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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Jo Raphael: President-elect Joe Biden has an uphill battle on his hands

Jo Raphael
By Jo Raphael
Rotorua Daily Post·
10 Nov, 2020 08:00 PM2 mins to read

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President-elect Joe Biden. Photo / AP

President-elect Joe Biden. Photo / AP

OPINION:

US President-elect Joe Biden sure has an uphill battle on his hands.

Dealing with a potential squatter in the White House is only just the beginning.

With Donald Trump threatening a complicated scheme of legal action, stalling tactics, spreading misinformation and the reliance of Republican senators to remain on-side, it stands to reason that Biden's administration needs to brace for the coming months.

So it's no surprise that Biden has come out swinging with plans to reverse Trump's insular and isolationist policies that have impacted the Paris Climate Agreement and US relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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President Donald Trump. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump. Photo / AP

He's announced a series of executive orders, walking back some of Trump's most destructive actions including appointing a Covid taskforce to combat the disease currently infecting more than 100,000 Americans daily.

While this task could be like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube, it's good to hear someone accepting the problem and not downplaying it.

Trump's term doesn't technically end until January, but the "lame duck" period between the election and the inauguration will afford him plenty of time to cause havoc.

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Biden's administration must, frustratingly, wait this period out on the sidelines. But he needs to keep the pressure on.

It's refreshing to hear reason, compassion and talk of unity coming from Biden, instead of lies, nonsense, and vitriol.

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Trump even incredulously insisted Hurricane Dorian was headed to Alabama in 2019, contradicting meteorologists, and instead of walking back his comments, he doubled down, even re-drawing the path of the hurricane on a national weather centre map with a black marker – the incident infamously became known as "sharpie-gate".

Biden will be a breath of fresh air in the White House, no doubt. A new broom sweeps clean.

And with the past four-year-long Trump nightmare – including a hush-money payment to an adult movie star, impeachment, baseless claims on an Obama wire tap, mail-in ballot fraud and calling fallen veterans "suckers" and "losers", the US is finally waking up.

For someone who can't admit he was wrong about a hurricane - or concede ground on anything - I'm not surprised Trump refuses to concede the election, despite word that some in his family circle are urging him to do.

There is a fight ahead and Biden's administration must be prepared.

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