Biden vows to get right to work despite Trump resistance

Promising “we’re likely to get to work,” President-elect Joe Biden fought to confront the country's competing crises - and fierce Republican resistance - on Tuesday and downplayed concerns that President Donald Trump's refusal to acknowledge his victory could undermine national security.

Raising unsupported claims of voter fraud, Trump has blocked his Democratic rival from obtaining the intelligence briefings traditionally distributed to incoming presidents, according to someone with understanding of the situation but not authorized to reveal private conversations. Trump's resistance, backed by senior Republicans in Washington and across the country, may possibly also prevent background investigations and security clearances for Biden’s possible national security team and access to federal agencies to go over budget and policy issues.

Biden downplayed the impact of the Republican resistance, which he said “does not change the dynamic at all in what we’re in a position to do.”

Additional intelligence briefings “will be useful,” Biden said, but "We don’t see anything slowing us down, to be honest.”

Despite growing frustration, Biden delivered an afternoon speech on the Affordable Care Act, just hours following the Supreme Court heard arguments on its merits. The high court ruled eight years back to leave intact the essential components of regulations referred to as “Obamacare,” but Trump and his Republican allies would like to have it overturned.

If the 6-3 conservative court finally will abide by the GOP, millions of Americans could lose their healthcare coverage. While Tuesday's arguments indicate the court is unlikely to strike down the whole law, the prospect increases the pressure on Biden to execute complicated plans to confront a number of crisis he will inherit in just 71 days. The country's economy is struggling as the pandemic surges and cultural divisions deepen.

Trump and his allies seemed determined to create Biden's transition as difficult as possible.

From his Twitter account on Tuesday, Trump again raised unsupported claims of “massive ballot counting abuse” and predicted he'd eventually win the race he has recently lost. His allies on Capitol Hill, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have encouraged the president's baseless accusations. Trump's tweets were swiftly flagged by the social media network as claims about election fraud that are disputed.

America's allies commenced to acknowledge what Trump wouldn't normally.

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Biden via video conference and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also congratulated Biden on his election.

“I anticipate strengthening the partnership between our countries and also to working with him on our shared priorities - from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy and building back better from the pandemic,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “Build back better” is a slogan that Biden and the British government have as a common factor.

Meanwhile, Biden tried to remain focused on health care as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 during the worst health crisis in greater than a century. The U.S. surpassed 10 million cases on Monday and cases are skyrocketing as the country moves in to the cold winter months.

One of Biden's chief coronavirus advisers, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, briefed Senate Democrats on Tuesday by phone at their weekly virtual lunch, according to a senior Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss the private session.

The closed-door meeting marked the very first time a Biden transition official has addressed the full Senate caucus since last week's election.

Before and after Biden's afternoon speech, he was working alongside Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at a theater near his home in downtown Wilmington. He is likely to quickly name a chief of staff and start considering cabinet appointments, though those likely won’t be finalized for weeks.

Complicating Biden's challenge is the Republican Party's widespread refusal to acknowledge his victory. With scant evidence, Trump and his allies are insisting that the election was stolen.

Attorney General William Barr has authorized the Justice Department to probe unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. And the overall Services Administration, led by a Trump-appointed administrator, Emily Murphy, has declined to formally recognize Biden as president-elect.

That designation eases cooperation between your outgoing and incoming administrations, although Murphy has not started the process and has given no help with when she will. The GSA inaction could continue steadily to deny Biden security briefings, which he received periodically before the election, together with delaying security clearances and staffing decisions.

Senior officials in the George W Bush administration warned a similar delay after the closely contested 2000 presidential election caused many difficulties.

On a call Monday night with reporters, a transition official said Biden's team believes it is time for the GSA administrator to ascertain that he's president-elect. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity as a ground rule for the decision, said legal action is “certainly a chance” if that doesn’t happen, though additionally, there are other options being considered.