President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that the Trump administration has already begun to reach out to his transition team and described the effort as “sincere,” a day after a federal agency issued a letter to officially begin the transfer of power.
“We immediately got from the national security business to the whole area,” Biden said in an exclusive interview with Lester Holt on NBC News. “And they’re already working on my ability to get presidential day shorts, we’re already working on meeting the White House Covid team and how to not only distribute but get a vaccine that is distributed to a person who can get vaccinated, so I think , we will not lag behind the curve as much as we thought in the past. “
He added: “And I have to say the information was honest – it wasn’t desperate so far, and I don’t expect it.”
Biden also said his administration will not be a “third Obama cycle” because the world has changed so much during Trump’s years.
“This is not a third Obama term because … we are facing a completely different world than the one we faced during the Obama / Biden administration,” he said. “President Trump changed the landscape. He became America first, he was America alone.”
Check out Biden’s first interview since the election on NBC Night News with Lester Holt at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m., PT, and still this Wednesday morning.
President Donald Trump refused to admit he lost the competition, and Biden’s remarks came as his legal team continued to spray legal to overthrow the election – a strategy that struck this week as states began to justify their election results. After Michigan confirmed his findings on Monday, the head of the General Services Administration informed Biden that after weeks of delay, the formal government transition process had been approved.
Emily Murphy, the GSA administrator, said in a letter that Biden, whom he called an “apparent president,” now has access to millions of dollars in federal funds and other resources to begin his rise to power. In his letter, Murphy also denied that the White House had put pressure on him to delay the process.
Hours later, the president tweeted on Monday that he would “never allow fake votes and‘ Dominion ’, referring to a conspiracy theory that unfoundedly claims that a company that makes voting machines has canceled millions of Trump votes.
The refusal prevented Biden’s team from gaining critical access to government resources while the nation struggles with a growing number of Covid-19 cases and economic uncertainty. However, Biden began filling his cabinet and, during the delay, advertised staff for other senior positions. He held briefings with senior government officials and formed his own Covid-19 working group.
Trump and the GSA faced increasing pressure when an increasing number of Republican MPs publicly called for Biden’s access, citing national security concerns. Democratic lawmakers also began Murphy’s testimony before Congress.
