Presidential Transition Highlights: McConnell Congratulates Biden and Lobbies Senators to Oppose Effort to Overturn Results

Follow our Trump impeachment vote live updates.

McConnell congratulates Biden and lobbies colleagues to oppose a final-stage G.O.P. effort to overturn his victory.

Video
bars
0:00/1:25
-0:00

transcript

‘The Electoral College Has Spoken’: McConnell Recognizes Biden’s Win

On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, recognized Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the president-elect and Senator Kamala Harris of California as vice president-elect.

Six weeks ago, the Americans — Americans voted in this year’s general election. The legal and constitutional processes have continued to play out since then. Yesterday, electors met in all 50 states. So as of this morning, our country has officially a president-elect and a vice president-elect. Many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result. But our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on January the 20th. The electoral college has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time. I look 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.

Video player loading
On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, recognized Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the president-elect and Senator Kamala Harris of California as vice president-elect.CreditCredit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Breaking with President Trump’s drive to overturn his election loss, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Tuesday congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his victory and began a campaign to keep fellow Republicans from joining a last-ditch effort to reverse the outcome when Congress tallies the results next month.

Although Mr. McConnell’s moves came weeks after Mr. Biden was declared the winner, they amounted to clear effort by the majority leader, who is the most powerful Republican in Congress, to put an end to his party’s attempts to sow doubt about the election. They were also a bid to avoid a messy partisan spectacle on the floor of the House that could divide Republicans at the start of the new Congress, pitting those loyal to Mr. Trump against institutionalists.

“Many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20,” Mr. McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. “The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”

A short time later, on a private call with Senate Republicans, Mr. McConnell and his top deputies pleaded with their colleagues not to join members of the House in objecting to the election results on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to ratify the Electoral College’s decision, according to three people familiar with the remarks.

A small group of House members, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, plan to use a constitutional process to object to the inclusion of five key battleground states that day. There is almost no chance they would succeed, but if they could convince at least one senator to join them, they could turn the counting session into a chaotic last stand for Mr. Trump.

So far, no senator has committed to joining them. And though Mr. McConnell could not stop one of them from doing so if they wished, he made clear that the challenge would be futile and embarrassing for the Senate.

His public remarks were a decisive shift for Mr. McConnell and came hours after members of his leadership team, and even the Senate chaplain, began softening the ground by congratulating Mr. Biden Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

The incoming president and the majority leader, who served alongside one another in the Senate for decades, spoke by phone short time later, apparently for the first time since the election.

“I called to thank him for the congratulations, told him although we disagree on a lot of things, there’s things we can work together on,” Mr. Biden said, adding that it was a “good conversation.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris echoed Mr. Biden’s comments in an ABC interview on Tuesday.

“I applaud Mitch McConnell for talking to Joe Biden today,” she said. “It would have been better if it were earlier, but it happened, and that’s what most important, and so let’s move forward.”

Though he never repeated them, Mr. McConnell had allowed Mr. Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread voting fraud or fantastical claims that he had won the election by a wide margin to circulate unchecked for more than a month. Allies insisted privately that he would ultimately honor the election results but did not want to stoke a year-end conflict with the president that could hurt the party’s chances in two Georgia Senate runoffs and imperil must-pass legislation.

Biden picks Pete Buttigieg for transportation secretary.

Image
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., speaking at a town hall event in Columbia, S.C., in February.Credit...Travis Dove for The New York Times

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will nominate Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., to lead the Department of Transportation, adding a young-generation voice to his team, the transition team announced on Tuesday.

Mr. Buttigieg, 38, fought a fierce battle for the Democratic presidential nomination but bowed out and endorsed Mr. Biden. The two men bonded during the general election campaign and Mr. Biden made it clear that he wanted to find a place for Mr. Buttigieg in his administration.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Buttigieg will be the first openly gay person to serve as a cabinet secretary, shattering a barrier and contributing to Mr. Biden’s promise to make his administration “look like America.” Under President Trump, Richard Grenell, who is also openly gay, served as acting director of National Intelligence, a cabinet-level post. But he did not face Senate confirmation as the acting leader.

“Mayor Pete Buttigieg was open and honest about his identity throughout his time on the national scene, giving a voice to our community, and a new vision of who and how our leaders can love,” said Alphonso David, the president of Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group.

A Navy veteran, Mr. Buttigieg could have led the Department of Veterans Affairs. But Mr. Biden decided instead to put him in charge of transportation, which is likely to become a key part of the administration’s efforts to combat climate change with aggressive actions on emissions. Reuters earlier reported Mr. Biden’s choice of Mr. Buttigieg.

In his presidential bid, Mr. Buttigieg proved himself to be among the Democratic Party’s most skilled communicators, transforming himself from a small-city mayor to a top-polling presidential candidate.

While Mr. Biden, like many others in the 2020 Democratic presidential field, was at first annoyed by Mr. Buttigieg’s presidential ambitions — and before the New Hampshire primary belittled his mayoral experience in revitalizing South Bend’s sidewalks — the two grew closer in their shared effort to hold back the party’s more liberal contenders.

As a candidate, Mr. Buttigieg consistently argued for the government to take strong steps to fight global warming. And his tenure as the leader of a local community provides him experience with the infrastructure needs of cities and counties, another key priority for Mr. Biden.

At debates, it was Mr. Buttigieg who scraped with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, leaving Mr. Biden to largely stay above the fray.

And when Mr. Buttigieg ended his campaign after registering paltry support from Black voters in the South Carolina primary, the Biden campaign gave him his own endorsement event — a plum not afforded to fellow rivals like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas, who threw their support to Mr. Biden at a campaign rally hours later.

Becoming part of Mr. Biden’s cabinet will give Mr. Buttigieg a national perch from which to advance his future political career in the Democratic Party.

It will also allow him to apply some of the experience with transit policy he gained during his mayorship to national challenges surrounding infrastructure that cause perennial bipartisan frustration.

Mr. Buttigieg, whose calling card as a presidential candidate was a claim to have revived a dying Midwestern city, made transportation corridors an early focus. Shortly after being elected mayor in 2012, he set about transforming the South Bend’s downtown through an initiative named Smart Streets aimed at reducing traffic, adding bike lanes, and making certain areas more pedestrian-friendly.

After years of political resistance, the investment in infrastructure ignited a revival of the downtown area. New hotels, retail and residential conversions of lofts followed.

“Pete’s nomination is a new milestone in a decades-long effort to ensure LGBTQ people are represented throughout our government — and its impact will reverberate well-beyond the department he will lead,” said Annise Parker, the president of L.G.B.T.Q. Victory Institute, in a statement. “Most important, however, is that Pete will bring his intellect and energy to the Department of Transportation and our nation will be better off because of it.”

Reid J. Epstein and Trip Gabriel contributed reporting.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Biden will nominate Jennifer Granholm for energy secretary.

Image
Jennifer Granholm in 2019.Credit...Steve Jennings/Getty Images

President-elect Joseph R. Biden will nominate Jennifer M. Granholm, the former governor of Michigan and a longtime champion of renewable energy development, to be the next secretary of energy, according to four people close to the transition.

If confirmed Ms. Granholm, 61, will be the second woman, after Hazel R. O’Leary, who served under President Bill Clinton, to lead the vast department, which oversees the United States nuclear weapons complex as well as 17 national laboratories and a wide range of energy research and development initiatives.

Several people close to the transition said advisers had struggled over whether the Energy Department should be led by someone steeped in its core mission of ensuring the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal, or whether Mr. Biden should select someone with a vision for leading a clean-energy transformation.

Ms. Granholm is widely credited during her two terms as Michigan governor with steering her state through a recession and working with the Obama administration on a 2009 bailout of the automobile industry that included clean energy investments and incentives for carmakers to invest in technologies like battery storage.

