Build Back Better: A DKrol TL of the Presidency of Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
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Author Topic: Build Back Better: A DKrol TL of the Presidency of Joseph R. Biden, Jr.  (Read 2726 times)
DKrol
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« on: November 08, 2020, 06:26:04 PM »
« edited: November 10, 2020, 03:52:38 PM by DKrol »

BUILD BACK BETTER
A DKrol TL of the Presidency of Joseph R. Biden, Jr.


<a title="Gage Skidmore from Peoria, Arizona, CC BY-SA 2.0 &lt;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Biden_February_2020_crop.jpg"><img width="256" alt="Joe Biden February 2020 crop" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Joe_Biden_February_2020_crop.jpg/256px-Joe_Biden_February_2020_crop.jpg"></a>



Foreword

When Joe approached me to be his Chief of Staff, I laughed off the request. "No, I'm serious", he said, "I want you to be there with Kamala and me". My hiring had come under fire during the primary from Sanders supporters and Me Too Era activists. I didn't want Joe to enter the White House after such a hard fought campaign with my added baggage dragging him along. So I did what I thought was right: I said "no". Joe refused to take no for an answer. He told me to go back to the work I was doing for the transition, to think it over, and give him a final answer by the end of the week.

We had just been declared winners 48 hours before this conversation and I hadn't yet had a moment to stop and sit for many months. I went home that night, to my actual home for the first time in weeks, and thought about his offer some more. Wouldn't it be amazing, I thought, to break that barrier? To be the first? To set out a new career path for little girls across the country, just like the Vice President-elect ? I talked it over with my family. They were across the board supportive of me saying "yes". I even asked a few personal friends, who I knew would be able to keep a secret. They were more hesitant, worried about being in such a spotlight again, but supported the ground breaking nature of the moment.

Only a day after being offered the position, I called the President-elect to give him my answer. The moment he picked up the phone he said, "Glad to have you on board." When I said I hadn't even told him my decisions, he laughed and said, "You wouldn't have called me back so soon if you were going to turn me down! You brought me to the dance, you fixed me up after the Caucus, now let's get dancing." We chatted for a few more minutes about the formalities of the position and I was in a car to Wilmington by the end of the day.

- Anita Dunn, Chief of Staff to President Biden, Build Back Better: My Time in the Oval Office with Joe Biden
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DKrol
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« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2020, 08:13:52 PM »

Chapter I: Early Days

The Associated Press declared Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and Kamala Devi Harris the President-elect and Vice President-elect of the United States on the morning of November 7, 2020 after five days of votes being counted across the nation. The projection of Pennsylvania, President-elect Biden's birthplace, put the ticket over the top with 273 Electoral Votes. Nevada was called later that day, adding 6 Electoral Votes, and Arizona was called on November 11, adding 11 more, for a total of 290 Electoral Votes. Georgia, as well, was added to the Democratic column on November 12, securing a total of 306 Electoral Votes for the Biden-Harris ticket, compared to 232 for President Trump. By all margins, this was a commanding victory for the Democratic Party, coupled with a 5,000,000 vote margin in the popular vote.

Despite such a commanding margin, President Trump refused to concede or even reach out to the President-elect. He spent November 7th and November 8th at his golf course in Virginia, a hallmark of his time in the Oval Office, and spent the next four days in one raging Tweetstorm, assailing every state that the Democratic ticket won as "corrupt", "crooked", "a bad place", and "stolen". Rudy Giuliani, acting as President Trump's personal lawyer, filed lawsuits based on outrageous, outlandish, and unfounded conspiracy theories in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

We had serious conversations within the transition team about how to respond to both the lawsuits and President Trump's lack of acknowledgement of the democratic will of the American people. My husband, acting as General Counsel to the transition, led the legal battles and won victories in court rooms all across the countries, defeating "Sharpiegate" in Arizona, legions of dead voters in Wisconsin, and postmarked ballots in Pennsylvania. The legality of our victory was never - never - in doubt. Instances of widespread fraud are non-existant and the Biden/Harris ticket won convincingly in more than enough states to win 270 Electoral Votes.

The issue of President Trump, however, played a larger role in our discussions. More than 70,000,000 Americans had voted to re-elect him at the same time as 75,000,000 Americans had voted for the President-elect. As we saw with the plots to kidnap Governors Whitmer, DeWine, and Northam, President Trump's supporters were loyal to the point of violence, armed to the teeth, and hyped-up on conspiracy theories from the darkest corners of the Internet. Some of the younger members of the campaign - Kate Bedingfield, TJ Ducklo, and Andrew Bates - urged the President-elect to take the fight to President Trump, to press him for evidence of any voter fraud and force the 45th President to admit he was clinging to power like a Third World dictator.

