'No honeymoon': Biden surrounded on all sides when he gets to the White House
For Democrats celebrating president-elect Joe Biden's projected victory, the joys of vanquishing President Donald Trump are likely to be short-lived as the party faces daunting challenges ahead.
The Democratic Party has big plans — from defeating the coronavirus to expanding health care access to tackling climate change to expanding voting rights to overhauling criminal justice.
There will be tension between progressives who want to pursue an aggressive agenda and moderates who want to strike a note of unity and seek cooperation with Republicans after a bruising election.
As he begins to roll out his transition plans, Biden can expect to feel the heat from the left wing of his party quickly.
"There's not going to be a honeymoon because there was no wedding," said Ezra Levin, the co-founder of the progressive group Indivisible. "This is a partnership. It's a partnership to save democracy. Nobody is under any illusions that the reforms we want to see are just automatically going to happen."
Biden applauds Pfizer vaccine news, warns safety measures must continue 'well into next year'
Biden on Monday applauded drug company Pfizer on the news that early analysis shows its vaccine candidate is more than 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19.
"Last night, my public health advisors were informed of this excellent news. I congratulate the brilliant women and men who helped produce this breakthrough and to give us such cause for hope," the president-elect said in a statement.
Biden warned, however, that it will take "many more months" before there is widespread vaccination across the United States and that "for the foreseeable future, a mask remains a more potent weapon against the virus than the vaccine."
"Today's news does not change this urgent reality. Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, contact tracing, hand washing, and other measures to keep themselves safe well into next year," he said.
Trump team planning campaign-style recount rallies in coming weeks
Despite losing the presidential election to Biden, the Trump team is planning to hold campaign-style recount rallies in the coming weeks, a Trump campaign official said Sunday.
The rallies will focus on potential recounts in battleground states where Trump is projected to lose. It's unclear whether Trump himself will participate in all of these events as some may be led by members of his family or top surrogates. Timing and details about the rallies have not yet been finalized, the official said.
The campaign is preparing to redeploy staffers to Georgia who were based in other states and similar moves may take place in Arizona and Pennsylvania. The campaign announced Sunday that Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., who did not make it into the Georgia runoff in the Senate race to unseat Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., will lead the presidential recount effort in his state.
NBC News projects that Arizona and Georgia are still too close to call, though Biden leads in both states. NBC projected over the weekend that Biden won both Pennsylvania and Nevada.
Biden-Harris transition team announces members of Covid-19 advisory board
The Biden-Harris transition team on Monday announced its appointments to their Covid-19 advisory board that will lead the new administration's response to the ongoing pandemic.
The board will be co-chaired by Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as surgeon general under President Barack Obama; Dr. David Kessler, FDA commissioner under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of internal medicine, public health and management at Yale University.
The board members include:
- Dr. Luciana Borio
- Dr. Rick Bright
- Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel
- Dr. Atul Gawande
- Dr. Celine Gounder
- Dr. Julie Morita
- Dr. Michael Osterholm
- Ms. Loyce Pace
- Dr. Robert Rodriguez
- Dr. Eric Goosby
Bright is an immunologist and virologist who was ousted from a key coronavirus response job during the Trump administration earlier this year. He filed a whistleblower complaint in May charging "an abuse of authority or gross mismanagement" at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Emanuel is an oncologist, and a vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania where he serves as chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy. He served as a special adviser for health policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget for the first two years of the Obama administration.
Congress will have record number of LGBTQ lawmakers next session
A record number of LGBTQ lawmakers will be heading to Congress next session after an Election Day marked by historic firsts.
In New York, Democrats Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones won their House races and became the first two gay Black candidates elected to Congress.
Jones told NBC News he is excited about serving alongside Torres.
"He's a tremendous candidate and a good friend," he said. "This is a chance for us to be the role model we looked for growing up — for queer youth and especially queer youth of color."
From Covid-19 to climate change, here's Biden's dream agenda
President-elect Joe Biden offered voters an agenda that tried to balance his moderate inclinations and the clamor among his progressive base to implement big change.
Joe Biden's transition team, which has already been working for months to prepare, will have his campaign plan to use as a starting point.
Read about Biden's dream agenda here.
Silence speaks volumes: As Biden is offered congratulations, these world leaders remain quiet
After Joe Biden was declared president-elect Saturday, congratulatory messages poured in from leaders around across the world. But several have remained notably silent, including some of President Donald Trump's long-term allies.
Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, who is often referred to as "the Trump of the Tropics," has stayed mum about Biden's victory.
Before the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would work with any U.S. leader, but there has been no official comment from the Kremlin about Biden's win.