After her term ended, in 2011, she became an advocate for renewable energy development, including giving a TED Talk on how investing in alternative energy resources can bolster state economies, something Mr. Biden has focused on in his coronavirus recovery plan.

“The economics are clear: The time for a low-carbon recovery is now,” Ms. Granholm wrote this year in The Detroit News, making the case for Michigan and other states to embrace low-carbon recovery measures to help rebuild from the economic hit of the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision to choose Ms. Granholm was seen as a nod to environmental groups, some of which had waged a campaign against Ernest J. Moniz, the former energy secretary, who had long been seen as the front-runner to take the helm of department a second time. Though he was a favorite candidate of labor groups and a close adviser to Mr. Biden, activists objected strongly to financial ties he had to the fossil fuel industry and positions he had taken in favor of continued development of natural gas.

Biden will name Gina McCarthy as the White House’s climate coordinator.

Image
Gina McCarthy led the Environmental Protection Agency from 2013 to 2017 and helped design Obama-era climate regulations.Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to pick Gina McCarthy, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and the architect of some of his most far-reaching regulations to limit planet-warming emissions, to serve as senior White House adviser on climate change, according to three people close to the Biden transition team.

As White House adviser, Ms. McCarthy will coordinate domestic climate policies across the United States government, playing a central role in helping Mr. Biden make good on his campaign promise of putting the United States on track to reach carbon neutrality before 2050.

Mr. Biden also intends to name Ali Zaidi, the deputy secretary for energy and environment of New York State, who helped write Mr. Biden’s climate plan, as Ms. McCarthy’s deputy.

Ms. McCarthy, who has served since January as president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, joins the ranks of high-profile former Obama administration officials given top positions in the Biden administration. Advocates for stronger action to fight climate change said her nomination would send a signal that the administration was prepared to bypass Congress and enact measures using executive authority to begin bringing down greenhouse gases.

Her international counterpart is former Secretary of State John Kerry, whom Mr. Biden has tapped to galvanize other nations to take more ambitious action as the United States prepares, after four years of disregarding climate change under President Trump, to restart its own efforts.

“A new era of climate accountability is upon us,” former Vice President Al Gore said in a statement. “The U.S. is back on task.”

He called Ms. McCarthy “uniquely suited for the job” and said her appointment, along with Mr. Kerry’s, “affirms that Joe Biden is serious about America leading by example and driving deep reductions in pollution and climate emissions.”

As E.P.A. administrator, Ms. McCarthy developed the Clean Power Plan, which set the first-ever national limits on carbon emissions from power plants. She also pushed forward rules to cut mercury emissions from power plants, increase fuel efficiency in automobiles and limit methane leaks from oil and gas wells.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Top congressional leaders met to discuss a stimulus deal and a year-end spending bill before the deadline on Friday.

Image
Senator Chuck Schumer on his way to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Representative Kevin McCarthy. They have agreed that any additional pandemic aid should be wrapped into the year-end spending measureCredit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Congressional leaders scrambled on Tuesday to reach agreement on a stimulus bill and a catchall omnibus funding package to keep government funding flowing, meeting to try to hammer out critical spending deals ahead of a Friday deadline.

Their talks broke up about 10 p.m. Tuesday, with lawmakers voicing some optimism as they left the Capitol. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said, “We’re making significant progress.”

He added that he was encouraged that they were “going to be able to complete an understanding sometime soon.”

As he left the Capitol, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, echoed Mr. McConnell’s optimism and said that “hopefully we can come to an agreement soon.” Discussions and staff work were expected to continue on Wednesday.

The Tuesday meetings of the top two Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate were the first in-person spending talks in months for the leaders, with a final deal still elusive on both the dozen must-pass spending bills and hundreds of billions of dollars in economic aid for individuals and businesses struggling amid the pandemic, and to fund the distribution of a vaccine.

They took place in the Capitol office suite of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, who hosted Mr. Schumer and the Republican leaders Mr. McConnell and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.

The group first met for a little under an hour to discuss how to resolve its differences before government funding is scheduled to lapse at week’s end, and reconvened later in the evening for a second session.

Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, joined the first session by phone, after speaking separately with Ms. Pelosi for more than an hour.

Mr. McCarthy, headed back to his office after the evening meeting, said that “we’re exchanging our papers.” He also offered a note of optimism for the chances of a deal.

“We’re making significant progress,” Mr. McConnell said, “and I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to complete an understanding sometime soon.”

The four leaders have agreed that any additional pandemic aid should be wrapped into the year-end spending measure, and that Congress should not adjourn without approving some pandemic relief as Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the country and the government works to distribute the vaccine to essential workers and others. “We’re going to get an agreement as soon as we can agree,” Mr. McConnell told reporters after the first meeting.

Aides involved in the discussion said they were nearing agreement on a catchall spending package, and the text could be released as early as Wednesday. But it remained unclear what congressional leaders would agree to for pandemic relief, as well as what additional legislative items may be merged with the broader spending package.

Even if Congress were to pass a bill this week, it may not be in time to prevent millions of Americans from going weeks with no source of income, given that many state unemployment offices have already programmed their systems to cut off benefits after next week, when the current pandemic programs expire.

Reinstating the benefits in those states will take time, especially because the plan being considered by Congress would make several technical changes to the programs, which the Labor Department must then incorporate into formal regulations, said Elizabeth Pancotti, a policy adviser for Employ America, an advocacy group. The Christmas and New Year’s holidays, when state offices are shut, will add further delays, she warned, though workers would eventually receive back pay for the weeks where their benefits lapsed.

Biden speaks in Georgia, where strong early voting turnout suggests voters understand Senate control is on the line.

Video
bars
0:00/1:21
-0:00

transcript

Biden Campaigns in Georgia Ahead of Crucial Runoffs

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday one day after in-person early voting began. He encouraged Georgians to vote for Democratic Senate candidates in two critical runoffs next month that could give his party full control of Congress.