That style did not jive with the President-elect. A product of the United States Senate and having built a career on being "Uncle Joe", he didn't see the merit in fighting fire with fire. Joe Biden was the legitimate President-elect of the United States of America. It did not matter in any way what Donald Trump thought, said, or Tweeted. The more experienced senior advisors - myself, Bob, Jen O'Malley Dillon, and Ted Kaufman - saw that the tide was with us and urged the President-elect to press on as if President Trump had conceded. Joe Biden agreed and that's what we did.

November 7th and 8th saw massive outpourings of public support for the President-elect across the country. In Boston, New York, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Atlanta, millions of people gathered in the streets - respectfully wearing masks but, unfortunately, not practicing social distancing - to celebrate both the election of Joe Biden and the defeat of Donald Trump. It was not lost on us in the transition how many people voted for the President-elect just because he wasn't President Trump. And there were a few, much smaller, demonstrations by Trump voters. These remained peaceful, for the most part, and were relegated to the sidelines as democracy won the day.

It was the amazing amount of support offered to the President-elect from the international community that not only confirmed that we were the legitimate winners of the election, but that we would also be confirmed as the legitimate winners. Liberal world leaders like President Macron, Chancellor Merkel, President Arce, and Prime Minister Trudeau were welcome voices in Wilmington, but it was the conservative, right-wing allies of President Trump who sealed the deal for us. Benjamin Netanyahu, Boris Johnson, Yoshihide Suga, Viktor Orban, Andrzej Duda, and Scott Morrison all sent along their support for President-elect Biden in the immediate aftermath of his victory becoming clear. If there was going to be a challenge for the Presidency of the United States of America, Joe Biden had the backing of a majority of American citizens as well as the power players abroad.

With such popular support in our pocket, and certification from the Government Services Administration on November 9, we pressed on with the business of the transition. Top of the massive to-do list Joe Biden inherited was addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 9, the Monday after being declared winner, President-elect Biden announced his COVID-19 Task Force, led by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, to help develop the National COVID-19 Policy that he had promised during the campaign. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx were both offered positions on the Task Force, given their national prominence and expertise, but an explosive episode from President Trump forced us to withdraw their offers.

With the COVID-19 Task Force in place, we also moved to assemble an Economic Task Force to develop an immediate action plan to combat the economic recession caused by President Trump's bumbled COVID-19 response. Senator Bernie Sanders was chosen to chair the Task Force, joined by Richard Cordray, Don Graves, Larry Fink, and Gautam Raghavan. The President-elect deliberately made sure to balance the progressive and the most institutional voices on the Economic Task Force. This would end up being a major focus of the Biden White House.

The Cabinet, or, at least, the President-elect's desired Cabinet, took shape shortly after the Task Forces were established. On November 23, at a press conference in Wilmington, President-elect Biden announced his foreign policy team:

Secretary of State: Tony Blinken
Secretary of Defense: Eric Fanning
Secretary of Homeland Security: Xavier Becerra
Ambassador to the United Nations: Wendy Ruth Sherman
National Security Advisor: Michele Flournoy
Trade Representative: Mellody Hobson

The foreign policy team received general praise across the media and Washington establishment. It was equally divided between men and women, it included the first openly gay senior-level cabinet nominee, and it included both a Hispanic man and a Black woman. The appointment of Xavier Becerra to DHS did raise some eyebrows. But the President-elect made it clear that domestic terrorism was a serious threat to the United States, and a more immediate threat than foreign terrorism, and wanted a Secretary of Homeland Security who both agreed with that assessment and was prepared to tackle the issue head on.

The domestic policy team was named five days later, on November 27.

Secretary of the Treasury: Lael Brainard
Attorney General: Cameron Kerry
Secretary of the Interior: Deb Haaland
Secretary of Agriculture: Blanche Lincoln
Secretary of Commerce: Lee Saunders
Secretary of Labor: Bill Spriggs
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Mike Leavitt
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Maurice Jones
Secretary of Transportation: Earl Blumenauer
Secretary of Energy: Arun Majumdar
Secretary of Education: Lily Eskelsen Garcia
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Jason Kander
Administrator of the EPA: Vicki Christiansen

The domestic policy team received more criticism, some unfairly, than the foreign policy team had. For the progressives, it contained too many corporate establishment figures. For the corporate establishment, it contained too many progressives. For feminists, there were too many men. For some men, there were too many women. But this was the team that the President-elect wanted around him. He believed in their ideas, and they believed in his. He liked their experiences, and they had agreed to serve the nation.

The easy part, naming the Cabinet, was done. Next came the hard part - confirming them. As well as dealing with the 900 pound gorilla in the White House.
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Fubart Solman
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« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2020, 12:32:01 AM »

Looking forward to seeing where this goes!
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Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️
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« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2020, 01:28:52 AM »

mooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar Smiley
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libertpaulian
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« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2020, 10:49:29 AM »

Nothing for Pete?
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DKrol
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« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2020, 01:05:29 PM »

Chapter II: Transition Tantrums

With the Cabinet announced, the transition team split. Half of the staff pivoted to working on turning campaign policy goals into government policy actions, while the remainder of staff focused on the transition itself: reaching out to foreign leaders, communicating with federal staff, and getting the gears of government back to their functioning order. With the acknowledgement from the GSA in hand, the transition was legally obligated to go forward.

