Joe Biden’s Cabinet picks and other roles in his administration
The President-elect says he wants a government as diverse as America when he enters the White House. Here are some of his Executive Branch picks.
USA TODAY’s coverage of the 2020 election and President-elect Joe Biden’s transition continues this week as he rolls out his picks for top jobs in his administration and states continue to certify their vote counts.
President Donald Trump has cleared the way for Biden’s team to use federal resources and get briefings during the transition, although Trump has yet to formally concede the race.
Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.
Pence tells Georgia voters presidential election not over
Vice President Mike Pence on Friday said the presidential election is still undecided as he urged Georgia Republicans to put aside shared “doubts” about how fairly that race was conducted and show up for the state’s Senate runoff elections.
“We’re on ‘em this time,” Pence said. “We’re watching. We’re gonna secure our polls. We’re gonna secure our drop boxes. So get an absentee ballot and vote and vote today.”
Pence has not gone as far as President Donald Trump in falsely claiming the presidential race was rigged.
But he continues to assert that the winner hasn’t been determined.
Attorney General William Barr’s chief of staff has resigned as the transition to the Biden administration progresses. Will Levi’s last day is Friday, the Justice Department said.
“Will is a rarity: a brilliant lawyer with common sense, humility, and integrity. For the past two years, he has unstintingly given himself in service to the Department. As both Counselor and Chief of Staff, he handled challenges with remarkable resiliency and humor. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work closely with him, and I know he has a bright future ahead,” Barr said in a statement.
Political appointees typically leave at the end of every administration. But departures in the waning weeks of President Donald Trump’s presidency have caught more attention recently because of the president’s refusal to concede or acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Levi’s departure comes a day after White House communications director Alyssa Farrah announced she is resigning after a 3 ½-year stint in the Trump administration.
Barr appointed Levi as his chief of staff last spring. His grandfather, Edward Levi, served as attorney general under President Gerald Ford, taking over a Justice Department recovering from the Watergate scandal.
– Kristine Phillips
President-elect Joe Biden said Friday he would campaign in Georgia, where two Senate runoff races could determine whether Republicans retain control of the chamber.
Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are each in separate runoff races to hold onto their seats, with voting ending Jan. 5. Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in the state Friday and President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Saturday. “I know we’ve all got our doubts about the last election. And I actually hear some people saying, `Just don’t vote,’ ” Pence said. “If you don’t vote, they win.”
Biden, a former vice president who served 36 years in the Senate, would need Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to win both seats to achieve a Senate with 50 members in each party caucus. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could then cast tie-breaking votes in favor of Democratic priorities.
Georgia has been reliably Republican statewide for decades. But Biden beat Trump in Georgia after he made two campaign stops in the state during the final week of the campaign, and had former President Barack Obama visit.
“Yes,” Biden replied Friday to a reporter’s question about whether he would visit during the runoffs. But he didn’t break stride after a news conference to say when the appearance might happen or where.
– Michael Collins and Bart Jansen
WILMINGTON, Del. – President-elect Joe Biden said Friday that plans for his Jan. 20 inauguration will be scaled back from traditional celebrations and look more like the Democratic National Convention that was held largely online.
Biden said plans are still being developed in consultation with House and Senate leaders who control 200,000 seats for the potential event. But he said decisions would be based on science, to avoid spreading COVID-19.
“It is highly unlikely there will be 1 million people on the mall,” Biden told reporters at The Queen theater, in response to a question from USA TODAY. “I think you’ll see something closer to what the convention was like than a typical inauguration.”
Biden said he expects there will still be a ceremony on a platform on the west front of the Capitol. But he suggested more of the celebrations will be held remotely across the country, rather than in downtown Washington.
“My guess is there will probably not be a gigantic inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Biden said. “I don’t know exactly how it’s all going to work out.”
– Michael Collins and Bart Jansen
WILMINGTON, Del. – President-elect Joe Biden said more must be done to plan the distribution of vaccines for COVID-19 after they are approved, but that his health advisers are developing plans.
“There’s a lot more that has to be done,” Biden told reporters at The Queen theater. “There is no detailed plan, that we’ve seen anyway, about how you get the vaccine out of a container into an injection syringe and into an arm.”
He called the anticipated distribution “difficult and expensive.” He also said it must be equitable, to ensure that communities of color receive vaccinations beyond those distributed through major drugstore chains that might not have offices in all neighborhoods.
Utah officials suggested they could distribute a vaccine easily, Biden said. But the process is “not that easy” in populous states such as California, Texas and Florida, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Biden said.
Biden said he would take the vaccine – along with former presidents – as part of the effort to persuade residents of Black and Latino communities the vaccine is safe.
“I think that my taking the vaccine and people seeing me take the vaccine is going to give some confidence,” Biden said. “It’s going to take some effort to rebuild confidence in science because it’s been so diminished in this administration.”
– Michael Collins and Bart Jansen
WILMINGTON, Del. – President-elect Joe Biden on Friday called a federal report about job growth in November “grim” and said it reflected the economy is “stalling” amid a surge of COVID-19 infections.