I’m Stacey Abrams, I’m sandy, sandy, Sandy. I am going to love kirkwood, hillie, the Georgia. Well, we got to do it again, guys. A few weeks ago, we had a conversation about what was at stake in these elections. We talked about the fact that we were in the midst of a global pandemic. Well, we’ve gotten a little closer to salvation with a vaccine, but the vaccine isn’t going to solve every problem. And we have an economy that’s in peril. But a new president can’t solve that alone. And we are in the space where racial reckoning is not going to disappear just when the years change. We’ve got to stay committed and we’ve got to have a plan. Well, I’ve got two plans, John Ashcroft and Raphael Warnock. John Ostroff understands what it means to be a small business owner. You see, he owns a business that has one singular objective to root out corruption. And we picked the perfect target. David Perdue. Raphael Warnock has led his church and led his community with grace and with values, and we have a perfect target for him, someone who seems to forget her values when opportunity is on the line. And that’s Kelly lefler. But with John Ashcroft and a Warnock, when they get to the US Senate. We get the better deal that we need. We get the change that we need. We get the progress that we need. But let’s put it into context. You see, while 161,000 Georgians face eviction this year, if we don’t get relief, David Perdue and Kelly lefler are writing strongly worded letters to a baseball team. Well, 160,000 people worry if they will be able to sleep inside at night, they’re worried about the name of a baseball team. While we know that one in four small businesses in Georgia that were around last year have disappeared in 2020 Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are suing to overturn an election in the state of Georgia. And while we know that 4.1 million Georgians have filed for jobless claims, 4.1 million jobless claims, including 30,000 just last Thursday, the response from Kelly lessler and David Perdue. Is to make money off of their stock trades. We deserve better, Georgia. We deserve John off and rossio not. But we won’t get them unless we do our part. You see, we’ve got to remember why we’re doing this. We’ve got to remember that we just elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to go to the White house, but they need help. And if we do this right, we’ll get Daniel Blackman, the PSC, so our rates will go down. And our opportunities will go up, but it’s going to take all of us. It’s going to take all of us to address an economic crisis that has imperiled our state. It is going to take all of us to address a health care crisis where nine of our counties don’t have doctors. We’re 76 of them don’t have a big wynans where 60 counties don’t have a pediatrician for six children. And we’re nine of our hospitals have shut up, shut down since 2010. And instead of standing up for Georgia. Kelly lefler and David Perdue have done nothing but fight to end health care and to take it away from georgians, but we need Rafael Warnock and John asaph because they know that health care access isn’t a slogan. It’s a requirement. It is a right. And we will have it when we send them to Washington, d.c. At a time where our economy is imperiled, when we need investment in our small businesses, when people who proclaim to be capitalists seem to only believe in capitalism for themselves, when we need money to our families and businesses to help our communities. Well, Kelly lefler and David Perdue watch Mitch McConnell burn our economy down and they stand behind him holding the matches. We need to send our firefighters, our first responders. We are sending John vossoughian, Raphael Warnock to DC to save America. That’s what we deserve. And in a moment where racial justice, where economic justice, where environmental justice are on the line, Kelly Loeffler poses accidentally for the second time with the KKK leader. And unfortunately, David Perdue has a hard time pronouncing the letter K doesn’t seem to understand that the diversity that built America is the diversity will save America, but we don’t have to wait for them to learn to do their jobs. We’ve got Raphael Warnock and John allsop and they will get the job done. So I’m here to ask you for a little help one more time, you see, last time I talked to you, I said, we needed to make a plan to vote. What we need to do it again. The last time we talked, I said, we need to send in our mail in ballots, return them in your drop boxes or in your mailboxes. But we need to do it again. Last time we talked, I said, we need to early vote like we have before you get it before. Let’s do it again. And on the last call on January 6th, our last call, when we can finally cast their ballots and cast behind us the worst four years that we have had in a long time. And lay out for all of us The best four years that are yet to come. I need you to show up. I need you to show out. I need you to bring your friends and your families, but I need you to bring your prayers and your spirit because we have a chance to save America, Georgia. And this isn’t hyperbole. This is fact, because as John likes to say, when Bonnie and Clyde go back to d.c., they’re going back for themselves. We need to get rid of Kelly and David. We need to lift up John and rafeal. And more importantly, we need to lift up the people of Georgia because we’ve waited too long. We have fought too hard, but we know how to do it because on November 3rd, we showed America. What Joel just got. So come on, y’all, let’s do it again. Let’s get it done. Thank you so much. No more. Please welcome Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. You’re welcome to wait in a home and journey, but anybody kicked to the curb, any other team is the story of black, white celebrities. But no one is getting dirty because we came from the moon. And we hungrier than ever. He writes. He writes, well, good afternoon to the great blue state of Georgia. It always seems impossible until it’s done. Those words may have been spoken by Nelson Mandela many years ago, but today they capture the mood of more than $81 million voters across this country. It always seems impossible until it’s done with Joe Biden entered the presidential race for the third time. Many thought it would be impossible that he would receive the Democratic nomination until it was done. Just last month, when you showed up to the polls across Georgia in record numbers, people thought it would be impossible to turn Georgia blue until it was done. As we face an historic opportunity in this state to elect John osogbo, Raphael Warnock, two men who with their presence will change the balance of the United States Senate. It may seem impossible, Georgia, but when you show up to vote, we will get it done. Voters like you of every race, creed and sexual orientation to the words of Congressman John Lewis to heart when he said nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. You made a difference simply by showing up to vote in November. And because you dared to use the power of your vote. The moral arc of this country. Now bends towards a more just America. I was recently asked what makes me optimistic without hesitation, I responded my children. You see, when I look at them, I can’t help but hope for a better tomorrow, tomorrow. What’s the color of their skin does not equate to a subtraction of the years that they will spend on this earth. Tomorrow, in which I can have hopes for my children beyond them simply surviving, but dreams of them thriving and having the freedom to be all God created them to be. When I look at my children. I am optimistic because I know their future will not be left up to fate, because in just a few short weeks, there will be a president and a vice president and the White House who will make decisions with my children and millions of children across this country on their hearts and on their minds. It always seems impossible until it’s done. We’re no strangers to close races here in Georgia, in case you’ve forgotten, the Atlanta mayor’s race just a few years ago, the week of the election, the polls showed that I with 6 points down and people across the country started calling their unsheathes and they were texting their cousins and they were posting on social media asking, what are y’all doing in atlanta? The energy created from that groundswell helped fuel our victory. People who had not voted in years. Came out to vote, and with just 832 votes, I was elected the 60th mayor of Atlanta. Throughout that campaign, I reminded people all across Atlanta that Atlanta was a place where impossible dreams were still able to take form. Well, that’s still true today. The impossible dream of turning Georgia blue and keeping Georgia blue can and will take form if you show up to vote on January 5. Georgia It was close, but we got it done for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. But even with our record turnout in November, nearly one million registered African-American voters in this state stayed home. That’s one million too many. It always seems impossible until it’s done. And so that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be able to do the work that they need to get done for the people of Georgia who are wondering where their next meal will come from, who are grieving the loss of a loved one to covid-19 for the people who are out of work across this country. We must get it done for John asaph and Raphael Warnock on January 5. In the words of Audrey, Lorde Revolution is not a one time event. In the words of Frederick Douglass, power concedes nothing without a demand. In the words of John Lewis, we may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us. In the words of Andre 3,000. That’s got something to say. And that’s all I’m going to say. It may seem impossible, Georgia, but we must and we will get it done. Thank you. And may God bless and keep each of you. You’re welcome to wait in the hall and dirty birds, anybody kicked to the curb, any other team is absurd. We black, white celebrities, but no one here is getting dirty because we came from the moon. And we don’t really know. He writes. He writes, we ride together. First of all. I know. Is it a party? And do we get to the party when we give up on your wish list on your calendar? Eight town players never playing with no. 80,000 strong getting the fans. All three kids are down swinging. They’re playing. We’re all done in brotherhood. Yeah, we like family in the brotherhood, a brand new home. Let the games begin. Can we back at. Please welcome John, hausswolff candidate for US Senate. Good afternoon, Atlanta. Thank you so much for being here. Give it up one more time for the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you all. So much for being here. The message today is simple, Georgia, the polls are open and it is time to vote. It is time to vote like we have never voted before Georgia sea for the first time in four years. We’re feeling hope in our hearts. He may not know it yet. But Donald Trump is leaving. Georgia sent Donald Trump packing and now we’re feeling hope in our hearts. Because for the first time in four years, we have the opportunity to define the next chapter in American history. And it’s Georgia that has the power. It’s Georgia voters who have the power to write the next chapter in American history, and Georgia voters are standing up for health, jobs and justice for the people. Health, jobs and justice for the people, think about how far we’ve come, Georgia, think about how far the American South has come. Our great state. Is the most competitive battleground state in this great country. We did that, all of you did that. Stacey Abrams did that. All of the activists and volunteers who have registered voters and organized and mobilized people did that. Georgia is the most competitive battleground state in this country. And with these two Senate runoff elections to determine control of the United States Senate. You got the young Jewish son of an immigrant mentored by John Lewis, running alongside a black preacher who holds Dr. King’s pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist church, who pastor John Lewis helping to lead this movement for health, jobs and justice for the people. Health, jobs and justice, let’s talk about health. We’ve lost more than 300,000 Americans to this virus. A virus our Senator David Perdue told us was no deadlier than the common flu while he was buying up shares in manufacturers of vaccines and medical equipment. Our lives have been torn apart. Millions have lost jobs and homes and livelihoods and business. We need to empower Georgia’s centers for Disease Control and doctors and scientists across this country to beat this virus, get our daily lives back and save lives in Georgia has the power to do that. Georgia has the power to do that. Let’s talk about health even before this virus. Two