Unfortunately, President Trump did not see it that way. Days after the election, he had "terminated" Defense Secretary Mark Esper, via Twitter. CIA Director Gina Haspel followed suit a few days later. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, who had signed the transition certification document, was also fired by President Trump, also via Twitter, within days of her agency acknowledging the outcome of the election. The acting Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, and GSA Administrator appointed by President Trump, in stark contrast to the established order of succession for government agencies, were strict partisans and put up roadblocks for us all along the way.

Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller threatened any DoD staffer who collaborated with the transition team with an immediate firing and barred our DoD transition task force from entering the Pentagon. This severely inhibited our abilities to access secure communication equipment, to assess the current state of the civil service employees at the Department, and to prepare for a Day One military situation, should one arise. Acting CIA Director Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA's clandestine service and a serial supporter of human rights abuses, also barred President-elect Biden's Director of National Intelligence-designate Pete Buttigieg's team from accessing certain documents, although there were allowed into the building and given the ability to use secure communication channels.

The biggest problem came from Acting GSA Administrator, former Congressman Doug Collins. Collins, having just failed to enter the Georgia Senate Runoff, was a major promoter of false claims of election fraud and chosen by President Trump, I feel, for the sole purpose of making the transition as difficult as possible. Immediately upon taking office as the Acting GSA Administrator, Collins issued  a second letter, retracting the letter acknowledging President-elect Biden's victory.

We didn't know how to respond. At first, we brushed it off. We had a letter, signed by the duly appointed and confirmed GSA Administrator, acknowledging the victory and giving us critical federal access. But then the second letter took effect. Within hours, federal agents evicted our transition staff from the office spaces we had just moved in to. Our transition task force teams were removed from federal agencies and federal staff were ordered to cease communication with the teams. Computers that were given to staff by the GSA were seized, along with stationary, folders, and even the tape dispensers, and our .gov email addresses were deactivated. Within hours of Doug Collins becoming Acting GSA Administrator.

Without a place to meet as a staff or secure communication channels to conduct sensitive, but necessary, work, the transition ground to a halt. The President-elect remained in Wilmington at his home, and senior staff were working out of the Chase Center. It was easy enough for the policy transition staff to work from their homes over Zoom, as they had for most of the campaign. But the personnel transition staff were stuck. You can't call Benjamin Netanyahu over your Verizon cell phone and discuss the militarization of the West Bank from a Starbucks lobby. How were we supposed to take over the reigns of government in less then 70 days when we couldn't take the basic steps of a transition?

We went to court. Bob filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for Delaware seeking an injunction against Collins' letter and an enforcement of Murphy's letter. He argued that there was no mechanism for withdrawing acknowledgement of a Presidential campaign victory and that, even if there was, the seizure of computers and files and the eviction from office space was "like trying to put the cork back in a bottle of champagne". The Trump legal team, led by White House Counsel Pat Cipollene, argued that Murphy had acted improperly in signing the acknowledgement letter because, in their minds, the election was "bound up" in their frivolous lawsuits and Collins was respecting the "due process" of the courts and waiting until "the many outstanding illegally cast ballots" were resolved.

Judge Richard Andrews, an appointee of President Obama, in Delaware sided with us, agreeing that there was not a "substantive process" prescribed in the legislation to "withdraw acknowledgement" of a Presidential election victory. Cipollene appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and drew a friendly panel: Chief Judge Sharon Prost, a W. Bush appointee, Pauline Newman, a Reagan appointee, and Kimberly Ann Moore, another W. Bush appointee. The appeal hearing was essentially a rehashing of the Delaware court case. In a 2-1 decision, the Appeals Court sided with the Trump Administration, arguing that, while a process for withdrawal is not included in the statute covering the GSA's role in a Presidential transition, it was "within the rights" of the Acting GSA Administrator to "wait until the levers of democracy" had been exhausted.

Defeated in federal appeals court, we were faced with a challenging predicament. Either accept the ruling and wait until the Electoral College met in December, setting back our work dramatically and accepting defeat, or appeal to the newly-enshrined, 6-3 conservative Supreme Court and possibly suffer a major loss and destabilize our administration before it began. I argued it was better to wait a few weeks until the Electoral College met in their capitals and save what little public good will there was instead of fighting at the Supreme Court. Bob, of course, disagreed with me, believing that a Supreme Court appeal would be a 6-3 victory, with only the most conservative, partisan Justices voting against us.

