The latest on Biden’s transition

Gina McCarthy

President-elect Joe Biden will name Gina McCarthy as his White House climate czar, a source familiar with the decision tells CNN, making the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency his top domestic climate coordinator.

McCarthy, who currently serves as the head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, will lead Biden’s newly formed Office of Domestic Climate Policy, a source said. 

The source added that Ali Zaidi, currently New York’s Deputy Secretary of Energy and Environment, will serve as White House Deputy Climate Coordinator. Zaidi served in different climate focused roles in the Office of Management and Budget and White House Domestic Policy Council during the Obama administration.

Biden has said he will prioritize combating the climate crisis as president.

McCarthy joins former Secretary of State John Kerry, who the President-elect named his special presidential envoy for climate, as top Biden officials tasked with addressing the issue. Kerry is expected to focus on the foreign policy and international aspects of the climate crisis, while McCarthy will focus on domestic issues.

Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan

President-elect Joe Biden is poised to tap former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to lead the Department of Energy, two people familiar with the matter say, inviting a longtime adviser who played a critical role in his debate preparations over the years to join his Cabinet.

Granholm has long taken a deep interest in energy issues and was considered to be a top candidate for Energy secretary if Hillary Clinton had won four years ago. Now, she will have her chance, if confirmed by the Senate.

Politico was first to report the news of Granholm’s selection.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally for Georgia Democratic candidates for US Senate Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Tuesday, December 15, in Atlanta.

President-elect Joe Biden traveled to Georgia on Tuesday to campaign for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the two Democrats who are challenging incumbent Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in a pair of January runoff races that will determine which party controls the US Senate.

Biden thanked voters in Georgia for turning out to vote in last month’s presidential election. The President-elect became the first Democrat to win Georgia in 28 years. The last Democrat to win the state was Bill Clinton in 1992.

“Thank you for standing strong to make sure your voices were heard, your votes were counted, and counted, and counted again,” Biden said. “I’m starting to feel like I won Georgia three times.” Earlier this month, Georgia recertified its presidential election results, and again found Biden as the winner following three counts of ballots. 

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected a bid from Texas’ attorney general, which was supported by President Trump, to block the ballots of millions of voters in battleground states that went in favor of Biden. The lawsuit, brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, sought to sue Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin — which all went for Biden — and invalidate their election results.

“You know who did nothing while Trump, Texas and others were trying to wipe out every single one of the almost five million votes you had cast here in Georgia in November? Your two Republican senators,” Biden said, slamming Perdue and Loeffler.

“They stood by,” Biden continued. “In fact, your two Republican senators fully embraced what Texas was telling the Supreme Court. They fully embraced nullifying nearly five million Georgia votes. You might want to remember that come Jan. 5.”

Biden also praised former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who has devoted years to expanding the electorate and boosting turnout in the state, which had been reliably red for decades.

“Is there anyone in America who has done more to protect the right to vote in this election, is there anyone who’s done more to make sure the voice of every Georgian is heard? I don’t think so. Stacey Abrams, you’re a hero,” Biden said. 

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Rep. Ayanna Pressley

More than three dozen members of Congress are calling on the Biden administration to prioritize abolishing the death penalty, in all jurisdictions, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the transition team for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.   

While Biden has pledged to abolish the federal death penalty and to give incentives to states to stop seeking death sentences as a part of his criminal justice reform plan, 40 members of Congress and three congresspersons-elect said they want to make sure the irreversible practice ends on his first day in office.   

The letter was authored less than a week after celebrities, bipartisan politicians and anti-death penalty advocates called for President Trump to stop the pending federal executions. Pressley specifically called to stay Brandon Bernard’s execution as his trial had allegations of prosecutorial misconduct that only surfaced two years ago.

Pressley, a Democrat, introduced legislation on July 25, 2019—the same day Attorney General William Barr announced federal executions, which had been stalled since 2003, would resume—to rid of the practice at the federal level and require resentencing for those currently on death row. The bill has not had any action in the House since August 2019.   

For months, celebrities, bipartisan voices and anti-death penalty advocates have pushed for executive intervention from Trump to stop the executions, to no avail. The Department of Justice has previously defended its decision to resume the federal death penalty this summer after all appeals were exhausted and the Supreme Court ruled in their favor to continue their plans, despite the global health crisis. 

Ten federal death row inmates have been executed since July while several states have postponed executions because of the pandemic.

“With a stroke of your pen, you can stop all federal executions, prohibit United States Attorneys from seeking the death penalty, dismantle death row at FCC Terre Haute, and call for the resentencing of people who are currently sentenced to death,” wrote Pressley. “Each of these elements are critical to help prevent greater harm and further loss of life.” 

Miriam Krinsky, executive director of the Fair and Just Prosecution, told CNN after a meeting with the Justice Department’s transition team earlier this month, that stopping federal executions “doesn’t really require congressional action.” 

Krinsky and nearly 100 bipartisan criminal justice leaders including, 60 elected prosecutors, that have signed a joint statement on Dec. 3 demanding a halt on the pending federal executions and for Trump to commute their sentences. 

The proposed executive order by Biden may be too late for three inmates—including the only White woman in the US scheduled to be executed in nearly 70 years—who are scheduled to die before Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. 

“Ending the barbaric and inhumane practice of government-sanctioned murder is a commonsense step that you can and must take to save lives … Research also reveals that capital punishment does not deter crime. Hence, there is no just reason to continue the death penalty,” wrote Pressley.

To date, there are 52 people on federal death row and 18 pending state executions, according to the Death Row Information Center. 

McConnell speaks during a news conference with other Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, December 15.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked about his floor speech congratulating President-elect Joe Biden and whether he has concerns about what Trump’s been saying and if he should accept the election results.

McConnell said he does not “have any advice to give the president on the subject.”

However, he added, “for me, and I think on the basis of the way the system works, the decision by the electoral college yesterday was determinative.”

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Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg looks on during the vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on October 7, on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government.

Buttigieg would be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary should his nomination make it through the chamber. 

The choice vaults a candidate Biden spoke glowingly of after the Democratic primary into a top job in the incoming administration and could earn Buttigieg what many Democrats believe is needed experience should he run for president again. 

The role of transportation secretary is expected to play a central role in Biden’s push for a bipartisan infrastructure package.

Read more about Biden’s expected nomination here.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, walks in the Russell Building on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on Tuesday, December 15.

Sen. Mitt Romney spoke to President-elect Biden and congratulated him, according to the senator’s office. 

From Romney’s office:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, walks to his office in the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC, on Monday, Dec. 14.

On a private conference call moments ago now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Republican senators not to join House members on Jan. 6 to object to state electoral results, a source on the call tells CNN.

Other top Republicans — Senate Majority Whip John Thune and Senate Rules Chairman Roy Blunt — echoed that sentiment. Doing so, they said, would be fruitless and force them to cast a politically challenging vote against the President that day.

No senators have pushed back so far, according to this source. 

What this is about: House members can challenge the results on Jan. 6, when Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to preside over the official tallying of the electoral votes. But those members would need a Republican senator to sign on to the effort.

Even if the GOP effort makes it that far, the Democratic controlled House would vote down such a maneuver.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a press briefing on December 15, at the White House in Washington, DC.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany would not say whether President Trump recognizes Joe Biden as President-elect following Monday’s Electoral College vote, only saying, “The President is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election.” 

“Yesterday’s vote was one step in the Constitutional process so I will leave that to him and refer you to the campaign for more on that litigation,” she said.

When pressed on what legal recourse the campaign has left following the Electoral College, McEnany referred to the campaign but added, “yesterday was one step in the constitutional process leading up to the Jan. 20th date in the Constitution.”

McEnany also said she hadn’t spoken to Trump on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s acknowledgement of Biden as the President-elect today.

“I haven’t gotten the President’s reaction to that yet but the President again is pursing ongoing litigation. I would refer you to the campaign for further,” McEnany said.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) departs from the U.S. Capitol on October 23, in Washington, DC.

West Virginia GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito released a statement congratulating President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Capito said it’s “time to turn the page to the new administration.”

She is a member of Republican leadership team. 

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Electoral college certification at the Queen Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware on December 14.

The Biden transition team expects to make an announcement “soon” on when President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive Covid-19 vaccines, a transition official says.

This comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview this morning that his “strong recommendation” is that both Biden and Harris be vaccinated as soon as possible, saying of Biden: “You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January.”

As to how Biden and Harris might receive the vaccine, Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he would receive it in a public setting to try to help boost the public’s confidence in it.

“People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work. Already the numbers are really staggeringly low, and it matters what the president and vice president do,” Biden said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meets virtually with General Lloyd Austin, U.S. secretary of defense-designate, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly recognizing Joe Biden as president-elect for the first time, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said President Trump needs to “take his cue from Leader McConnell, that it’s time to end his term.”

The New York Democrat also called on his Republican colleagues to follow suit.

“They ought to acknowledge that Joe Biden will be the next president and Kamala Harris will be the next vice president,” he said. Adding, “Our Republican colleagues, for the sake of our Democracy, for the sake of the peaceful transition of power. Should stop the shenanigans. Stop the misrepresentations and acknowledge that Joe Biden will be our next president.”

Workers construct the stage for the presidential inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2020.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has released initial details about how it intends to put on an unprecedented inauguration that will take place during a pandemic, confirming that the ceremony’s footprint will be “extremely limited” and saying that the typical parade following the swearing-in will be “reimagined.” 

Additionally, the inaugural committee is urging the public to “refrain from any travel and participate in the inaugural activities from home” as President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

The committee is bringing on a chief medical advisor, underscoring how seriously it intends to take health protocols during the ceremony and around the surrounding festivities.  The advisor, Dr. David Kessler, is the former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. He has advised the Biden campaign on its health and safety protocol since the pandemic’s onset. Per the release, the committee will also consult with additional medical experts, and it has hired professional staff dedicated to health and safety protocols.

The committee confirmed that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office at the US Capitol.   

As CNN previously reported, it remains unclear whether President Trump will attend the inauguration. He has made clear to staff in recent days that he has no desire to discuss whether or not he’ll attend Biden’s inauguration and has largely shut down any conversations about leaving office. But Republicans and aides are encouraging the President to consider attending Biden’s swearing-in.

Biden said over the summer that he did not want to wear a mask for his Inauguration ceremony, and an aide tells CNN that this is still the President-elect’s preference. The congressional committee did determine that everyone will be required to follow mask and social distancing guidelines.

A day after the Electoral College officially confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made remarks publicly recognizing Biden as president-elect for the first time.

In a speech from the Senate floor, McConnell touted the current administration’s accomplishments but made all his comments on Trump’s Presidency in the past tense.

His office provided the full transcript of what he said.

Read his full remarks below:

There was no comment from McConnell’s office on whether he informed the White House of his remarks ahead of time. 

Moments after he recognized Joe Biden as president-elect for the first time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also congratulated Vice-President elect Kamala Harris for the first time.

McConnell said while millions wished the election would have yielded a different result, “our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on January the 20. The Electoral College has spoken.” 

The Kentucky Republican added that “the president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years.”  

He concluded his floor speech saying he looks forward to “finishing out the next 36 days strong with President Trump. Our nation needs us to add another bipartisan chapter to this record of achievement.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that following the electors meeting yesterday, “as of this morning, our country officially has a president-elect and a vice president elect.”

He made the remark after talking about the Trump presidency in the past tense, touting the current administration’s accomplishments, including the country’s “economic prosperity” and “foreign policy,” judicial appointments, and “bold regulatory changes” in a speech from the Senate floor.

“It would take far more than one speech to catalogue all the major wins the Trump administration has helped deliver for the American people. The outsider who swore he would shake up Washington and lead our country to new accomplishments, both at home and abroad proceeded to do exactly that. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence deserve our thanks and our gratitude for their tireless work and their essential roles in all these victories and in many more,” he said.

Manu Raju reports:

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Tuesday that his strong recommendation would be for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

“You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January,” Fauci said of Biden. “So that would be my strong recommendation.” 

President-elect Joe Biden will travel to Georgia today to headline a rally in support of the Democratic candidates in the state’s US Senate runoff election, the Biden campaign announced Thursday.

Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are challenging incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in a pair of races that will determine control of the United States Senate.

Biden’s visit is tied directly to the start of early voting in Georgia. Voters could begin casting ballots in the state Monday and the Democratic ticket is placing a special emphasis on getting out the early vote.

In addition to Biden, the campaigns are also planning a future visit from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as well as tips from a number of high-profile Democratic surrogates.

The Democratic approach to surrogates has been much different than the Republicans who have been flooding the zone with visits from GOP stars.

President Trump made a trip to Valdosta, Georgia, and a made promise to return. The GOP ticket has also benefited from Vice President Mike Pence who has already made one trip and will be in Augusta later Thursday.

California’s 55 electors put Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become president shortly after 5 p.m. ET Monday, affirming Biden’s election as the 46th president of the United States.

Electors for all 50 states and the District of Columbia gathered in their respective capitols on Monday to cast ballots.

The Electoral College’s vote, however, is not the final step in the constitutional process of selecting a president. The votes cast on Monday are sent to Congress, where they will be counted on Jan. 6 in a joint session led by Vice President Mike Pence.

Many congressional Republicans who have refused thus far to say that Biden won the election have claimed they are waiting for Monday’s Electoral College vote to certify the results. But some of Trump’s staunchest House Republican allies are preparing for a floor fight when the votes are counted in Congress next month.

Lawmakers can dispute a state’s election result when the votes are counted next month. But a challenge can only be considered if both a House member and a senator sign onto it. So far only House Republicans have said they will contest the results, although some GOP senators have suggested they are considering joining.

Even if a senator signs on to challenge the results, it’s only delaying the inevitable. In that case, the House and Senate separately debate the matter for two hours and vote on it. Democrats control the House, and enough GOP senators have already said they reject Trump’s claims of fraud that a challenge would not succeed there either.

After the state electors cast their ballots on Monday, those results will be certified and sent to Congress, the National Archives and to the courts.

On Jan. 20, a new president takes the oath of office at noon.

Read more about the next steps here.