US Election: Joe Biden plans aggressive virus response, Mitch McConnell backs Donald Trump’s legal challenge

Joe Biden moves to take the political heat out of the pandemic, as the top Republican in the US Congress backs Donald Trump’s legal challenge.

US President-elect Joe Biden has ploughed ahead with the first meeting of a parallel coronavirus task force. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden says he will implement a far more aggressive plan in tackling the coronavirus pandemic than Donald Trump did as cases surge to new heights across the United States.

In his strongest comments yet on the pandemic, the president-elect moved to take the political heat out of the coronavirus, saying wearing masks and social distancing was not about politics.

Mr Biden was speaking on a day when drug company Pfizer said interim results showed its coronavirus vaccine to be more than 90 per cent effective and when total infections in the US passed ten million.

Speaking after announcing a 13-person coronavirus advisory board, Mr Biden pledged much stronger federal leadership to manage the response to the virus, including far greater testing and closer co-ordination with state Governors and city mayors.

“We’re still facing a very dark winter,” he said. “There’s a need for bold action to fight this pandemic.

“The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing.

“The bottom line, I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we’re sworn in on January 20 to get our kids back to school safely, our businesses growing and our economy running at full speed again.”

But Mr Biden said he would not be president until January at a time when the virus is surging with more than 110,000 new cases a day.

He said now was the time for all Americans to wear face masks and social distance for the sake of each other and their friends, families and neighbours.

He said there should be no political affiliation with these common sense health measures.

“It doesn’t matter who you voted for, where you stood before election day,” Mr Biden said.

“This election is over. It’s time to put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric that (is) designed to demonise one another. It’s time to end the politicisation of basic responsible public health steps like mask-wearing and social distancing.”

Mr Biden quoted projections that another 200,000 Americans could die of COVID-19 before Inauguration Day in January.

“It doesn’t matter your party, your point of view. We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months,” he said. “Not Democratic or Republican lives — American lives.”

McConnell backs Trump’s legal challenge

The top Republican in the US Congress said that President Donald Trump was fully entitled to challenge election results in multiple states, insisting that such scrutiny would not undermine democracy.

“President Trump is 100 per cent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the first congressional day of a lame duck presidency, with Trump refusing so far to concede to Democrat Joe Biden.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Picture: AFP

Trump and his team have insisted the race is not over, and multiple Republican lawmakers have urged the president not to concede, even as US networks projected Saturday that Biden won the election with at least 279 electoral votes, surpassing the 270 needed for victory.

The White House has launched legal challenges in several states where the race was close, particularly in pivotal battleground Pennsylvania, where Biden is ahead by more than 45,000 votes or about 0.67 per cent, according to networks.

If irregularities had occurred of a magnitude that would affect the outcome, “then every single American should want them to be brought to light.” And if Democrats were confident that the vote was fair, “they should have no reason to fear any extra scrutiny,” McConnell said.

“Suffice it to say a few legal inquiries from the president do not exactly spell the end of the republic,” he added.

“We respect the rule of law, we trust our institutions.” No credible evidence of widespread fraud or voter irregularities has emerged, according to election authorities in several states and from both political parties.

Trump has nonetheless repeatedly claimed that massive fraud has occurred, proclaiming Saturday on Twitter: “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” The 2020 races hinged on a handful of swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina.

I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020

Trump and his allies, in an effort to delegitimize the US media’s Biden victory call, have declared that thousands of “illegal” ballots were changing the results in these razor-thin races.

Fox News cut away from McEnany press conference

Meanwhile Fox News has cut away during a press conference in which White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed the Democrats were “welcoming fraud” and “illegal voting”.

Ms McEnany said the Democrats were the only party to oppose keeping observers out of count rooms, among other voter checks.

“You take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting,” Ms McEnany said.

Fox News cuts out of McEnany

Cavuto: "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just think we have to be very clear: she's charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue to show you this." pic.twitter.com/0koLBJasl9

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 9, 2020

Host Neil Cavuto cut into the press secretary’s remarks.

“I just think we have to be very clear: she’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this,” he said.

“But that’s an explosive charge to make, that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating, if she does bring proof of that of course we’ll take you back. So far she has started saying, right at the outset, welcoming fraud, welcoming illegal voting.”

Pfizer vaccine ‘excellent news’: Biden

Mr Biden said the Pfizer vaccine progress was “excellent news” but he cautioned that any vaccine would not be available for many months and that more needed to be done now to slow the surging infection rate in order to “get back to normal as fast as possible”.

“It’s clear that this vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months yet to come,” he said.

Pfizer has announced positive early results on its COVID-19 vaccine trial. Picture: Getty Images

The US is currently experiencing its largest surge in infections since the pandemic began.

The seven-day average for daily new infections is now 112,000 compared with 36,000 in mid-September.

Deaths have also risen to around 1000 a day compared with 700 in mid-October.

Housing Secretary Ben Carson is the latest senior member of the Trump administration to test positive for the virus. Mr Carson was one of several hundred people who attended an election night party inside the White House. Two other people who attended the same party have since tested positive.

Health experts warn that the coming months may be the worst for infections as colder weather forces people indoors where the virus can spread more easily.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Fox News

With AFP