President-elect Biden announced at a press conference on November 30th that his legal team would be appealing the decision of the Federal Appeals Court to the Supreme Court "in order to clearly state, once and for all, that I have been duly elected President of the United States and to rebuild public confidence in our democratic institutions". Republican legal wizard Ben Ginsburg signed on to the appeals team and argued before the Supreme Court. Bob hoped that bringing in the face of Republican court room maneuvers would help our case that this wasn't a partisan attack, it was simply about restoring faith in democracy. After two days of arguments and one of deliberations, the Supreme Court handed down their ruling in Biden-Harris Transition, Inc. v. Government Services Administration, et al on December 7.

In a 4-4 deadlock, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the appeals court judgement that the GSA was acting correctly given the outstanding legal cases and the fact that the Electors had not yet voted. Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh voted in favor of the Trump team, while Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan voted for us. Justice Coney Barrett, however, recused herself from the case, citing the "political factors" involved with her nomination and confirmation. While we were grateful to see that Justice Coney Barrett maintained some level of propriety, we were deeply saddened and, even, hurt that the deadlock upheld the lower court's ruling.

But a judicial loss is a judicial loss. The President-elect held an all-staff call shortly after the verdict came down and tried to raise the mood. We still had a job to do. And the Electors would be voting in just a few days by this point. But the air was out of the balloon.
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DKrol
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« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2020, 10:48:07 AM »

Chapter III: Midnight Train to Georgia

Despite losing access to critical transition supports, President-elect Biden pressed on with preparing to enter the Oval Office. President Trump's recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia all failed to turn those states red, as we all expected, and even, in the case of Wisconsin, increased the President-elect's margin by 210 votes. Finally seeing all of his options cut off, on December 13, President Trump held a press conference in the White House briefing room and declared that while he did not believe he had lost the election - "I mean, how could I lose to him? I've done so much and so well, everyone says it, and he's Sleepy, Sleepy Joe Biden" - he would stop contesting the results and allow the transition to begin in earnest. He even called the President-elect and wished him well.

With President Trump placated, both publically and privately, nearly all of the far-right coup attempts stopped. Republican legislators across the country halted their efforts to subvert the democratic will of the American people and seat alternate delegates. On December 14, 2020, 306 Electoral Votes were cast for Joe Biden and 232 were cast for Donald Trump. Joe Biden was finally received as President-elect of the United States by broad, broad swathes of the American people, with only the farthest reaches of OAN-watchers clinging to allegations of fraud and vote-rigging.

The effectiveness of the Biden-Harris Administration, and the likelihood of holding the White House in 2024 would depend on the control of Congress. Democrats had held the House, albeit narrowly, with a 225-203 majority. The Senate, despite high hopes for Democrats, was narrowly divided with control of the chamber coming down to two runoff elections in Georgia between appointed Senator Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Raphael Warnock and Senator David Perdue and Jon Ossoff. With the elections scheduled for January 5, President-elect Biden, having just carried Georgia as a Democrat for the first time since 1996, made campaigning for Warnock and Ossoff a central part of his pre-Inauguration Day schedule.

President-elect Biden held rallies with Warnock and Ossoff in Savannah, Augusta, and Macon, while Vice President-elect Harris and former President Barack Obama campaigned for the pair in Atlanta. The Democratic Big Three - Biden, Harris, and Obama - held a massive, socially-distanced rally in Athens at the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium with Warnock and Ossoff on January 4, the evening before the election. Stacey Abrams rolled out the full force of her turnout machine and Democratic dollars flowed into the state. Public polling, while maligned after the Presidential election and Senate races in other states, showed Warnock with a narrow 51% to 48% over Senator Loeffler while Senator Perdue and Ossoff were tied at 47% each.

With a defeated President Trump, the Republican side in Georgia consistently lagged in enthusiasm. President Trump did not campaign in Georgia for the Republicans, although he did fire off dozens of Tweets in support of Loeffler and Perdue between holes on the golf course. Vice President Pence held  few rallies in the Peach State, and 2024 hopefuls Governor Kristi Noem, Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Tim Scott, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley made swings through the state as well. Unlike in 2014, with Jason Carter's run for Governor and Michelle Nunn's for Senator, the feeling on the ground was that Republicans were legitimately scared that they could lose both Senate seats.

Much like Election Day in November, the initial reported results on January 5th were very rosy for Republicans. Senators Loeffler and Perdue both led their opponents by healthy margins on Election Night, albeit it by less than what President Trump had led Vice President Biden by just two months prior. Once the results from Metro Atlanta started to come in, champagne bottles were popped in Democratic offices across the country. Although it took a week to certify the results, it was clear almost immediately that President-elect Biden's victory in Georgia had set the mold for Democratic victories in Georgia - run up the score in Metro Atlanta, engage African American voters, claw back votes in other Metro counties, and narrow the margins in Republican strongholds.