million Georgians lacked health insurance. Half of our counties have no obgyn, doctor. Maternal mortality for Black women in Georgia is as high as it is for women in Iraq. We’ve lost nine rural hospitals in 10 years. People are suffering in this state unnecessarily, dying in this state unnecessarily. We’re going to get out and vote Georgia because we believe that health care is a human right. And not just a privilege for those who can afford it. We believe that every single family in this state deserves the best health care in the world. We believe that a lack of wealth should never prevent us from getting the care that we need. Georgia is standing up for the health of the people. Health, jobs and justice, let’s talk about jobs. How is it that right now in the midst of this crisis? Our senators are not at work passing direct economic relief for the American people and support for small businesses. David and Kelly should be in Washington delivering $1,200 checks for every single georgeann and $500 for every child in the state because people are hurting. And we need help now. And once we get this direct economic relief to the people of Georgia, we can pass the most ambitious infrastructure, jobs and clean energy program in American history. We can create tens of thousands of jobs across the state. We can make America, the number one producer of clean energy in the world and Georgia, the number one producer of clean energy in the American South. We can do these things to create good paying jobs for the people. We can raise the minimum wage to $15. We can put small businesses first and not just corporate lobbyists in Washington. We can deliver health and jobs for the people. Now let’s talk about justice. Let’s talk about justice George. When a young black man named amont aubury in Glynn county, Georgia, is shot to death in broad daylight in the street on camera. And local authorities look the other way. That makes a mockery of equal protection under the law. And so, Georgia, we have the power to pass a new civil Rights Act that will guarantee equal justice for all, no matter our race and no matter our class, that will end brutality and racial profiling. And we have the power of Georgia to pass a new voting Rights Act that will end voter suppression and secure the franchise for all people in this country. We have the power of Georgia to stand up for health and jobs and justice for the people, for all the people. We have the power. So, Georgia. Not for my sake. Not for the glory of any political party. But for our community, for our state, for our country, I’m asking you to work, I’m asking you to mobilize, I’m asking you to knock on doors and make phone calls. I’m asking you to get everybody, you know, out to the polls. These next few weeks because so much is riding on this. We are joined today by the President-elect of the United States. We are welcoming Joe Biden to Georgia, but Georgia, we need to do right by Joe biden, we need to make sure Joe Biden can pass his agenda, because if Mitch McConnell controls the senate, they’re going to try to do to Joe and comilla, just like they tried to do to President Obama. They will block the covid relief that we need. They will block the $15 minimum wage. They will block the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act that we need. They will block affordable health care. We can’t let that happen in Georgia. We have too much good work to do. So thank you for everything that you’re doing to get out the vote, let’s put in the work. These next few weeks to win these two elections, less than two United States senators to Washington. I’m honored to run alongside Reverend Raphael Warnock. Thank you so much, George, for everything. I love you. I appreciate you. Let’s get out the vote. Thank you. Thank you. It’s all part of being to left to look at what I was looking at. They’re there on the topic. I mean, like a minute, but they go off to. Please welcome Reverend Warnock, candidate for US Senate. Back then to. Well, hello, Georgia. You all sound like you’re ready to win an election. Let’s hear it again. For a man I’ve come to call my brother from another mother, John, also. Let’s hear it for our amazing mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. And for a woman who saw the vision and believed that we could do this when others said, we couldn’t. Stacey Abrams. I cannot tell you how. Honored I am to be with you. In this defining moment. In American history. And I’m grateful just to be here with you as we welcome back to Georgia. A man who. One, George. And yesterday. In spite of all of the shenanigans. We awarded him the 16 electoral states from the great state of Georgia, President-elect Joe Biden. We congratulate him. And vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Georgia, you did a. We say to America, welcome to the new Georgia, welcome to the blue Georgia. But our work is done. We’re just getting started. We say all the time that elections have consequences. But I have to tell you that. After going through what all of us have witnessed these last several months. Some 300,000 American soldiers that have now perished. To say that elections have consequences. Feels like a gross understatement. Elections, as we have learned tragically this year, are a matter of life and death. And so vote Georgia like your life depends on it, because it actually does. Are you ready to win this election? The four most powerful words ever in a democracy. Are the people have spoken? And when we stand up and speak. When we make sure no one silences our voices. Or diminishes our vote. We give Ana. To that great American covenant. That we are one people. Knit together, not by race or ethnicity. Or national origin. All religion. But knit together by an idea, e pluribus Unum out of many one, and I’m so proud to stand with you this afternoon because. I am an example. And interation. Of the American story. I stand here this afternoon, but I can never forget. That I’m a kid who grew up in public housing. Down in Savannah, Georgia. One of 12 children in my family. I’m number 11, clearly my folks read the scripture that says be fruitful and multiply. They took it rather seriously. I’m one of 12 children. And my dad used to wake me up. Early every morning. He was a veteran. A pastor and a small businessman, and he believed that you should just get up early. And get moving. They used to wake me up at dawn seven days a week during the school year, during the summer. And he would say some. Got up. Get dressed. Get ready. Put your shoes on. Well, it was summertime. And I was seven years old, and I say to my dad, get ready for work. And I think I stopped, and he said, I don’t know, I’ll figure that out later, whatever it just be ready. Now, that was a bit irritating when I was seven. And 10 and 12 and 14 years old. But now. I’m so glad that my dad bought into me that kind of work ethic, because in this defining moment in American history, I want you to know that I’m ready. I’m ready to be one of your next two United States senators from the great state of George. And so with that work ethic that my folks poured into me. I went to Morehouse College. I often say that I went to my house on a full scholarship, that means I didn’t have enough money for the first semester. But I just wanted to be in that place where Martin Luther King jr. attended. And I got there through prayer and hard work, but I also got there because somebody gave me some Pell grants and some low interest student loans. In other words, somebody provided for me a path to the American promise only. In America. Is my story even possible? The kid who grew up in public housing. Goes on. Receive four degrees, including a degree, and now I’m running for the United States Senate against the wealthiest member of congress, that’s the American promise. And my mother. Now 82 years old. Who grew up in the 1950s in waycross, Georgia. You know where that is, waycross, Georgia. Picking cotton and somebody else’s tobacco. Well, the other day. Hands that pick tobacco and cotton. Now, because we have in this period of voting gets to pick our youngest son to be the next United States Senator from the great state of Georgia. And so we got to stand up. Georgia in this defining moment. Because that promise is slipping away from too many of our children. College debt has now surpassed student loans and auto loans. Our children should not have a mortgage before they get a mortgage. That is a burden on him. And it is a burden on the American economy. And so we’ve got to rise up. Now in this defining moment, we cannot go to sleep. We’ve got to get this virus under control. We got to distribute this vaccine safely and efficiently. We’ve got to strengthen the Affordable Care Act over against those who want to destroy the Affordable Care Act. We’ve got to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions are never denied coverage because health care is a human right. And it is certainly something the richest nation on the planet can and ought to provide to all of its citizens. We got to pass criminal justice reform. Omar hammami is a member of my congregation. Was arrested. On live television. While reporting for CNN. The match. He was wearing was not as significant as the skin he was wearing. And so anybody who’s looking at this fairly knows that we have to have criminal justice reform, we have to stand by law enforcement, and we also have to hold people accountable. Because the covenant we have with one another is equal protection under the law. That’s what it means to be American. We’ve got to do this. And we got to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And so I’m ready. I’m ready, are you ready? We can do this. We’ve got big problems. And big issues, and that’s why we have to stand together. And we can’t allow anybody or anything to divide us. Folks who have no vision traffic in division. And so my opponent, Kelly luffler. It’s busy trying to distract the people of Georgia. Because she can’t account for her 10 months. She was appointed by the people of Georgia are disappointed. She’s done a good job enriching herself, profiting from the pandemic, but when it came time to give ordinary folks $600 in unemployment insurance, she said that she saw no need. She said it was counter productive. Georgia deserves two United States senators who will not be thinking about themselves, but thinking about the people that we were sent there to represent. And if you send your mouse up there, if you send me there, I promise you will be thinking about Georgia every day. I’ve got Georgia on my mind. And we’re ready to get this done. I’ve been moving all across the state talking to folks who lost livelihoods and loved ones to this pandemic, now more than ever, we must stand together and last hear the ancestors ushering us on. I told you, my father used to wake me up every morning. And say up. Get dressed. Put your shoes on. He wake me up at dawn. The thing about Don is that it’s morning, but it’s still dark. It’s dark. But morning is on the way. Hold on. Joy comes. In the morning. The light shines in the darkness, the darkness overcome it not. We can’t control what happens in Warning. But we have to get up. And get ready. Get dressed, put your clothes on, put your shoes on. I want to ask you one last time. Are you ready? I’m ready. I’m ready to stand up for Affordable Health Care. Stand up for a Livable wage. Stand up for voting rights and equal rights. Stand out in this defining moment in American history. Let’s win the future for all of our children. Put your shoes on. Let’s get it done. With the. Imani Bennet. Things look so bad everywhere in this whole be. We deny to try to see. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Imani binit. I’m currently a sophomore at Spelman College and I’m a true Atlanta native. Now, both of my parents are educators, and through their experience in the classroom, in my personal lives experiences, I’ve been so inspired and motivated to be a social justice activist. Now, today, I’m so honored to get to help y’all elect Raphael Warnock and John. Awesome to us in. This election was my first time voting, and I was so excited to cast my ballot for buying in here is in addition, I voted for two senators who have my interests at heart, but also two men of integrity. I’m voting this January to make sure my rights are protected. Warnock and all that, and also will work with President-elect Biden to put our country back, ensure Georgians have access to more affordable health care, and slow the spread of covid. And as someone whose family and friends has been affected by this pandemic, that’s very important to me also. And work will also fight to invest more in schools like mine. I’m here today because I’m voting like my life depends on. I’m here to ask you all to do everything you possibly can to get Mr Warnock and also in office in November. I don’t want to wake up, you know, January 5th thinking, what if I called someone else? You know, what if I put up more signs, I don’t know. Wake up, January 5th. No, I put it all on the table. I’m asking you all to do it again. We did it in November. And we can do it again in January. And now it’s my honor and privilege to introduce the next president of the United states, President-elect Joe Biden. These people have got to make a. You people have got to go around that to make. Now, you may have a plan. So don’t slip into the line because the people to. The Lana. Location, the mayor of Atlanta, great mayor of Atlanta. Hello, Georgia. It’s great to be back. It really is. Let’s for Keisha, Lance Bottoms the best in the business. I had my back through this whole deal. And give it up for Congress like it came up Williams where she here anyway, she said, look, I have no doubt John Lewis is proud as can be. And what about the one and only Stacey abrams? Stacey, if we had 10 of you, we could roll the whole world. God love you. You’re doing an incredible job. And here, is there anyone in America who has done more to protect the right to vote in this election? Is there anyone who has done more to make sure the voice of every Georgian is heard? I don’t think so. Stacey Abrams. You’re a hero. You’re the one that got this going. And we’re all Thank you. And, of course. Honk for your next United States senator, John herself and Reverend Raphael Warnock. Georgia, let me start with two simple words, Thank you, Thank you for turning out in record numbers in November election. Thank you for the faith. You put in me and Vice President-elect Harris. And Thank you for standing strong to make sure your voices were heard, your votes were counted and counted and counted again. I’m starting to feel like I won Georgia three times. I have to say, it feels pretty good. You know, I think all of you just taught Donald Trump a lesson. In this election, George, Georgia going to be bullied, George, he was going to be silenced, George is certainly wasn’t going to stand by and let Donald Trump or the state of Texas or anyone else come in here and toss out your votes. But, you know, you know, and stand by, you know, did nothing while Trump, Texas and others were trying to wipe out every single one of the almost 5 million votes you had cast here in Georgia in November. Your two Republican senators, they stood by, in fact, your two Republican senators fully embraced what Texans are telling the Supreme Court. They fully embraced, nullifying nearly $5 million Georgia votes. You might want to remember that come January 5th. I’ll try to be generous here in the spirit of the season, maybe your senators were just confused. Maybe they think they represent Texas. Well, if you want to do the bidding of Texas, you should be running in Texas, not Georgia. Because you know what? You got a couple of folks running for the United States Senate in this state who aren’t confused at all, John uscirf, Raphael Warnock, they’re running to represent Georgia. Georgia, they’ll actually fight for you, represent you, stand up for you. They will put Texas first, then put Donald Trump first. They will put themselves first, either they’ll put you first, the people of Georgia, there’s no doubt in my mind, none, none that if Texas are Trump or anyone else, the United States Senate tries to do anything except respect the will of the people of Georgia. They’ll move heaven and earth to stop them. Folks, you know, you all did something extraordinary in November, you voted in record numbers, you voted to improve the lives of every Georgian, and you voted as if your life depended on it. Well, guess what? Now you’re going to have to do it again. Come January 5th. You got to vote in record numbers again because, yes, the lives of every Georgians still depend on what you’re doing. Yes, you still need to vote as if your life depends on it, because it does. And guess what? You don’t have to wait until January 5th to vote. You can vote. Starting now, early voting has begun. There’s no, no one. That’s not one reason here. Why you should wait to vote. So don’t wait. Let me hear how many of you folks have already voted. How many are you going to vote today and how many of you have a plan to vote? Get your family members to vote a friend, a neighbor or co-worker. Let me hear it. We got a vote. His charges are going to break the record for voting in his own state Senate elections. I think so. Now, let me tell you something. There are a lot of folks betting you won’t get a lot of folks thinking maybe George broke the record for vote for presidential election, but there’s no well, they do it again, in this special election for two seats in the United States Senate. Are you ready to prove them wrong? I think are I think George is going to shock the nation with the number of people who vote on January the 5th. Am I right, georgia? Am I right? We’ve got a lot of work to do, and I plan to get to work right away doing it. I need two senators from the state who want to get something done, not two senators who are just going to get in the way because, look, getting nothing done just hurts Georgia. Look what’s happening right now in the Congress. The United States Senate should have passed the coronavirus, an economic relief package months ago. People are hurting millions out of work. Small businesses closing, people are struggling to pay their rent. Worried that after Christmas, they’ll be thrown out before a New Year’s. Concerned about paying their mortgage over 10 million. Putting food on the table has become a Herculean task for so many. And was the United States Senate doing nothing? People need help and they need it right now. States like Georgia need help to keep firefighters, cops, first responders, educators on the job. We need immediate funding for testing and vaccine distribution. Need to get money into people’s pockets right away. Look, don’t get me wrong, I hope Congress passes a package right away. But it should support firefighters, it should educators, first responders, it should also support the testing and vaccinations we need. It should deliver direct cash payments to people right away when they badly need to stay on top. Two Republican senators are not supporting that kind of package. Well, John, Rafael, do. There’s so much more we can get done. I’m currently on revitalizing our economy on health care and voting rights and criminal justice, racial justice and climate change, we can get so much done, so much that makes the lives of people of Georgia and the whole country. So much better. And we need senators who are willing to do it, for God’s sake. So let me hear you. Are you ready to vote for the two senators that are doers and not roadblocks? Are you ready to vote for two senators who fight for progress, not just get in the way of progress? Are you ready to vote for two senators know how to say yes, not just the word no. Look, let me talk about John rafeal for just a minute. John was born and raised in Atlanta, cut his teeth in politics and justice, equality. Under our dear friend John Lewis, an immigrant son, travels all across the state sharing his belief in delivering the promise of America, all Georgians beating this pandemic, rebuilding our economy, health care, education, jobs and justice. A husband whose wife is a doctor at Emory see this pandemic on the front lines, a fresh voice who will only do the work of the people who will always put the interests first and the only person’s interests, in fact, the people of Georgia. That’s what he does, that’s his heart. John will always be for they’re there for you. And I promise you, and he’ll be there for the rest of the country as well. John, I’m looking forward to work with you, man. I really am. And Reverend Warnock. Muhajir working, I don’t know how the heck you stay in such great shape, man. You look, you use to get up and do it, man, I tell you, I reached up and grabbed his arm. It’s as big as my thigh. You’re a good man. His story is your story. I’m never giving up on the dream of America. 11 of 12 siblings grew up in public housing in Savannah, first in his family to go to college, got there on Pell grants work study. Another Morehouse man. I spoke down to Morehouse. A lot of men of Morehouse. I tell you what. A man of God of ebeneezer, literally standing in the righteous footsteps of Dr. King. As he says for public service didn’t stop at the church door after preaching on Sunday sermons, it’s advocating for better health care, a living wage, working people, fair, more equal justice system and fighting chance for all Georgians. He’ll bring his soul to his work because that’s who he is. And he is you. He’ll always be your voice in Washington, have no doubt about that, and I can hardly wait to work with you as well, Senator. Look, I said, when I announced one of the three reasons I was running to restore the soul of America. When electing people of character is how to restore the soul of America, people like John and Raphael and the matters. They public service isn’t about them. It’s about, you know, public service is about enriching themselves. It’s about making people’s lives better. They know the Lord listen to me or anyone else. It’s to the people of Georgia. And, you know, this is a tough moment for the country. We just passed 300,000 deaths due to covid. Like many of you. I know what it feels like to lose someone as part of your heart. I know. But that black hole that seems to open up in your chest feels like you seem like you’re being sucked into it. You know how, especially hard it is this time of year. When you look across the table. And you see that empty chair, Christmas and New Year’s. My heart really goes out to all of you. Who’ve lost a loved one? We’ve gotten sick. We’re suffering from the disease. Yet in this darkness, we finally got some good news with the vaccine approval. Still, it’s going to take time. And money to scale up the manufacturing, distribution, and the aluminum injection, the ultimate injection, the vaccine. Meanwhile, the economic crisis has left millions of Americans out of work through no fault of their own. They need to get immediate help to families struggling right now. We need to get moving on, rebuilding our economy, building back better than it was before. It’s tough, as this moment is in this country, as dark as these days of winter seem. I’m still more optimistic about the future of this country than I’ve been my whole career. I know we can do. I know what this country is capable of. I know the future, we can build together. And I hope when you send John and Rafael to Washington to help me get that done. It really is time to leave the anger and bitter politics of division behind us. It’s time for us to come together as a country and start delivering on what we have to get done for the people of America. This is the United States of America. And Brett is ready to act. So Suzanne, John and rovere of the Washington. And that’s what will happen. You know. I ran on the commitment to be president for all Americans. Rafaela are running out of a commitment to be senators for all Georgians. I’m asking you what you’re already doing to support them, because if you do. The doors of promise in progress are going to open in Washington. We’re going to start to get done. What we have to do more than anything will make the lives of every George in the lives of every American better. That’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact. And all begins with your vote. Starting today, as I said, you can vote early, go to geet to find your polling location, tell your friends, your family, just like you did in November. Turn out the vote. So it’s not even close. Don’t give them an excuse to take away your power. Vote for both John and Rafael. Remember, the final words left to us by congressman, my dear friend and American hero John lewis? Remember what John said? He said, the vote is the most powerful, nonviolent change, you have in a Democratic society. And you must use it because it’s not guaranteed. You can’t lose it or use it. You have the power to win this election. Again Let your voices be heard. So the voice of George, you can be heard. There’s nothing beyond our capacity. There’s no limit to America’s future, don’t it can tear America apart as America itself. So let’s just hope over fear, unity over division, science fiction and yes, truth overlies. It’s time to stand up, take back our democracy, send me these two men, and we will control the Senate and we’ll change the lives of people in Georgia. God bless you, and may God protect our troops. Go out and vote, vote, vote. I to make around that, to make people aware that you people got to go around catemaco to make a. So don’t slip into the mud, causing people to. To go around the world, you people. Got to make around. That’s know people trying to make. Around the world, people. People virtual network around that people.