“It was grim. It shows an economy that is stalling,” Biden told reporters at The Queen theater. “We remain in the midst of one of the worst economic and jobs crises in modern history.”
The lackluster report came as Biden said 12 million Americans face the loss of jobless benefits by the end of December. A moratorium on evictions also is scheduled to expire.
“This is a dire jobs report,” Biden said. “We need Congress and the president to act now.”
The economy has regained about 11 million jobs lost early in the pandemic in the spring, but economists warn it could take years to restore 9.8 million jobs shed during the crisis.
Congress is considering a $900 billion stimulus, including loans for small businesses and a resumption of federal unemployment benefits, but without direct payments to individuals as happened over the summer. Lawmakers are also negotiating a spending bill to fund the federal government beyond Dec. 11. Both measures could potentially be combined.
But passage of stimulus spending for the pandemic is uncertain because the Democratic-controlled House seeks a larger package than the Republican-led Senate.
“We must get it done before we leave,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Friday. “We cannot leave without it.”
Biden has said any money Congress approves this month would be a “down payment” and he would seek more when he takes office Jan. 20.
“This situation is urgent,” Biden said. “If we don’t act now, the future will be very bleak.”
– Michael Collins and Bart Jansen
Kellyanne Conway, former adviser and White House counselor to President Donald Trump, acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election during an interview with The 19th on Friday.
Conway explained it is Trump’s “right” to exhaust “all of his legal avenues” but “if you look at the vote totals in the Electoral College tally, it looks like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will prevail. I assume the electors will certify that and it will be official. We, as a nation, will move forward, because we always do.”
She added, “You always need a peaceful transfer of democracy, no matter whose administration goes into whose administration.”
Conway, who also served as Trump’s campaign manager in 2016, has been a staunch defender of the president and his administration. She left her position in the White House in August to focus on family, but still remains a prominent member of the president’s inner circle.
Her admission of Biden’s victory is noteworthy, as many of Trump’s allies and those in the White House have not publicly acknowledged his victory as Trump and his legal team continue to challenge election results.
Most of the lawsuits brought forth to challenge the results have been dismissed or rejected due to the lack of evidence to back up the baseless. Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that the Justice Department has not found evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Biden said Thursday night that many Republicans have been calling him privately to congratulate him.
– Savannah Behrmann
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was backing down from months-long demands for trillions in new coronavirus relief to support a $900 billion bipartisan deal because of two things: Joe Biden was elected president and a COVID-19 vaccine is on the way.
“That is a total game changer. A new president and a vaccine,” Pelosi said, adding that some of her objections to the bill are OK because another batch of relief will come once Biden takes office. “We have a new president, a president who recognizes that we need to depend on science to stop the virus.”
The California Democrat has been the lead negotiator for Democrats on another coronavirus stimulus bill and has been firm in demanding a large package of about $2 trillion. She and other Democrats repeatedly rejected smaller bills to replenish some of the most popular programs, such as more funds for a small business loan program and unemployment assistance. Top Democrats even cast aside proposals from within the party to quickly get more aid to Americans. But this week, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., backed a $908 billion proposal offered by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate and House, saying it offered a good framework for bipartisan discussions.
Pelosi, asked about the sudden change after months of demands, cut off a reporter’s question and sternly said, “Don’t characterize what we did before as a mistake,” she said. “That was not a mistake. It was a decision. And it has taken us to a place where we can do the right thing without other, shall we say, considerations in the legislation that we don’t want.”
The California Democrat added that she and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have had discussions and both support adding a relief package to a must-pass government spending bill, though she noted work needs to be done to come to agreements on both COVID-19 relief and certain provisions in a spending bill.
Time is of the essence, though. The government is set to shut down Dec. 11 if Congress does not pass a spending bill that President Donald Trump will sign and the House is only scheduled to be in session for one more week.
“There is momentum,” Pelosi said, adding that Congress must pass more aid. “We need to do it to save lives and livelihood with the hope that much more help is on the way.”
– Christal Hayes
President-elect Joe Biden on Friday said his administration would be “the most pro-equality administration in history” as he called for a “new era of LGBTQ rights.”
Biden’s comments to the 2020 International LGBTQ Leaders Conference came while honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for receiving the LGBTQ Victory Institute’s History Maker Award. He recorded his statement for a panel marking the 10-year anniversary of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about sexual orientation for serving in the U.S. military.
Biden called it an honor for him and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to have campaigned with a record number of LGBTQ candidates.
“It’s an honor to be an ally,” Biden said. “Vice President-elect Harris and I are committed to being the most pro-equality administration in history. But we can’t do it without you and we can’t do it without my dear friend Nancy Pelosi.”
Biden caused a stir as vice president when he supported same-sex marriage in May 2012 before President Barack Obama. The Supreme Court later decided in June 2015 that states must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize marriages from other jurisdictions.
“I can’t wait to work together again to continue to fight for full equality and to usher in a new era of LGBTQ rights,” Biden told the group Friday.
– Bart Jansen
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a leader in the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, will join President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.
Biden told CNN on Thursday that he asked Fauci to become his chief medical adviser and part of his COVID-19 response team.
“I asked him to stay on the exact same role he’s had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well, and be part of the COVID team,” Biden said.