Raphael Warnock - 2,612,256
Kelly Loeffler, inc. - 2,589,212

Jon Ossoff - 2,591,004
David Perdue, inc. - 2,590,987

With a 50-50 tie in the United States Senate, Vice President-elect Harris became the busiest woman in Washington.
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DKrol
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« Reply #7 on: November 14, 2020, 03:20:57 PM »

Thoughts, questions, comments, concerns?
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tmthforu94
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« Reply #8 on: November 14, 2020, 05:36:55 PM »

Love your timelines, as always!
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Fubart Solman
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« Reply #9 on: November 14, 2020, 10:35:42 PM »


Same here! The only thing I can think of is to update the popular vote numbers... not that we have final numbers yet.
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« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2020, 05:23:06 AM »

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« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2020, 11:52:16 AM »

Chapter IV: Inauguration Day

With the special elections in Georgia decided, and President Trump finally getting out of the way of the transition, Wilmington felt good as we got closer to Inauguration Day. Our departmental review task forces were in place, the cabinet nominees were lined up, briefed, and researched, and polling indicated something of a honeymoon period was developing. A Gallup poll released on January 19 showed 55% of Americans looked favorably upon the Biden-Harris Transition, an improvement from the 44% who held a favorable opinion of then-candidate Biden just before the election and a sign of growth from the 52% of votes that then-candidate Biden won in November.

The logistics of Inauguration Day took on extra importance in 2021. The country was still in the midst of a deadly, raging pandemic that President Trump has maligned and ignored. There were three vaccines - Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson - that had filed for emergency use authorizations but were holding out on distribution for one more set of critical data figures to ensure safety. President-elect Biden had made COVID-19 safety the bedrock of his campaign. His car rallies and, despite their mockery on conservative media, the socially distanced conversations on lawns and in fields were revolutionary. Although some in the Trump White House urged President-elect Biden to "give America something to celebrate" and hold a full, in-person ceremony on the National Mall, I knew immediately that that idea was a nonstarter for Wilmington.

Although the Congressional Inauguration Committee had planned for a traditional inauguration, and even built the platform and structure on the Capitol, President-elect Biden announced that there would be no officially sanctioned public celebrations of his Inauguration on the National Mall. Instead, he and Vice President-elect Harris would take their oaths in a mask-required ceremony inside the Capitol Rotunda and then drive to D.C. United's Audi Field to deliver their remarks to a socially-distanced, mask-wearing crowd.

Their was a bit of a fight over where the newly-inaugurated President and Vice President would give their remarks. Some on the team pushed for the remarks to be given inside the Capitol Rotunda for the ease of logistics, while others wanted them to be given from the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. The President-elect made it clear early on that he did not want to speak indoors, given the airborne spread of the virus, so the Rotunda was ruled out. And although the RFK Stadium could fit more people over a great distance, it had been slated for demolition for over a year and would have cost significant amounts of money to spruce up only to use as the backdrop of a pair of speeches. Other ideas mentioned were Nationals Park and FedEx Field, but the logistics team decided Audi Field would provide the best mix of social distancing, limitation on crowd size outside the stadium, and clean backdrops for the camera shots.

January 20, 2021 was cold. Very cold. The temperature in the morning, when President-elect Biden got on his train in Wilmington, was -6. President-elect Biden insisted on traveling to his inauguration the same way he had travelled to Washington during his tenure as a United States Senator - by Amtrak. For security purposes, he was not on the regularly scheduled Amtrak service but, instead, a private train operating on the same line. Decked out in American flags and bunting, it really felt like something out of a history book of the 19th Century, not the precipice of the 21st Century, but there was an air of nostalgia on the train that signaled the "Return to Normalcy" was ready.

Crowds greeted the President-elect on his arrival in a bitter Washington and flanked the roads as he was driven to St. John's Episcopal. The President-elect noted to me that most were wearing masks but he wished they were distancing. After church, the President-elect walked to the White House to meet with President Trump for the first time since the final debate in October. President Trump and the First Lady met President-elect and Dr. Biden on the South Lawn, where they spoke briefly before going inside - the President and President-elect to the Oval Office and the First Lady and Dr. Biden to the Residence.

President Trump was somber and restrained during his meeting with the President-elect. He offered the President-elect his "best wishes for success" and hoped "they're nicer to you than they were to me". President-elect Biden thanked President Trump for his kind words and his service to the country. And then the press were ushered out of the room and President Trump opened up.

He cried. He said that he had never wanted to be President and that it had been devastatingly hard for him. He complained that "everyone" had "been so mean, so hard, so unfair" and that he had "been set up to fail". President Trump told the President-elect that he only ran in 2016 "to renew a new season of The Apprentice" and boost some business deals he was having trouble closing. He stressed that he "never wanted to win" and he was "glad its finally over". As one of the three staffers in the room - Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, incoming National Security Advisor Michele Flournoy, and myself - I was shocked to hear such openness at the death of the Trump Administration. Meadows tried to usher Michele and myself out of the room at this point, but the President-elect wanted us there and we held firm.