Video player loading
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday one day after in-person early voting began. He encouraged Georgians to vote for Democratic Senate candidates in two critical runoffs next month that could give his party full control of Congress.CreditCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday urged Georgia voters to cast ballots for Democratic Senate candidates in two critical runoffs early next month, seeking victories that would give his party full control of Congress and help Democrats advance the agenda he promised on the campaign trail.

“You all did something extraordinary in November,” Mr. Biden said to cheers and honks at a drive-in campaign rally intended to minimize spread of the coronavirus. “You voted in record numbers in order to improve the lives of every Georgian. And you voted as if your life depended on it.”

“Well, guess what?” he added. “Now you’re going to have to do it again.”

A small group of President Trump’s supporters had also come to the rally, waving large banners. One of Mr. Biden’s supporters, Nicole Gordon, brought a small speaker and sang along as she played “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones — a not-so-subtle jab.

Still, the gathering had an easygoing vibe, with a multiracial, multigenerational crowd of Atlanta natives and some of the transplants who have flooded into the city in recent years.

Mr. Biden arrived in Atlanta a day after the Electoral College affirmed his victory, as in-person early voting began in Georgia for the elections that will determine whether Republicans lose their majority in the Senate. Hours before Mr. Biden’s arrival, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, acknowledged the president-elect’s victory for the first time, saying, “the Electoral College has spoken.”

To win Senate control, Democrats need to defeat both of Georgia’s Republican incumbents, Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, in contests that have drawn intense national attention and money. Mr. Perdue is facing Jon Ossoff, while Ms. Loeffler is being challenged by the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

The runoffs on Jan. 5 will have an outsize effect on the start of Mr. Biden’s presidency. If Republicans retain their Senate majority, the president-elect will face steeper challenges in securing confirmation for his cabinet and is likely to have to pare back ambitions on climate change, immigration, infrastructure spending and other priorities.

Mr. Biden narrowly won Georgia last month, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.

“Our message and his message is going to continue to reflect what he’s been saying all along,” Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, said of his visit to the state. “In particular, really talking about early voting and the importance of voting, talking about the importance of Georgia in his victory.”

Runoff elections typically see a substantial drop-off in voter interest, especially in comparison to a presidential campaign, but the first day of early voting suggested these high-stakes races were bucking that trend.

About 168,000 Georgia voters showed up to polling places on Monday, exceeding by tens of thousands the number of votes cast on the first day of in-person early voting for the general election in November. Fantara Houston, 42, an elementary school assistant principal involved in the Urban League in Atlanta, has been volunteering as part of the organization’s efforts to mobilize voters.

“We still have so much work left to do,” said Ms. Houston, who attended the rally with her mother. “It’s not just about the election. This is how we transform back into something that we want.”

President Trump held a rally in southern Georgia this month. Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for his campaign, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Mr. Ossoff and Mr. Warnock “represent the left-most fringe of the Democrat Party.”

“That Joe Biden would campaign for them is further proof that he is utterly in the grip of the extreme left,” he added, “which is the driving force in today’s Democrat Party.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Putin, Bolsonaro and other world leaders belatedly congratulate Biden.

Image
According to the Kremlin, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. a congratulatory telegram on Tuesday.Credit...Pool photo by Alexei Nikolsky

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s tepid and tardy congratulation to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. came on Tuesday, as Washington grappled with an extensive hack of federal domestic and national security agencies that U.S. officials attributed to Moscow.

The two developments this week — the discovery of a major cyberattack followed by Mr. Putin’s perfunctory jab at the reset button — defined the expected trajectory of U.S.-Russia relations under Mr. Biden, a longtime Putin skeptic far less warm and welcoming than Mr. Trump.

