President-elect Joe Biden said on Monday “more people may die” if outgoing President Donald Trump continues blocking a US transition of power as the coronavirus pandemic worsens, and he urged Congress to pass new relief legislation. The Democratic president-elect delivered a speech and took questions from reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, after consulting jointly with the CEOs of top US companies and labor leaders on Monday. He welcomed further progress in COVID-19 vaccine development. Joe Biden said that the way Donald Trump’s administration was obstructing the transfer of power could have lead to more deaths. Biden also warned of the ‘dark winter’ ahead and things are going to get tougher as the coronavirus cases are on the rise in the United States. There have been more than 11 million cases of the disease in the United States and the average daily rate is more than 100,000. Biden urge that co-ordination is needed and he called on Trump administration to give his transition team access to their plan to distribute COVID vaccine. The president-elect spoke about the pandemic-devastated economy after holding a virtual meeting with CEOs and labor leaders, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and General Motors CEO Mary Barra, on Monday. Earlier, Biden, in his speech in his home state of Delaware, blamed the policies of Trump for the deadly spread of the virus that has had a devastating impact on the country’s economy.
Biden said business and labor leaders had signaled willingness to work together to bolster the pandemic-battered US economy but stressed COVID-19 first must be brought under control. Several of Biden’s senior campaign staff have been discussing their roles in the transition and new administration that takes over Jan. 20 – and some of those roles could be announced as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Biden, a Democrat, is also set to receive a briefing on national security threats from his own advisers. Trump, who has not conceded the Nov. 3 election, has blocked him from receiving classified intelligence briefings usually provided to the successor in a transition.
