CNN Exclusive: Biden Says He Will Ask Americans To Wear Masks For The First 100 Days Of His Term
US President-elect Joe Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday that he will ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days after taking office.
«Only 100 days to wear masks, not forever. Hundred days. And I think we'll see a significant reduction, "Biden told Tapper during their first joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since winning the election.
Biden said that where he has authority, such as in federal buildings or in interstate transportation on planes and buses, he will issue a standing order that masks must be worn.
Biden's request to Fauci
The president-elect also said he asked Dr. Anthony Fauci to be chief medical adviser and part of his covid-19 response team when he begins his administration next year.
Biden said the conversation happened Thursday afternoon. CNN reported earlier in the day that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, had a planned meeting with Biden's transition team.
"I asked him to stay in exactly the same position that he has held during the terms of past presidents, and I asked him to also be chief medical adviser to me and to be part of the covid team," Biden told Tapper as part from the first joint interview with Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Biden added that Ron Klain, his new White House secretary general, knew Fauci well and had been talking to him "the whole time."
Fauci has had a complicated relationship with Trump since he began advising the Republican leader on the response to the coronavirus, and the president often disobeys the recommendations of Fauci and other health leaders. Those clashes have brought Fauci into the public spotlight, often seen as a hero on the left for his commitment to science in the face of Trump's comments and a villain on the right, especially among those loyal to Trump.
The strategy against the coronavirus
Biden described his plans for the coronavirus as a balance between ensuring Americans believe the vaccine is safe and instituting a series of plans that will slow the spread of the virus without shutting down the economy.
Biden also said during the interview that he will be "happy" to get vaccinated against the coronavirus once Fauci says it is safe and that he will receive the vaccine publicly to show his confidence in her.
"That is the time when I will appear before the public" and receive the vaccine, Biden said. 'People have lost faith in the vaccine's ability to work. The numbers are staggeringly low already, and what the president and vice president do is important. "
Biden's comments come a day after three of his presidential predecessors, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said they would publicly receive the coronavirus vaccine as a way to demonstrate its safety and efficacy.
"I think my three predecessors have set the blueprint for what to do, saying that once it's declared safe ... then we obviously accept it and it's important to communicate with the American people," Biden said.
Biden supports a bipartisan stimulus package
The former vice president also backed the coronavirus relief package that is being considered in Congress, calling it a "good start" but also saying that it is "not enough." The $ 908 billion bipartisan plan is a compromise between what the Democrats and Republicans wanted.
"I think it should be passed, and I think we are actually going to need more," Biden said. I'm going to have to ask for more help.
The transition from Trump to Biden has been a complicated affair, defined in large part by the president's denial of the election results, something most Republicans in Washington have indulged in despite the Trump team having failed. provided no credible evidence to support the claim of fraud.
Biden, a Democrat who has long enjoyed strong relations with Republicans in the Senate after serving decades in the legislative body, said that despite his public silence, "several sitting Republican senators" have called him in private. to congratulate him.
It gave those senators some leeway to keep quiet.
'I understand the situation they are in. And until the election is decided clearly in mind when the Electoral College votes, they put themselves in a very difficult position, "said Biden, adding that he believes that once the Electoral College officially decides the elections, a" significant part of the (Republican) Leadership »will recognize the obvious.
Biden laughed at a question about whether it is important for Trump to attend his presidential inauguration in January. Biden said it was Trump's decision to attend and "had no personal consequence for me," but added that it did matter symbolically.
It is "important in the sense that we can demonstrate an end to this chaos that he has created, that there is a peaceful transfer of power with the competing parties standing there, shaking hands and moving forward," Biden said. "What worries me, Jake, more than the impact on national politics, really worries me about the image that we are presenting to the rest of the world."
On foreign policy, Biden said it was "difficult to say to what extent" the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh would complicate his dealings with Tehran. A senior US administration official said this week that Israel was behind the murder of the scientist, someone who had been an Israeli target for a considerable time.
"The bottom line is that we cannot allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons," Biden said before criticizing Trump's dealings with Iran, including his 2018 decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. “He has retired to get something harder, and what have they done? They have increased the capacity to have nuclear material. They are approaching the ability to have enough material for a nuclear weapon. And there are the missile problems.
Biden added: “I think all of those things are going to be very difficult. But I know one thing: we can't do this alone. And that is why we have to be part of a larger group, dealing not only with Iran, but with Russia, with China and a whole range of other issues.
Concern about possible pardons
On his way out of office, Trump is expected to issue a series of pardons. CNN reported that he is considering reprieve for his adult children and lawyer Rudy Giuliani, in addition to a possible reprieve for himself.
Biden said possible pardons worry him about the "kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world sees us as a nation of law and justice." He added that his Justice Department "will operate independently on those issues" and on how to respond to Trump's pardons.
"I'm not going to tell you what to do and what not to do," Biden said. "I'm not going to be saying, 'Go prosecute A, B or C.' I'm not going to tell you. That is not the role. It's not my Justice Department, it's the people's Justice Department. So the people or the person you choose to run that department are going to be people who will have the independent ability to decide who is prosecuted and who is not.
Biden said his administration would not approach pardons in the same way as Trump. And he added: "It is going to be a totally different way in which we will approach the justice system."
Biden has yet to select an attorney general and is considering a variety of names. These include former Under Secretary of Justice Sally Yates; Doug Jones, the future former senator of
Alabama which was defeated in November; and Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama administration.
Harris echoed Biden's comments about the Justice Department.
"We won't tell the Justice Department how to do its job," Harris said. “And we are going to assume, and I say this as a former attorney general-elect in California (…) that any decision that comes out of the Department of Justice (…) must be based on facts, must be based on law, should not be influenced by politics, point ".
Biden chimed in: "And I guarantee you this is how it will be done."
Biden says he will keep his commitment to forming a diverse cabinet
A wide range of advocacy groups and Democratic organizations have been lobbying Biden's transition team for weeks to maintain their commitment to nominate a diverse roster of cabinet secretaries, especially for the remaining top positions of secretary of defense and attorney general. The effort has been led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a group Biden and Harris said they would meet next week, and the Congressional Hispanic Legislative Group. .
Biden said Thursday that he would honor the commitment.
"I am going to keep my commitment that the administration, both in the White House and outside the Cabinet, will look like the country," Biden said.
When pressed on racial and ideological diversity, Harris said, "We are not done yet ... We are not even half done."
Biden said he understands that groups like the NAACP and the Congressional Hispanic Legislative Group want to "push me" on committing to diversity, adding that their job is to "keep my commitment."
There were also a number of lighter moments in the interview.
Biden laughed at the small fracture in his foot that forced him to wear a walking boot, remembering how it happened when he was playing with his dog Major.
"The little cub dropped the ball in front of me for me to catch… and I caught the ball like that, and he ran, and I was joking running after him to catch his tail. And what happened was that he slipped on a rug and I tripped on the rug that he slipped on. That's what happened, ”Biden said with a smile. "This is not a very exciting story."
Harris, for his part, joked about how some of her husband's friends have started calling him "the second guy," even as Doug Emhoff is expected to be referred to as the "second gentleman."