Mr. Putin, who has kibitzed frequently with President Trump by phone, waited nearly six weeks to offer his well wishes — by telegram. He had been one of the last major holdouts among world leaders in sending Mr. Biden the sort of congratulatory message that is routine in international diplomacy, even among adversaries. China congratulated Mr. Biden on Nov. 13, 10 days after Election Day.

Several other world leaders offered belated congratulations to Mr. Biden. President Andrzej Duda of Poland similarly waited until this week to congratulate the president-elect.

Mr. Biden also received statements of congratulations on Tuesday from two Latin American leaders; one came from the political left, the other from the right.

“Greetings to the President Joe Biden,” began a tweet from Brazil’s leader, President Jair Bolsonaro.

Mr. Bolsonaro, an unabashed admirer of Mr. Trump, went on to say, “I will be ready to work with you and continue to build a Brazil-USA alliance in defense of sovereignty, democracy and freedom around the world, as well as in trade integration.”

Mexico’s leftist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also decided the moment was finally right to reach out to Mr. Biden. He sent a letter congratulating the president-elect on his victory and broaching the idea of working together on economic development to reduce the incentive for migrants to leave home.

Both Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. López Obrador had been criticized for failing to congratulate Mr. Biden, even as many Latin American leaders stepped forward to do so.

Mr. Bolsonaro had echoed the baseless claims of voter fraud that Mr. Trump and his supporters promoted. Mr. López Obrador said he had wanted to see the U.S. legal process run its course.

Inauguration planners ask Americans to stay home on Jan. 20 and watch the historic event virtually.

Image
Construction workers preparing the inaugural stage at the Capitol this month.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

The committee charged with planning the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is asking the public to stay home on Jan. 20 and participate in virtual activities instead.

On Tuesday, the committee announced that it had hired production experts to plan “a new and innovative program” for Americans to safely participate in inaugural events, including a “reimagined” inaugural parade.

While the plan includes a swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, the committee said it would be a significantly scaled-down event because of the pandemic. Previous inaugurations have drawn thousands of people to Washington for a week of celebration.

“President-elect Biden’s unwavering commitment to the safety of the American people is our North Star as we plan an inauguration that protects public health while honoring inaugural traditions and engaging Americans across the country,” the committee’s executive director, Maju Varghese, said in a statement on Tuesday. He said additional details about health precautions and virtual participation would be coming soon.

The committee also announced on Tuesday that David A. Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and an adviser on the Biden transition, would also serve as an adviser to the planners.

The plans for a scaled-back inauguration are in keeping with Mr. Biden’s focus on demonstrating responsible behavior to minimize transmission of the coronavirus. He has said he would call on Americans to wear facial coverings for his first 100 days in office, a period in which he has vowed to get “at least 100 million Covid vaccine shots into the arms of the American people.” Vaccinations began this week as the nation’s death toll passed 300,000.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Dominion’s C.E.O. defends his firm’s voting machines to Michigan lawmakers, denouncing a ‘reckless disinformation campaign.’

Image
A demonstration in Atlanta of a Dominion Voting Systems machine in 2019.Credit...John Bazemore/Associated Press

A day after Michigan’s 16 electoral votes formally went to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., a voting machine manufacturer told state senators that he stood by his company’s work, and shot down unfounded allegations that the results may have been manipulated.

Dominion Voting Systems is the victim of “a dangerous and reckless disinformation campaign aimed at sowing doubt and confusion over the 2020 presidential election,” John Poulos, the company’s chief executive, told the State Senate Oversight Committee.

The company has come under fire from supporters and lawyers for President Trump, who have claimed without evidence that the company’s voting machines switched votes from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden.

Mr. Poulos assured the committee that his company had no connections to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, or George Soros, the billionaire financier who is a subject of conspiracy theories on the right.

“The comments about our company being started in Venezuela with Cuban money with the intent to steal elections are beyond bizarre and are complete lies,” Mr. Poulos added. “My company started in my basement, which happened to be in Toronto.”

State Senators, who are conducting an investigation into alleged reports of irregularities in the 2020 election, continually returned to tiny Antrim County in northern Michigan, where human error in the local clerk’s office related to updating the software in some vote tabulators caused votes for Mr. Trump to be inadvertently counted for Mr. Biden. The mistake was caught and corrected before the results of the vote were certified. Supporters of Mr. Trump have pointed to the error as proof of widespread fraud in the election.

“If all of the tabulators had been updated per our procedure, there wouldn’t have been any error in the unofficial report,” Mr. Poulos said. “Human mistakes happen, especially in busy election years when election officials work tirelessly through weekends and holidays for months on end.”

He dismissed as seriously flawed a report from a self-proclaimed election fraud expert on the Antrim County situation that has been cited by Trump allies.

Lawmakers also repeatedly asked about various other unfounded allegations, including that Dominion tabulators were connected to the internet, and consequently susceptible to hacking; and that the machines employed ranked-choice voting in Michigan.

“Would it be impossible for anything to be manipulated,” asked State Senator Michael MacDonald, a Republican.

“I don’t think so, but if it was possible, it would certainly be detectable,” Mr. Poulos responded, pointing to Michigan’s use of paper ballots. “If there was any manipulation of the system, those paper ballots would not match the machine totals.”

Although there is nothing the committee can do to alter the results, it plans to continue to investigate the election, with plans to subpoena the city clerks of Detroit and Livonia, two cities in Wayne County that drew national attention last month after Republicans on the county’s board of canvassers initially opposed certifying the election results because of minor irregularities.

Fauci says Biden and Harris should get vaccinated soon, and Trump and Pence, too.

Image
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, during President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s introduction of appointees to top health posts earlier this month.Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times

As the mass vaccination campaign entered its second day in the United States, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said it was his “strong recommendation” that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris receive a Covid-19 vaccine quickly.

“For security reasons, I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can,” he said on “Good Morning America” Tuesday. “You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January.”

Mr. Biden told reporters in Delaware on Tuesday that Dr. Fauci, who will be his chief medical adviser, “recommends I get the vaccine sooner than later.”

“I want to just make sure we do it by the numbers,” Mr. Biden said. “When I do it, you’ll have notice and we’ll do it publicly.”

A vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was given emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, and a second vaccine, made by Moderna, is expected to be authorized later this week. The first shots have generally gone to frontline health care workers.

Dr. Fauci said he would also recommend that President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence get the vaccine, even though the president has already had Covid-19.

“You still want to protect people who are very important to our country right now,” Dr. Fauci said. “Even though the president himself was infected and he has, likely, antibodies that likely would be protective, we’re not sure how long that protection lasts.

“So to be doubly sure, I would recommend that he get vaccinated as well as the vice president.”

At a briefing on Tuesday, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said that the president would “receive the vaccine as soon as his medical team determines it’s best,” but that he was not yet scheduled to do so. She added that “some senior administration officials” would take the vaccine publicly in the coming days in order to “instill that confidence” in it, but she did not say who would do so.

During a round-table discussion at a Catalent Biologics facility in Bloomington, Ind., on Tuesday, Mr. Pence said he planned to get a vaccine “in the days ahead” and would “do so without hesitation.” The company is working with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna to produce vaccines.

Ms. McEnany said that the number of White House staffers receiving the vaccine would be “a very limited group of people,” a shift that came after The New York Times reported on Sunday that there was a plan in place to try and vaccinate everyone who worked in the West Wing.

Mr. Trump said on Sunday night that he would delay the plan for senior White House staff members to quickly receive the vaccine.

“People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”

The acting secretary of the defense, Christopher C. Miller, received the vaccine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday. The Defense Department is one of the agencies coordinating Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible.

For some elected officials and public figures, getting vaccinated may be a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t proposition. On the one hand, doing so publicly could be useful as a show of confidence to members of the public, and particularly to minority groups who can be especially wary of vaccination and of government-sponsored programs.