For his part, President-elect Biden comforted President Trump. He explained that the immense pressure of the Office gets to even the strongest occupants. He said that there is no handbook for being President and that he felt President Trump had handled the situations he had been given to the best of his ability. All of this, to me, came off as the most gentle put-down possible but President Trump swelled with pride, like a toddler given a golden star at day care. After the President-elect's pep talk to the Commander-in-Chief, matters got more serious as a high-level briefing took place on the most pressing national affairs.

After a little over an hour, President Trump and President-elect Biden emerged from the Oval Office, took a few pictures on the portico with their wives, and the incoming Administration left the White House to head to the Capitol. No sooner were we in the car than the President fired off a Tweet storm about the meeting. Despite what I had seen with my own eyes, and confirmed with Michele, @DonaldJTrump tweeted:

"Sleepy Joe just spent an hour in MY office complaining about how unfair I was to him in campaign! SHOCKING!"

"Welcome to Washington (the Swamp) Sleep Joe! Your at home here!"

"Sleepy Joe didn't have any answers to the DOMINION VOTE RIGGING MACHINE and DEAD BALLOTS across the country - PLUS DOGS VOTES - STOLEN ELECTION"

As we pulled up the Capitol, the White House Press Corps reported out that Marine One had arrived at the White House lawn and President Trump and the First Lady were preparing to board. Shortly before noon, Marine One took off from the White House for the last time in the Trump Administration and deposited the couple at Reagan Airport to board "TrumpForce One" and return to New York.

At 11:58 AM on January 20, 2020, Kamala Devi Harris took the oath of office as Vice President of the United States of America, administered by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. For the first time ever, a woman, a Black person, and an Asian American was serving in the second highest office in the land. It was absolutely remarkable to see someone who was born before the Voting Rights Act secured and enshrined the right to vote for people of color take office as the Vice President.

After a prayer from Cardinal Wilton Daniel Gregory, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. took the oath of office that he had been working towards since 1988. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath at 12:04 PM. Those in the Rotunda, mostly Biden and Harris family members, as well as most of the Supreme Court, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Schumer, and a contingent of Delware and California politicians favored by the President and Vice President, broke out in massive cheers. There were tears as well, but tears of joy, of happiness, and hope.

A few minutes of photos and commemoration passed and then we were on the move again. In a massive motorcade, replacing the traditional parade route, we snaked our way through D.C., down the National Mall, and towards Audi Field. There were throngs of people lining the streets, even as a snow started to fall and a biting wind whipped up. Again, many were wearing masks but it was eerie to see so many people so close.

At Audi Field, Vice President Harris made the historic move to speak as the Vice President at the Inauguration Day celebrations. On the stage, socially distanced, with her were her husband, their children, President and First Lady Obama, President and First Lady Bush, Vice President and Second Lady Pence, and President and Dr. Biden. The Clintons were slated to attend but cancelled only days before due to a fall suffered by Hillary. Vice President Harris celebrated that history of the moment, both as a woman and a person of color. She celebrated the tremendous growth America had made but highlighted the work still to be done. And she repeated the vision she had made during her victory address - that she would not be the last woman to serve in the White House.

In front of a distanced crowd of 15,000, and millions more around the world on TV, President Biden took the podium just before 2:00 PM on the East. Unlike the "American carnage" speech of four years ago, President Biden's Inaugural Address was a soaring speech, filled with patriotic, passionate imagery and lush prose. He read his favorite hymn - On Eagle's Wings - and spoke about being a President for all Americans. He promised to contain the COVID-19 virus and pass a stimulus package aimed at the middle class. He teared up when he highlighted how "a working class kid from Scranton with a stutter" was moving into the White House. He thanked every American who voted for taking part in the democratic process and promised to make voting more accessible to all. He promised to address student debt and climate change and health care and domestic terrorist extremism. And he closed the way he began his campaign - by dedicating his time in office to his late son, Beau, and "all the good in the world".

We were off and running.
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Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️
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« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2020, 11:30:07 PM »

Nice description of the inauguration. Now it will be interesting to see what can actually get done. Since the 2 GA Senate seats went Dem, there is a lot more reason for optimism that something other than just executive orders can happen, as compared to reality (assuming they will stay R). So basically Harris is still a Senator and will spend all of her time in the Senate rather than in the White House Cheesy
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« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2020, 06:58:17 PM »

I'm planning the next post for tomorrow - sorry for the delay!
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« Reply #14 on: November 22, 2020, 09:46:02 PM »

Chapter V: Confirmation Battles

With the Republicans unable to command a majority in the Senate, we felt very confident going into our confirmation hearings. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, former President Trump's shenanigans, and the closeness of the Senate balance of power, the Senate did not begin hearings on President Biden's nominees until after Inauguration Day. While it was frustrating to begin the Presidency with holdovers from the Trump Administration, we were, as I said, very confident we'd get our people through the Senate.

