Elected president Joe Biden
Joe Biden Judge Throws GOP Lawsuit To Close Georgia Ballot Boxes After Business Hours First responders serenade Fauci with ‘happy birthday’ Joe Biden could be president for middle class and all race workers MORE expressed optimism that he will be able to work with Republicans because of his years of working with them, despite a strongly divided Congress.
“My influence is, every senior Republican knows that I’ve never, never misled them,” Biden said on Wednesday during a phone call to several columnists, according to The New York Times. “I will never embarrass them publicly.”
Biden represents a conference deeply divided along party lines. Many Republican lawmakers have sided with them President Trump
Donald Trump Powell Says White House Assistants Won’t Let Her Help Trump Judge Throws Out GOP Lawsuit to Close Georgia Ballot Boxes After Business Hours Two-Chamber Group Urges Trump to Sign COVID-19 Aid Package MORE‘s unproven claims of electoral fraud.
But Biden told reporters on the call, including Times columnist David Leonhardt, The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, and The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald F. Seib, that he thinks the country is now in a different place where agreement and action possible on certain issues – including the environment.
“I will be able to do things about the environment that you all will not believe,” he said according to the Times. “I couldn’t have done it six years ago.”
He also said he is hopeful that twofold work can be done to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has infected more than 18 million people and killed more than 329,000 people in the US, and has created significant economic challenges across the country.
“There is a new sense of urgency among the general public,” he said. “The American public is being made painfully aware of the magnitude, damage and incredibly high cost of not taking the kind of action we’ve been talking about.”
Democrats will retain control of the House when Biden takes office in January, but the fate of the Senate is still undecided as Georgia starts two second races.
Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock face GOP Sens. David Perdue
David Perdue Ossoff, Warnock Every Rake In Over $ 0 Million Judge Throws Out GOP Lawsuit To Close Georgia Ballot Boxes After Business Hours Trump’s Call For K Checks Put Georgia GOP Senators Under Pressure MORE and Kelly Loeffler
Kelly Loeffler Ossoff, Warnock Every Rake In Over $ 0 Million Judge Throws GOP Lawsuit To Close Georgia Ballot Boxes After Business Hours Warnock Says He Will Focus On Georgians After Ex-Wife’s Video Turns Up MORE, respectively, in second elections on January 5.
If Perdue and Loeffler succeed, the GOP retains control of the Senate. But if Ossoff and Warnock defeated them, Biden would face less setbacks on his agenda, as the Democrats would control both chambers of Congress at the start of his presidency.
Biden may also face some challenges from his own party. He was among the more centrist candidates in the presidential election and was already pressured by progressives on a variety of issues.
When asked this week if he can fight the Republicans and members of his own party, Biden told the columnists, “I respectfully propose that I beat up everyone else.”
The president-elect noted that he surpassed Trump by more than 7 million votes and won the Democratic presidential nomination, defeating several prominent progressives, according to the Times.
‘I think I know what I’m doing, and I’ve been pretty damn good at handling the punchers. I know how to block a straight line to the left and make a right hook. I understand, ”he said.