Biden to sign executive orders on Day 1
Published on: Monday, January 18, 2021
By: AFP
US President-elect Joe Biden, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, introducing nominees for their science team, at The Queen theatre in Wilmington, Delaware.
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden’s top aide said the incoming president would sign about a dozen executive orders on his first day in office, as police fearing violence from Trump supporters staged a nationwide security operation ahead of the inauguration.Incoming Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said in a memo to new White House senior staff that the executive orders would address the pandemic, the ailing US economy, climate change and racial injustice in America.
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“All of these crises demand urgent action,” Klain said in the memo.
“In his first ten days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world,” Klain added.
As he inherits the White House from Donald Trump, Biden’s plate is overflowing with acute challenges.
The US is fast approaching 400,000 dead from the Covid-19 crisis and logging well over a million new cases a week as the coronavirus spreads out of control.
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The economy is ailing, with 10 million fewer jobs available compared to the start of the pandemic.
And millions of Americans who back Trump refuse to recognize Biden as the legitimate president.
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Biden this week unveiled plans to seek $1.9 trillion to revive the economy through new stimulus payments and other aid, and plans a blitz to accelerate America’s stumbling Covid vaccine rollout effort.
On Inauguration Day Biden, as previously promised, will sign orders including ones for the US to rejoin the Paris climate accord and reverse Trump’s ban on entry of people from certain Muslim majority countries, Klain said.
“President-elect Biden will take action—not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration—but also to start moving our country forward,” Klain said.
Meanwhile, Washington was under a state of high alert after a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6.
The assault left five people dead, including a police officer.
Security officials have warned that armed pro-Trump extremists, possibly carrying explosives, pose a threat to Washington as well as state capitals over the coming week.
Thousands of National Guard troops have been deployed in Washington and streets have been blocked off downtown with concrete barriers.
In addition to the heavy security presence in the US capital, law enforcement was out in force at statehouses around the country to ward off potential political violence.
Mass protests that had been planned for the weekend did not materialise on Saturday, with security far outnumbering Trump supporters at several fortified capitols, US media reported.
In St Paul, Minnesota, for example, hundreds of law enforcement officers, some armed with long guns, ringed the Capitol with National Guard troops providing backup.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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