“Oh, absolutely. I said yes right on the spot,” Fauci told NBC’s “Today” on Friday when asked if he’d taken the role.
Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, praised Fauci in a tweet.
“There are few public servants in our history who have served as long and as well and with as much distinction at (sic) Dr. Tony Fauci. It will be a great honor to work with him again,” he wrote.
– Bart Jansen and Sean Rossman
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is set to vote on marijuana legalization at the federal level Friday, the first time either chamber of Congress has voted on the matter.
The bill is likely to pass the chamber, but the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to take up the legislation in the last two weeks Congress is in session this year.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and expunge some marijuana-related criminal records. It would still be up to states to pass their own regulations on the sale of marijuana.
Nadler told USA TODAY in September the vote on the bill would be a “historic vote” as the federal government put an end to its “40-year, very misguided crusade” against marijuana.
– Nicholas Wu
Vice President Mike Pence returns Friday to Georgia, when he’ll stump for Republicans seeking reelection in the highly watched Senate run-off races there.
Pence will participate in a 3 p.m. EST rally in Savannah. The vice president has campaigned for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who face Democratic opponents Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on Jan. 5. The races have national significance because if Democrats manage to flip both seats, the Senate would then be split 50-50, giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the deciding vote in the chamber.
Pence also will visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to lead a roundtable on the COVID-19 vaccine.
– Sean Rossman
President-elect Joe Biden had a big Election Day in New York. In the final tally, his victory got even larger over President Donald Trump.
The former Democratic vice president picked up 1.5 million additional votes when all the absentee ballots were tallied and final counting was finished.
It ended with Biden getting about 5.2 million votes to 3.2 million votes for Trump, a victory of 60.4% to 37.5%, according to the certified tally approved Thursday by the state Board of Elections.
Biden’s victory in New York bested the nearly 60% of the vote that Democrat Hillary Clinton garnered four years ago against Trump, the native New Yorker, and helped Democrats down ballot in key state Senate races.
Due to a surge in absentee voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden’s lead swelled in New York, as it had in many states. Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes, according to national totals updated Thursday.
– Joseph Spector (New York State Team – USA TODAY Network)
OTTAWA – The federal agency that investigates election infractions found insufficient evidence to support suggestions Beijing wielded undue influence against the Conservatives in the Vancouver area during the 2021 general election.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ recently completed review of the lingering issue was tabled Tuesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.
The review focused on the unsuccessful campaign of Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu in the riding of Steveston-Richmond East and the party’s larger efforts in the Vancouver area.
It says the evidence uncovered did not trigger the threshold to initiate a formal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.
Investigators therefore recommended that the review be concluded.
A summary of the review results was shared with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP. The review says both agencies indicated the election commissioner’s findings were consistent with their own understanding of the situation.
During the exercise, the commissioner’s investigators met with Chinese Canadian residents of Chiu’s riding and surrounding ones.
They were told of an extensive network of Chinese Canadian associations, businesses and media organizations that offers the diaspora a lifestyle that mirrors that of China in many ways.
“Further, this diaspora has continuing and extensive commercial, social and familial relations with China,” the review says.
Some interviewees reported that this “has created aspects of a parallel society involving many Chinese Canadians in the Lower Mainland area, which includes concerted support, direction and control by individuals from or involved with China’s Vancouver consulate and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in China.”
Investigators were also made aware of members of three Chinese Canadian associations, as well as others, who were alleged to have used their positions to influence the choice of Chinese Canadian voters during the 2021 election in a direction favourable to the interests of Beijing, the review says.
These efforts were sparked by elements of the Conservative party’s election platform and by actions and statements by Chiu “that were leveraged to bolster claims that both the platform and Chiu were anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”
These messages were amplified through repetition in social media, chat groups and posts, as well as in Chinese in online, print and radio media throughout the Vancouver area.
Upon examination, the messages “were found to not be in contravention” of the Canada Elections Act, says the review, citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s position that the concept of uninhibited speech permeates all truly democratic societies and institutions.
The review says the effectiveness of the anti-Conservative, anti-Chiu campaigns was enhanced by circumstances “unique to the Chinese diaspora and the assertive nature of Chinese government interests.”
It notes the election was prefaced by statements from China’s ambassador to Canada and the Vancouver consul general as well as articles published or broadcast in Beijing-controlled Chinese Canadian media entities.
“According to Chinese Canadian interview subjects, this invoked a widespread fear amongst electors, described as a fear of retributive measures from Chinese authorities should a (Conservative) government be elected.”
This included the possibility that Chinese authorities could interfere with travel to and from China, as well as measures being taken against family members or business interests in China, the review says.
“Several Chinese Canadian interview subjects were of the view that Chinese authorities could exercise such retributive measures, and that this fear was most acute with Chinese Canadian electors from mainland China. One said ‘everybody understands’ the need to only say nice things about China.”
However, no interview subject was willing to name electors who were directly affected by the anti-Tory campaign, nor community leaders who claimed to speak on a voter’s behalf.
Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.
In other testimony Tuesday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told the inquiry that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.
In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.
Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told the inquiry Tuesday that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.
Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
