Our live coverage of the presidential transition has ended for the day.
President-elect Joe Biden said today the Trump administration’s plan to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine is “falling far behind.”
Biden said he was “grateful” to all who worked to develop the vaccines “quickly” but added that the plan to distribute it “is not progressing as it should.”
Biden added that at the pace the program is moving now “it’s going to take years, not months” to vaccinate the US population.
President-elect Joe Biden said he will “spare no effort to make sure people get vaccinated” once he takes office in January.
Biden said that he is going to make sure “100 million shots have been administered by the end of the first 100 days.”
Biden added: “I’m going to use my power under the Defense Production Act when I’m sworn and order private industry to accelerate making the materials needed for the vaccines as well as protective gear.”
President-elect Joe Biden shared words of encouragement for Americans as the country continues to struggle through the coronavirus pandemic.
Some context: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN today the US is in a coronavirus surge that has “just gotten…out of control in many respects.”
He said the recent holiday travel period could make January even worse than December.
President-elect Joe Biden is delivering remarks this afternoon on the coronavirus pandemic as the country battles a surge in new cases and races to distribute vaccines.
A transition official told CNN he will confront the slower-than-expected pace at which the Trump administration is administering coronavirus vaccines during his remarks.
The President-elect “will address the current Administration falling short on its pace for vaccinations” and lay out his own plan for vaccinating people in a quick way, a transition official said.
The remarks will come after Biden receives a briefing from his Covid-19 advisory team, the official said, and the President-elect will also give a general status update on the pandemic and the stakes in the months ahead.
President-elect Joe Biden publicly sounded the alarm on Monday over what he referred to as “obstruction” coming from some parts of the Trump government during the transition process – particularly, the Department of Defense.
Biden advisers tell CNN that it is critical for the transition team to have a full understanding of the department of defense’s operations, including on major issues including Covid-19, cyber security, and the budget.
Their overarching concern – which Biden made clear in his speech in Wilmington on Monday – is that a lack of cooperation from the Trump administration now could have serious implications for the country’s national security and the welfare of service members both during the transition period and well beyond it into Biden’s presidency.
One area where the Biden team and the Defense Department have clashed in recent days is on the issue of transition meetings. One source familiar with the situation had said on Monday that the Defense Department continues to “deny and delay” meetings, and that none have taken place since Dec. 18. However, the Defense Department has insisted that many meetings have taken place since then.
Presented with several examples of meetings that were cited by the Defense Department, a person familiar said that as of Monday, there has not been a single meeting that has fallen under the scope of the mutually agreed upon Memorandum of Understanding between the Biden transition and the Trump administration.
The Defense Department also said there are now three meetings scheduled for this week – two on Covid-19 and one on cyber security. A Biden transition official did not dispute the Defense Department’s account that those meetings are set to take place this week.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine live on television today.
“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. It is relatively painless. It happens really quickly. It is safe,” she said immediately after receiving the vaccine at United Medical Center in Washington, DC.
She said her husband, Doug Emhoff, will also receive the vaccine today.
The vice president-elect’s vaccination comes just over one week after President-elect Joe Biden received his live on national television. After getting the shot, Biden reassured Americans of the vaccine’s safety and urged them to get vaccinated as soon as the shots became available to them.
Biden and Harris staggered their vaccinations at the recommendation of medical experts, according to transition spokesperson Jen Psaki. The reason for such a recommendation could be that if Biden and Harris reported any side effects, such as a headache or fever, they would not experience them on the same day.
WATCH:
Voters voted. States counted the votes. Challenges were heard and rejected. The Electoral College made President-elect Joe Biden’s victory completely official.
The time for President Trump’s repeated baseless allegations of fraud is over, but that doesn’t mean the drama has ended. Lawmakers follow an archaic timeline set out the Constitution and US law to make Biden president.
Just as then-Vice President Biden oversaw the counting of electoral votes that gave Trump the White House in 2017, now it will be Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s loyal soldier these last four years, who will announce the vote tally that officially makes Biden the winner. Read more about that here.
And Republicans will have to choose how deeply they want to follow Trump into his rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.