Tony Blinken and Wendy Ruth Sherman sailed through the Foreign Relations Committee, receiving support from all Democrats, as well as Republicans Jim Risch, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, and Lindsey Graham. Xavier Becerra also had an easy time in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, securing all Democrats as well as Mitt Romney. The Senate Finance Committee hearing on Lael Brainard was also pleasant and smooth, with Todd Young being the only Republican on the Committee to vote against her.

Cameron Kerry received some questions over nepotism relating to his brother, John Kerry, and Jason Kander came under fire for his history of partisan attacks. Mike Leavitt and Blanche Lincoln had jovial, friendly hearings, hearkening back to the older days of Washington. Conflict of interest questions came up for Lee Saunders and Lily Eskelsen Garcia, between their nominations and their labor leadership, but each and every nominee to this point received at least one Republican vote in Committee, on top of a unified Democratic bloc.

Eric Fanning was the first of President Biden's nominees to face a seriously tough hearing in Committee. The Republicans on the Armed Services Committee peppered Fanning with questions over his sexual orientation, his position on trans servicemembers, and his lack of service in the Armed Forces. Fanning was profoundly qualified for the office, having served in civilian command positions in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Pentagon, as well as a staff assistant to the House Armed Services Committee. Fanning was the only cabinet nominee to come out of the Committee without a bipartisan vote of confidence, 14-13.

On the floor, Mitch McConnell was unable to rule with an iron fist. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rob Portman all voted for each nominee, who all had to go through a roll call vote thanks to Tommy Tuberville objecting to a voice vote each time, even on Lael Brainard, who was approved 98-1, with Vice President Harris' seat not yet filled. Eric Fanning even ended up being confirmed 54-45 on the floor, with Bill Cassidy also voting to confirm.

Within days of the cabinet being confirmed, President Biden was presented another monumental appointment. Justice Stephen Breyer announced his intention to step down from the Supreme Court before the next session. Breyer, 82, had served on the Court since 1994 and saw how impactful the timing of Justice Ginsburg's death had been. In a meeting at the White House to announce his resignation, Justice Breyer told President Biden that he did not want to throw the nation "into such a whirlpool of fear and vitriol" should he die in a similar manner.

On the campaign trail, President Biden had pledged to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court. As soon as he had said that, we launched into a vetting process to find a pool of qualified Black women, so as to be ready the moment a vacancy arose. The shortlist that we presented to President Biden in mid-February was Bernice Donald, from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Kimberly Budd, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, from the D.C. District Court.

On March 1, 2021, President Biden held a press conference and announced that his choice for Justice Breyer's seat was Judge Donald. Judge Donald, 69, attended a public university for both her undergraduate and J.D. and had served as a public defender and a legal aide lawyer early in her career. President Biden said that she "exemplified what it means to be a good lawyer". He highlighted that Judge Donald, like Vice President Harris, was a member of a Black Greek-lettered organization.

Immediately, Judge Donald's nomination shaped up to be tougher than any of the cabinet nominations.
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Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️
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« Reply #15 on: November 28, 2020, 03:35:00 AM »

I don't think it was wise of Biden to nominate a 69 year old Judge for SCOTUS. He should nominate a normal aged judge. If the Republicans block the nominee purely out of spiteful partisanship as with Garland, then that would just make the case for court packing in the future even clearer and make it clearer that the Supreme Court that the GOP has infected with partisanship is not legitimate, freeing up Biden to start ignoring it. I guess we will see how it goes though.
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« Reply #16 on: November 28, 2020, 10:53:34 PM »

This isn't dead, I promise. I'm just lacking a spark at the moment. It will continue.
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« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2020, 01:30:25 PM »

Random but can a judge step down only if a replacement is confirmed? Like does the judge have to have officially stepped down before the nominating process can begin
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« Reply #18 on: November 30, 2020, 11:02:17 AM »

Chapter VI: Setbacks

Judge Donald was fundamentally a Joe Biden nominee. She was older and well-established in judicial circles and not a "shake 'em up" kind of nominee. She would be a steady hand on the Supreme Court and advocate a fair application of the law, even if it didn't advance liberal causes. Those were the reasons President Biden nominated her to the Court.

And it were those same reasons why the nomination received widespread condemnation. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to label the pick "a slap in the face to the progressives who put" the President into the White House. Senator Elizabeth Warren praised Judge Donald's jurisprudence but told MSNBC that someone "with more longevity" should have been the nominee. Even President Biden's closest ally, Senator Chris Coons, expressed some concerns over the "complicating factors" of the nomination, while universally praising Judge Donald's record and life story.

