President-elect Joe Biden unveils his plan at White House
President-elect Biden with wife Jill Biden
Finished with the victorious run through a historic turnout, 46th US President elect – after chaotic episodes of election day and the drama that followed couple more days – now has to give a plan for his 4-years at office as Americans have announced theirs. His running mate Kamala Harris would take the office as first Woman VP.
Biden after the hard-earned victory appealed for calm as Trump alleged irregularities and voter fraud in some states and vowed to challenged Democrat’s bogus mandate legally. The former VP made a pledge “to unite, to heal to come together as a nation”. Putting the bitter campaign rhetoric behind, the incoming President’s team announced the first steps in his transition plan would be more testing and American would be asked to use face-coverings as tackling COVI-19 would be his top-priority.
Trump has yet to concede and Biden’s triumph still remains a projected win with key states still busy in outstanding vote counts. Nevertheless, the Democrat, confident of his victory has already started to lay out plans before being formally sworn-in.
His plans include an array of executive orders aimed at scrapping controversial Trump policies. Which according to US media may be:
Rejoining the Paris climate accord which United States officially abandoned on Wednesday.
Reversal of the Trump administration’s decision to leave WHO: World Health Organization.
Ending the travel ban, his Republican predecessor slapped on seven Muslim nations.
Granting immigration status – with the restoration of Obama-era policy – to undocumented migrants who entered the United States borders as children.
On Saturday, during his first speech as president elect, Biden said it was “time to heal” the US and vowed “not to divide but to unify” the America. Addressing, agonized Trump supporters directly in a pacifying tone, he said: “We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies.”
The projected elections results make Trump the first one-term president since 1990s. The Republican’s camp has filed a slew of lawsuits against fraudulent voting practices in a number of states but elections officials claim that there is no evidence of voter fraud.
Meanwhile, former two-time Republican President George W. Bush congratulated the Democrat on his victory and also acknowledged the fairness of elections while praising fellow-Republican Trump for a well-fought campaign. However, other senior Republicans have so far refused to categorically accept the outcome of the balloting. Talking to Fox News, The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy said all recounts and legal challenges must be satisfied, adding: “Then and only then, American will decide who won the race.”
Biden’s plan for COVID-19 pandemic
The President-elect is looking to make drastic changes with regard to America’s response to coronavirus pandemic. The Republican repeatedly tried to downplay the seriousness of the disease and resisted extended restrictions including social distancing and wearing of masks in public.
Biden team vowed it would ensure All Americans get screened and will provide “clear, consistent, evidence-based guidance” to masses. Biden also wants to ensure the wearing of masks mandatory which the Democrat believes would save lot of lives. He plans to call on every citizen to don the mask when they are around people when they are outdoors and wants state governors and local authorities to make this obligatory. Biden, 77 at high risk of contracting the disease has regularly appeared in public with a masked face while his rival loved to flout the restrictions.
Joe Biden comes up with his plans
US cases rose by over 125,000 on Saturday for a third consecutive day and fatalities jumped to 1,000 for straight fifth day. More than 237,000 people have died in the country as it becomes the first nation to reach 10mn COVID-19 cases. Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the United States “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” as it enters winter. He appealed the public to spent more time indoors and avoid being surrounded by people outside their households.
The President-elect vowed to rehab the corona-hit economy by rebooting manufacturing, investing in infrastructure, ensuring the affordability of childcare and narrowing the wealth disparity among different ethnic communities.
The plan to cope with systemic racism
Apart from curbing the spread of infection, Biden aims to put an end to systemic racism which was something his predecessor was accused of stoking or at least failing to address as he notoriously appeased the white supremacist groups. Biden in a break with Trump era, wants a better access to affordable housing for black groups and fair treatment and welfare of workers within different ethnic communities and groups.
He also wants to revoke the chokeholds that fosters police brutality and has lately recorded high-profile deaths. In addition to that, the Democrat wants to stop the delivery of “weapons of war” to police force in the country and set up a national police oversight commission. Reducing the US prison populations – biggest in the world at 2 million – where most of the inmates are either black or belong to minority communities and working on “redemption and rehabilitation” of those in jails is also among his goals.
“Our criminal justice system cannot be just unless we root out the racial, gender, and income-based disparities in the system,” his plan says.
America in 2020 witnessed the heart-wrenching stories of police brutality and the protests and civil unrest in its aftermath. The footage of killing of African-American George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis stoked widespread global demonstrations against the racial injustices suffered by black Americans in US. Exit polls revealed racial inequality in US was the second biggest-factor determining the voting choice of people after economy in the Presidential elections.
