Joe Biden names communications team hours after rolling his ankle
Joe Biden has announced a game-changing communication team just hours after injuring himself while playing with his dog.
World
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US President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday announced an all-female senior White House communications team, in what his office called a first in the country’s history.
Among those named was Jen Psaki, who will serve in the highly visible role of White House press secretary.
Psaki, 41, has held a number of senior positions, including White House communications director for the Barack Obama-Biden administration.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have sought to emphasize diversity in their announced appointments and nominations so far ahead of their January 20 swearing-in.
“I am proud to announce today the first senior White House communications team comprised entirely of women,” Biden said in a statement.
“These qualified, experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better.”
In addition to Psaki, six other appointments were announced. They include Kate Bedingfield, who was Biden’s deputy campaign manager, as White House communications director.
Bedingfield had also served as Biden’s communications director when he was vice president.
Other appointees include Ashley Etienne as communications director for Harris and Symone Sanders as Harris’s senior advisor and chief spokeswoman.
Pili Tobar was named deputy White House communications director and Karine Jean Pierre will be principal deputy press secretary.
Elizabeth Alexander was named communications director for incoming First Lady Jill Biden.
The appointments do not require Senate confirmation unlike most cabinet-level positions.
The announcement came after Biden was taken to a doctor “out of an abundance of caution” on Sunday, a day after he twisted his ankle while playing with his dog, his office said.
Mr Biden, 78, suffered the injury on Saturday when he slipped while playing with Major, one of his two German shepherds.
“Out of an abundance of caution, he will be examined this afternoon by an orthopedist,” Mr Biden’s office said.
Mr Biden is to be sworn in on January 20, becoming the oldest president in US history.
Biden officials have said Major will become the first rescue dog to live in the White House.
‘TOTAL FRAUD’: TRUMP’S FIRST INTERVIEW SINCE ELECTION
US President Donald Trump has broken his silence with a 45-minute interview on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures.
Mr Trump called in to the show from Camp David, and in a rambling and sometimes desperate-sounding interview conducted on Sunday morning local time, he accused his own FBI and Department of Justice of even conspiring to ‘rig’ the election for Joe Biden.
“This is total fraud and how – the FBI and Department of Justice, I don’t know, maybe they’re involved – but how people are allowed to get away from this with this stuff is unbelievable,” an exasperated Mr Trump told Bartiromo in his first interview since Election Day.
“This election was rigged,” he said.
Mr Trump has barely spoken publicly or to press since the election, but has been very active on his golf courses, and on Twitter, where he repeatedly claims he won the election.
He has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden.
After the interview, Mr Trump tweeted excerpts of the audio in which he rants against the election results.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2020
Mr Trump insisted that he can prove voting machines were used by Democrats to fraudulently win the election for Biden – but he did not yet offer any solid evidence.
“They make it like we don’t have evidence, we have evidence all over the place,” he told Bartiromo.
“This is the greatest fraud in the history of our country from an electoral standpoint. … What’s bigger than this? This is the essence of our country. This is the whole ballgame. And they cheated, Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes,” Mr Trump, who got 74 million votes, said
He also said the US will never have another Republican president, senator or representative elected if Democrats are allowed to get away with “stealing” the election for Biden.
“If Republicans allow it to happen, you’ll never have another Republican elected in the history of this country, at a Senate level or at a presidential level … or at a House level,” Mr Trump said, appearing to reference the Republicans who had accepted the election results.
It comes as US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive their first presidential daily briefing Monday.
A classified intelligence briefing contains information about pressing national security issues, and is one of the first rights of a presidential candidate after winning the election.
BIDEN TO INTRODUCE ‘FIRST CAT’
The new first family already has two german shepherds and now they are set to get a cat.
CBS Sunday Morning teased more would be revealed ahead of an episode on the Bidens.
Dr Jill Biden has previously said she wants a cat.
“Well, I’d love to get a cat,” she told Fox 5’s Angie Goff.
“I love having animals around the house.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton adopted a stray cat, Socks, during their time at the White House.
George W Bush had three dogs and a cat, India, and Barack Obama had two Portuguese water dogs, Bo and Sunny.
Donald Trump is apparently the first US president since James Polk in 1849 not to have a pet in office.
WISCONSIN RECOUNT YIELDS BIDEN MORE VOTES
A recount in Wisconsin’s largest county demanded by US President Donald Trump’s election campaign has ended with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden actually gaining votes.
After the recount in Milwaukee County, Mr Biden had a net gain of 132 votes, out of nearly 460,000 cast. Overall, Mr Biden gained 257 votes to Mr Trump’s 125.
Mr Trump’s campaign had demanded recounts in two of Wisconsin’s most populous and Democratic-leaning counties, after losing Wisconsin to Mr Biden by over 20,000 votes. The two recounts will cost the Trump campaign US$3 million ($A4 million).
Wisconsin completed a partial recount on Sunday, which added to Mr Biden’s lead by an additional 87 votes ahead of Tuesday, when the state is set to certify results.
Mr Trump vowed to challenge the outcome in court even before the recount concluded.
Overall, Mr Biden won the November 3 US presidential election with 306 Electoral College votes – many more than the 270 needed for victory – to Mr Trump’s 232. Mr Biden also leads by more than six million in the popular vote tally.
After the recount ended, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said: “The recount demonstrates what we already know: that elections in Milwaukee County are fair, transparent, accurate and secure.”
It was more bad news for Mr Trump after a US federal appeals court on Friday (local time) flatly dismissed Mr Trump’s claim that the election was unfair and refused to freeze Mr Biden’s win in the key state of Pennsylvania.
In a scathing review of the Trump campaign’s arguments that the president was cheated in his November 3 re-election bid, three appeals court judges unanimously said that allegations of unfairness were not supported by evidence.
“Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so,” the court said.
In appealing a lower-court ruling, the Trump campaign claimed discrimination, the judges noted.
“But its alchemy cannot transmute lead into gold,” the court said.
It was the latest in more than two dozen court defeats around the country for the Trump campaign and Republicans who have alleged fraud and other misconduct contributed to the president’s loss.
Mr Trump persists in arguing that Mr Biden’s clear victory is invalid. “Just so you understand, this election was a fraud,” he told reporters last Thursday.
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