In a wide-ranging meeting — his first since being named President-elect — Joe Biden revealed to NBC’s Lester Holt that he would consider appointing Republicans who voted in favor of Donald Trump to his cabinet, and he said that he was careful about removing somebody from the Senate, specifically Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, to put them in his cabinet or in another role in his administration.
“Have you considered for national unity selecting or assigning a Republican, somebody who decided in favor of President Trump?” asked Holt. “Indeed. We have many more plans to make. I need this nation to be united. The reason for our administration is once again joining. We can’t keep this destructive political dialogue going. It needs to end,” Biden said.
While a significant number of his first appointees and nominations were long-term civil servants, a considerable lot of whom served under President Barack Obama, Biden underscored that this is certainly not a third Obama term.
On delegating progressive senators like Sanders or Warren, Biden seemed to dismiss the notion. “Removing somebody from the Senate, removing somebody from the House, especially an individual of consequence is actually a troublesome decision that will have to be made.”
Biden emphasized that his priority when he assumes office will be handling COVID-19, however, noticed that he likewise means to send immigration legislation to Congress and act on climate in his initial 100 days.
Biden said that health care workers and first responders on call should be the first to take the vaccine.
The President-elect also said that he would not direct his Department of Justice to investigate Trump.
“I won’t do what this President does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to demand that something happen,” he said. “There are various investigations that I’ve found out about that are at a state level. There’s no way around that. However, I’m focused on getting the American public in a spot where they have some assurance, some guarantee, some information that they can make it. The middle-class and average people are being squashed. That is my focus.”