Lawmakers will have the ability to raise objections about the vote — just like some Democrats did in 2017. But while those objections were dismissed easily in 2017, Republican senators could, if they choose, drag the process out this year, and force the House and Senate to vote on individual points.
Here’s a breakdown of what will take place next Wednesday, Jan. 6:
There will be no inaugural luncheon for President-elect Joe Biden on Capitol Hill due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
JCCIC consulted with the Presidential Inaugural Committee in making the decision.
CNN had reported a luncheon was unlikely, but this makes it official.
With only days to go until the Jan. 5th Georgia Senate runoff elections, Democrats have begun closing in on what was previously a pronounced GOP ad spending advantage in the state.
Ad spending is up to nearly $540 million overall for the consequential elections that will determine which party has control of the Senate. Republicans lead Democrats in total Georgia ad spending, including reservations since Nov. 10 and through the runoff by about $281.7 million to $256.6 million.
The Democrats have raised money almost entirely through the strength of candidate advertising — Jon Ossoff has spent over $100 million in ads, while Rev. Raphael Warnock is at nearly $90 million, compared to about $53.7 million spent by Sen. Kelly Loeffler and $45.7 million for Sen. David Perdue, the Republican candidates.
The campaigns and outside sponsors wasted little time to influence the two crucial contests after Perdue and Loeffler failed to hit the 50% threshold on Election Day, setting up elections against their Democratic challengers Jan. 5.
When it comes to spending by outside groups on behalf of the candidates for Senate themselves, Republicans lead Democrats by nearly 3-to-1 — $180.5 million to $63.1 million.
Major outside GOP donors include American Crossroads — the Republican super PAC founded by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, Senate Leadership Fund —a super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican — and Peachtree PAC, which despite the name suggesting homegrown roots, is an arm of the Senate Leadership Fund.
Read more here.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is expected to receive the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine today, according to the Biden transition team.
A transition official told CNN that Harris will be administered the vaccine live on camera from Washington, DC. The official said Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, would also receive the vaccine today.
The vice president-elect’s vaccination will come just over one week after President-elect Joe Biden received his live on national television. After getting the shot, Biden reassured Americans of the vaccine’s safety and urged them to get vaccinated as soon as the shots became available to them.
Biden and Harris staggered their vaccinations at the recommendation of medical experts, according to transition spokesperson Jen Psaki. The reason for such a recommendation could be that if Biden and Harris reported any side effects, such as a headache or fever, they would not experience them on the same day.
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for two coronavirus vaccines: one from Pfizer/BioNTech and one from Moderna. Both Moderna’s and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have shown similar efficacy levels of near 95%, and both vaccines require two doses administered several weeks apart.
In his remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, this afternoon, President-elect Joe Biden is set to confront the slower-than-expected pace at which the Trump administration is administering vaccines, a transition official said, as current vaccinations significantly lag the 20 million officials promised by year’s end.
A transition official said the President-elect “will address the current administration falling short on its pace for vaccinations” and lay out his own plan for vaccinating people in a quick way.
The remarks will come after Biden receives a briefing from his Covid-19 advisory team, the official said, and the President-elect will also give a general status update on the pandemic and the stakes in the months ahead.
Axios was first to report the details of the speech.
President-elect Joe Biden will deliver remarks this afternoon on the coronavirus pandemic from Wilmington, Delaware. His transition team advises the remarks will start at 3:45 p.m. ET.
Biden’s remarks come as the nation continues to battle a surge in cases and a record number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.
More Americans were hospitalized this past week than any other week of the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Six states set new records Sunday for the most Covid-19 patients hospitalized: Alabama, California, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Meanwhile, more people traveled through US airports Sunday than any other day this pandemic, setting the stage for waves of new infections across the country.
Coronavirus vaccines continue to be administered and distributed across the country, but current figures fall well short of initial predictions for the end of the year and the US vaccination program appears to be taking longer than Warp Speed officials projected.
Coronavirus is one of Biden’s key priorities, and earlier this month, the President-elect detailed his plan to combat the pandemic, including asking Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days after he takes office.