Senior White House staff huddled in my office to decide how to move foreward. The chances of getting Judge Donald confirmed were slipping every day. With a 50-50 Senate, we needed every single Democrat to stand united. By our whip count, we were down three for certain: Mazie Hirono, Chris Murphy, and Ed Markey. Four more were weak "ayes" at this point: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, and the newly-appointed Senator from California Toni Atkins. There were some on the staff who thought we might be able to peel off the three most moderate Republicans - Romney, Collins, and Murkowski - to offset our certain Democratic losses and keep it at 50-50 with Vice President Harris breaking the tie, thanks to the nuclear option precedent. I was less sure of this path and advised against it. It was too risky to put the vote for our first - and possibly only - Supreme Court nominee in the hands of three Republicans and Vice President Harris.

President Biden was dejected when we informed him the math wasn't there for Judge Donald. He lamented that she was supremely qualified and "a good person". I told him that that's how Washington worked these days. He asked to give it one more chance and go down the Republican Coalition route. I cautioned him against it but he wanted to give it one last go, so he could say he did everything he could.
 
We invited the Republican Senators to the White House for lunch during the second week of March. Although the COVID-19 pandemic was still present in American society, most of Washington - and all  of the White House - had been immunized for months and we were conducting most of our business face-to-face. Senators Romney, Collins, and Murkowski all told President Biden that they had no qualms with Judge Donald herself, but were worried about the reaction at home if they were seen as "Red Democrats" - Republicans effectively caucusing with the Democrats. President Biden urged them to set aside the partisan angle and work towards the greater good. Murkowski gave us a firm "yes", but Romney and Collins demurred. President Biden argued that Judge Donald was the most moderate, centrist nominee they could get and that any replacement nominee would "be 30 years younger and half as pragmatic". Although the lunch ended without a firm commitment from Romney and Collins, President Biden felt much better about the odds.

On March 15, however, crisis erupted. Dr. Biden reported feeling ill to her staff, with a cough, body aches, and a fever. She was rushed to George Washington University Hospital from the White House Residence and testing confirmed that, despite receving the Moderna vaccine in January, she was positive for COVID-19 with symptoms.

I had ended the regular COVID-19 testing regime in the White House in February, after all staff had completed their immunization program. I had been advised that the White House was a secure bubble at the time, and the immunity bubble was expanding as the vaccines become more widely available. Dr. Biden, however, had continued her teaching at Northern Virginia Community College, which had returned to in-person instruction. Through contract tracing, we found failures at multiple levels.

A student at NVCC had tested positive but couldn't afford not to attend class. A White House aide's roommate got infected at a house party. A QAnon Member of Congress refused to take a vaccine and attended a Capital Hill lunch. But, worst of all, the vaccines only provided limited immunity and only prevented the onset of symptoms for a brief period of time, not the spread of the virus itself. We had been walking around carrying viral loads inside of us, thinking we were protected.

On March 17, Dr. Biden was moved to the ICU wing at GW Hospital. She was placed on a ventilator on March 20. President Biden, having already lost one wife under tragic circumstances, refused to be away from Dr. Biden and spent days at her bedside. He too tested positive for the virus but was only mildly symptomatic, a slight cough and some pain breathing.

We tried to press on the business of governing, but COVID-19 fear erupted again across the country. Supermarkets shelves went bare. Businesses shuttered their doors. Food lines snaked across blocks. Anger and fear erupted online and in the streets and President Biden was bound to his wife's ICU bed.

Our COVID-19 strategy failed to protect the country and we failed to protect ourselves.
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« Reply #19 on: November 30, 2020, 11:03:08 AM »

Random but can a judge step down only if a replacement is confirmed? Like does the judge have to have officially stepped down before the nominating process can begin

I'm not sure - I would think a Judge could reverse their decision to step down as long as a successor hasn't been confirmed yet.
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Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️
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« Reply #20 on: November 30, 2020, 06:36:53 PM »

Tragic. So was the vaccine in general less effective than thought, or did Biden just get unlucky? Is this due to the approval process being rushed? Seems like bad news in that it will encourage the anti-vaxxers, and then if people don't get vaccinated, then COVID keeps spreading throughout the population indefinitely...
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« Reply #21 on: November 30, 2020, 07:12:57 PM »

Tragic. So was the vaccine in general less effective than thought, or did Biden just get unlucky? Is this due to the approval process being rushed? Seems like bad news in that it will encourage the anti-vaxxers, and then if people don't get vaccinated, then COVID keeps spreading throughout the population indefinitely...

The running theory at the moment is that the vaccines, at least the Moderna vaccine, is less effective than originally thought. It’s primary effect is to reduce the viral load and diminish symptoms without eradicating the virus or preventing contraction. Whether that’s an effect of the rushed process or a mutation in the virus is yet to be seen.
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