Biden seeks to move quickly and build his administration

President-elect Joe Biden signaled on Sunday he plans to go quickly to build his government, focusing first on the raging pandemic which will likely dominate the early days of his administration.

Biden named a former surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, David Kessler, as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group set to begin with, with other members expected to be announced Monday.

Transition team officials said that also this week Biden will launch his agency review teams, the band of transition staffers which may have usage of key agencies in today's administration to help ease the transfer of power. The teams will gather and review information such as for example budgetary and staffing decisions, pending regulations and other work happening from current staff at the departments to help Biden’s team prepare to transition. White House officials would not comment on if they would cooperate with Biden's team on the review.

“People want the united states to go forward," said Kate Bedingfield, Biden deputy campaign manager, within an interview on NBC's “Meet up with the Press, and see Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris "have the possibility to do the work, to achieve the virus under control and to get our economy back together."

It's unclear for the present time whether President Donald Trump and his administration will cooperate. He has yet to acknowledge Biden's victory and has pledged to mount legal challenges in a number of closely contested states that decided the race.

Biden adviser Jen Psaki pressed for the Trump-appointed head of the overall Services Administration to quickly recognize Biden as the president-elect, which would free up money for the transition and clear the way for Biden's team to commence putting in place the transition process at agencies.

“America’s national security and financial interests depend on the government signaling evidently and swiftly that America government will respect the will of the American persons and take part in a smooth and calm transfer of power,” Psaki said in a Twitter posting.

A GSA official said Sunday that step was not taken yet.

Still, there have been signs that leaders in Washington and foreign capitals were finding your way through a new administration.

Biden aides said the president-elect and transition team have been touching Republican lawmakers. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, among Trump's closest allies, opened a cabinet meeting on Sunday by congratulating Biden, a former vice president and longtime senator.

“I have an extended and warm personal reference to Joe Biden for practically 40 years, and I understand him as a great friend of the state of Israel," Netanyahu said. “I am certain that we will work with both of these so that you can further fortify the special alliance between Israel and the U.S."

George W Bush, the only real living Republican former president, also wished Biden well.

“Though we've political differences, I understand Joe Biden to become a good man, who has won his chance to lead and unify our country,” Bush said.

Biden faces key staffing decisions in the times ahead. The always-frenzied 10-week transition period before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 already has been shortened by the excess time it took to determine the winner of Tuesday's election.

The next Catholic to be elected president, Biden started his first full day as president-elect by attending church at St Joseph on the Brandywine near his home in Wilmington, as he does practically every week. After the service, he visited the church cemetery where several members of the family have already been laid to rest, including his late son, Beau.

Beau Biden, a former Delaware lawyer general, died in 2015 from cancer. Before his death, he had encouraged his father to produce a third run for the White House.

Joe Biden said Saturday in a victory speech that he'd announce a task force of scientists and professionals Monday to build up a “blueprint” to get started beating back the virus by the time he assumes the presidency. He said his plan would be “built on bedrock science” and “constructed out of compassion, empathy and concern.”

Murthy, who had advised Biden through the campaign, was named to a four-year term as surgeon general in 2014 by President Barack Obama. Murthy was asked to resign by Trump months in to the Republican's term. Kessler was appointed as FDA commissioner by President George H.W. Bush and served in the position through President Bill Clinton's first term in the White House.

Biden senior adviser Ted Kaufman said the transition team will give attention to the "nuts and bolts” of creating the brand new administration in coming days.

Biden might not exactly make top cabinet options for weeks. But he built his presidential run around bipartisanship and he has spent the times since Tuesday's election pledging to be a president for all Americans. That suggests he could possibly be ready to appoint some Republicans to high-profile administration positions.

Many former Republican officeholders broke with Trump to endorse Biden’s campaign. Biden's collection of some of them to join the brand new government could appease Senate Republicans, who may have to confirm a lot of Biden's options for top jobs. The GOP could retain control of the chamber after two special elections in Georgia on Jan 5.

Still, an excessive amount of across-the-aisle cooperation could draw the ire of progressives. Some already worry that uncooperative Senate Republicans could force Biden to scale back his ambitious campaign promises to expand usage of healthcare and lead a post-pandemic economic recovery that depends on federal investment in green technology and jobs to greatly help combat climate change.

“I think there will be an enormous misuse of the term ‘unity’ to imply that we have to water down the ideas that Joe Biden just campaigned on,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. He said the united states was more united around bold solutions to big problems than small-scale efforts.

Biden's efforts at bipartisan reconciliation could still be derailed by Trump's refusal to concede the race.

Symone Sanders, a Biden campaign senior adviser, said that while several Republican lawmakers have been in connection with the president-elect in recent days, the campaign has yet to listen to from White House officials.

“I think the White House has clarified what their strategy is here now and that they are going to continue to participate and push forward these flailing and, in lots of - in lots of respects, baseless legal strategies," Sanders said on CNN's “State of the Union."

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Trump had the right to pursue recounts and legal challenges. But he noted that those efforts will unlikely change the results and he urged the president to dial back his rhetoric.

“I think one needs to be careful in the choice of words. I believe when you say the election was corrupt or stolen or rigged that that's regrettably rhetoric that gets found by authoritarians all over the world. And I think in addition, it discourages confidence in our democratic process at home," Romney said on NBC.