before the election, and it has come into sharper focus with every madcap day since: cast doubt on the reliability of postal ballots, claim victory on election night before most of them were counted, and then sow enough confusion with allegations, justice department investigations and street mayhem with far-right militias to delay certification of the results.Such a delay would create an opportunity for Republican-run state legislatures to step in and select their own electors to send to the electoral college, which formally decides who becomes president. That would produce a constitutional crisis that would ultimately be settled by the supreme court, which has a 6-3 Republican majority and has become increasingly politicised.For the plan to work it required political fealty to trump actual votes but, at several crucial decision points, that did not happen.The key ingredient for a classic coup – a politically motivated military – was absent from the start, though not for want of Trump’s efforts. He tried to bring active duty troops on to the streets to quell the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer, but the defence secretary, Mark Esper, refused to cooperate.After Esper was fired in the wake of the election, and Trump loyalists were installed in senior decision-making positions, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, used a planned public appearance at the dedication of an army museum to send a pointed message. More

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      Joe Biden says ‘this is not a third Obama term’ in first sit-down interview

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      In his first sit-down interview since the election, President-elect Joe Biden declared his presidency would not be “a third Obama term” and promised to represent the full spectrum of the country and the Democratic party.
      Speaking with NBC News’ Lester Holt on Tuesday evening, Biden said the challenges facing him were unique and sought to shake off the shadow of the man who he served as vice-president.
      The interview came as Biden announced a slew of cabinet nominees, which included many alumni of the Obama administration.
      “What do you say to those who wonder if you’re trying to create a third Obama term?” asked Holt.
      “This is not a third Obama term. We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” Biden answered. “President Trump has changed the landscape.”His administration aimed to represent the “spectrum of the American people as well as the spectrum of the Democratic party” Biden added, agreeing that he’d even consider appointing a Republican who voted for Trump.
      “I want this country to be united,” Biden said.
      He also said that he wouldn’t “use the justice department as my vehicle” to investigate Donald Trump and his allies, despite pressure from some Democrats to ensure the president’s financial dealings, and allegations that he sought foreign interference in the election, are further investigated. When Trump leaves office in January, he will lose the constitutional protection from prosecution afforded to a sitting president.
      But Biden said he’d rather his administration stay out of the fray. “There are a number of investigations that I’ve read about that are at a state level. There’s nothing at all I can or cannot do about that,” Biden said.
      Biden expressed his wish to pursue a “progressive” agenda. Asked if he’d consulted with progressive senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on cabinet appointments, the president-elect said “there’s nothing really off the table” when it comes to who he’ll tap to join his administration. But, he said, “taking someone out of the Senate, taking someone out of the House … is a really difficult decision that will have to be made”.

      Although progressives have lauded Biden’s decision to nominate Janet Yellen for treasury secretary and appoint Ron Klain as chief of staff, prominent leftist voices including representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have expressed wariness that Biden might pick Bruce Reed, a former Biden chief of staff, to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). “We are extremely concerned by the reports that Reed is a frontrunner to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Biden administration, given his history of antipathy towards economic security programs that working people rely on,” the congresswoman said in a petition she cosigned, along with other progressive leaders.
      With more administration staff announcements pending, Biden told Holt the team is focused on coordinating a transition, noting that the Trump administration’s outreach “has been sincere”.
      “They’re already working out my ability to get presidential daily briefs,” he told Holt. “We’re already working out meeting with the Covid team in the White House. And how to not only distribute, but get from a vaccine being distributed to a person being able to get vaccinated.”
      On Wednesday, Biden will deliver a Thanksgiving address, from Wilmington, Delaware, and will “discuss the shared sacrifices Americans are making this holiday season and say that we can and will get through the current crisis together”, according to the transition team.
      It will likely stand in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s turkey pardoning today. Trump thanked healthcare workers and celebrated vaccine development advances, but did not offer condolences for the families of the quarter-million who’ve died of the coronavirus.
      The president-elect has taken pains to paint himself and his administration as foils to Trump and Trump’s administration. On Tuesday, while the president tweeted, in all caps, “America First”, Biden outlined during a Wilmington press conference his vision for a country “ready to lead the world, not retreat from it”.
      He told Holt that he was pleased to have spoken to “over 20 world leaders”, and said, “they are really excited”.
      • This article was amended on 25 November 2020. An earlier version used the word “weariness” when wariness was meant. More