Dr. Fauci, who is 79, has said that he will be vaccinated publicly for those reasons. In an interview with NPR on Tuesday, he said that he had not yet scheduled his shot, but would do it “as soon as I possibly can, because I’ve always said I want people to understand that I am very confident in this vaccine.”

But there is a flip side to that argument, particularly for lawmakers on Capitol Hill. With the vaccine in scarce supply, some in positions of power do not want to be accused of jumping the line.

The issue came up on Capitol Hill last week when Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Health Committee, acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal that he had sought advice from Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about how lawmakers should handle vaccination.

“If they want public figures to take the vaccine early in order to reassure Americans that it’s safe, I’m sure many of us will do that,” Mr. Alexander said he told Dr. Redfield. But he added, “I’m not going to do that on my own. I’m going to do it when the public health officials tell me it’s my turn.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Facebook lifts ban on political ads for Georgia runoff elections.

Image
Political signs in a yard in Columbus, Ga. The results of two runoff elections will decide which party controls the Senate.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Facebook said on Tuesday that it would allow some advertisers to run political issue and candidacy ads in Georgia, a change from its recent ban on political ads in the United States and just weeks before a major runoff election in the state could decide the future of the Senate.

Beginning Wednesday morning, Facebook said it would allow authorized advertisers to buy and run political ads targeted to people within Georgia. Only those previously authorized to run such ads on the platform will be permitted, a process that involves identity verification and other safety measures. Facebook’s ban on political ads will otherwise remain in effect for the remaining 49 states.

Georgia is the home to two consequential Senate runoff elections. Two Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are fighting two Republican incumbents, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. The results will determine which party will control the Senate when President-elect Joseph R. Biden takes office next year.

“In recent weeks we’ve heard feedback from experts and advertisers across the political spectrum about the importance of expressing voice and using our tools to reach voters ahead of Georgia’s runoff elections,” Sarah Schiff, a Facebook product manager in charge of political advertising, said in a company blog post about the change. “We agree that our ad tools are an important way for people to get information about these elections.”

The move follows months of contentiousness around political advertising on Facebook, which critics have said helps misinformation spread. For the past few years, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has said he wishes to maintain a largely hands-off stance toward speech on the site unless it poses an immediate harm to the public or individuals, saying that he “does not want to be the arbiter of truth.”

But before the Nov. 3 presidential election, Facebook took some steps to rein in misinformation. That included halting new ad purchases in the week before Election Day, and pausing all political advertising in the United States after the polls closed. The company has said the political ads ban is temporary, but it has not said when such ads will be allowed to resume.

Facebook said it planned to ramp up the ads program slowly in Georgia, beginning with those running political campaigns in the state, as well as state and local elections officials and state and national political parties. The company added that it would reject political advertising that is targeted outside Georgia or that does not concern the coming runoff election.

Google, which paused more than five million ads that referred to the presidential election after the polls closed, said last week that it was changing that policy and would permit advertisers to begin running election-related ads again “as long as they comply with our global advertising policies.”

As electors affirm Biden’s victory, the president-elect wants to ‘turn the page.’

Image
Stacey Abrams, who presided over the vote by Georgia’s electors, delivers votes for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to be counted at the State Capitol in Atlanta.Credit...Nicole Craine for The New York Times

In affirming Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the president-elect on Monday, members of the Electoral College firmly denied President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of a free and fair election by using legal challenges and political pressure on his Republican allies.

The process took place smoothly. But the president’s unrelenting efforts to discredit the election that he lost by more than seven million popular votes and more than 70 electoral votes have left the Republican Party fractured.

While Mr. Trump spent Monday tweeting about a “Rigged Election!” and “massive fraud,” — allegations that were quickly flagged by Twitter as “disputed” — Mr. Biden, speaking from Wilmington, Del., just hours after the Electoral College formally cast its votes, forcefully condemned Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept the election results.

“‘We the people’ voted,” Mr. Biden said. “Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history. To unite. To heal.”

In another positive development for Mr. Biden, who has pushed repeatedly for a bipartisan compromise on another economic stimulus to address the fallout from the coronavirus, a group of centrist members of Congress on Monday presented a pair of compromise measures totaling $908 billion intended to break the stalemate in negotiations.

The rare news of bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill came as some Republicans separated themselves on Monday from Mr. Trump’s charged complaints about the election. A Michigan congressman who voted for President Trump this year announced that he was severing ties with his party over its refusal to accept the president’s election defeat, while a Georgia elections official angrily denounced violent threats and harassment directed at elections workers and urged the president to “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.”

The president has increased his pressure campaign on members of his party in recent weeks, many of whom have fallen in line behind him out of fear for their political careers. On Monday, Attorney General William P. Barr, who had affirmed Mr. Biden’s victory, became a casualty as Mr. Trump announced that he would depart the Justice Department next week.

Despite a tenure where Mr. Barr had displayed a willingness to advance the president’s political agenda, he fell out of favor with the president in recent weeks after acknowledging that the Department of Justice had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The president’s closest allies in the House of Representatives are still eyeing a challenge to the Electoral College’s votes when Congress officially tallies them in a joint session on Jan. 6. The members of Congress, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, have their sights set on challenging five states — Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin — where they claim that widespread voting fraud occurred, despite the fact that all five states have certified that the results are valid and that there is no evidence of any widespread impropriety.

Constitutional scholars and even members of the president’s own party say the effort is all but certain to fail. But the looming battle is likely to culminate in a messy and deeply divisive spectacle that could force Vice President Mike Pence into having to declare once and for all that Mr. Trump has indeed lost the election.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Biden denounces Trump’s ‘unconscionable’ attacks on voting.

Image
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. speaks about the Electoral College vote certification in Wilmington, Del.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. declared that it was “time to turn the page” on the 2020 election in a speech Monday evening, just hours after the Electoral College formally cast its votes for him to replace President Trump on Jan. 20.

Just over a month before he will be inaugurated as the 46th president, Mr. Biden hailed the record-breaking turnout in the presidential campaign, calling it “one of the most amazing demonstrations of civic duty we’ve ever seen in our country” and saying that it “should be celebrated, not attacked.”

Mr. Trump has sought for weeks to reverse the outcome of the election, offering baseless and unproven accusations of voter fraud in the swing states that delivered the victory to Mr. Biden. The president has refused to concede while he and his allies have undermined faith in the country’s democratic system of governance.

Mr. Biden denounced the attacks on voting by the president and his allies, calling them “unconscionable” and saying that no election officials should ever face the kind of pressure they received from Mr. Trump in recent weeks to falsely proclaim the election to be fraudulent.

Anticipating potential complaints from Republicans, the president-elect noted that Mr. Trump and his legal team were “denied no course of action” as they challenged the legitimacy of the election before Republican-appointed judges, with Republican legislatures, and in desperate conversations with Republican officials at the state and local levels.

None wavered in their determination that the election was fairly conducted, Mr. Biden said.

In his speech, he expressed confidence that the defining feature of American democracy — its electoral process — would survive Mr. Trump’s assault.

“What beats deep in the hearts of the American people is this: Democracy,” Mr. Biden said. “The right to be heard. To have your vote counted. To choose leaders of this nation. To govern ourselves. In America, politicians don’t take power — people grant power to them.”

As he has for weeks, Mr. Biden kept his focus on the raging coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 300,000 people in the United States. Though emergency medical workers and others have begun receiving the first doses of a vaccine, Mr. Biden warned that the months ahead will be difficult.

“There is urgent work in front of us,” he said. “Getting this pandemic under control and getting the nation vaccinated against this virus. Delivering immediate economic help so badly needed by so many Americans who are hurting today — and then building our economy back better than it ever was.”

He also called for unity on a day in which electors in many states performed their duties under threat of violence.

“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation, a long time ago,” Mr. Biden added. “And we now know nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT