CNN :
Joe Biden has spent these early days as President-elect pleading with Americans to pay attention to the relentless surge of Covid-19 — with deaths averaging more than 1,000 a day in the past week — as President Donald Trump continues to ignore the deepening crisis and touts the promises of yet-to-be-approved vaccines as his panacea.
The continuing power struggle between two men with diametrically different philosophies on how the US should handle the virus has left the nation rudderless at this critical moment — forced by Trump into a governing crisis as he refuses to let the transition to the Biden presidency proceed and pass on knowledge that could be critical to slowing the spread of the virus next year.
This past week, some Republicans in Congress finally seemed to take note of how the President’s blockade was threatening national security — as Republican Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota, among others, stepped up to say that the President-elect should begin receiving intelligence briefings as is customary during the transition of power.
But there is no indication that top GOP leaders are applying that same logic to the deadly increase in coronavirus cases, even though the number of patients in US hospitals hit an all time pandemic high last week, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project. As of Saturday, more than 69,000 Americans were hospitalized, according to the organization’s tallies.
Joe Biden has spent these early days as President-elect pleading with Americans to pay attention to the relentless surge of Covid-19 — with deaths averaging more than 1,000 a day in the past week — as President Donald Trump continues to ignore the deepening crisis and touts the promises of yet-to-be-approved vaccines as his panacea.
The continuing power struggle between two men with diametrically different philosophies on how the US should handle the virus has left the nation rudderless at this critical moment — forced by Trump into a governing crisis as he refuses to let the transition to the Biden presidency proceed and pass on knowledge that could be critical to slowing the spread of the virus next year.
This past week, some Republicans in Congress finally seemed to take note of how the President’s blockade was threatening national security — as Republican Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota, among others, stepped up to say that the President-elect should begin receiving intelligence briefings as is customary during the transition of power.
But there is no indication that top GOP leaders are applying that same logic to the deadly increase in coronavirus cases, even though the number of patients in US hospitals hit an all time pandemic high last week, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project. As of Saturday, more than 69,000 Americans were hospitalized, according to the organization’s tallies.
