TED KAUFMAN

President Joe Biden’s grandkids say anyone who wants to take a crack at their “Pop” has to go through them first.

– President-elect Joe Biden signaled on Sunday he plans to move quickly to build out his government, focusing first on the raging pandemic that will likely dominate the early days of his administration. White House officials would not comment on whether they would cooperate with Biden's team on the review. A bipartisan group of administration officials from the Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton administrations on Sunday called on the Trump administration to move forward “to immediately begin the post-election transition process." Biden aides said the president-elect and transition team had been in touch with Republican lawmakers. Biden senior adviser Ted Kaufman said the transition team will focus on the "nuts and bolts” of building the new administration in coming days.

“The Biden team is the most experienced, most prepared, most focused transition team ever, commensurate with the challenges that Biden will face” Jan. 20, said David Marchick, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. Ted Kaufman, who briefly was appointed senator after Biden became vice president in 2008, is directing the transition. Also heavily involved in transition are the top architects of Biden’s presidential campaign, including senior advisor Anita Dunn. That could open the door for some former Republican officeholders who endorsed Biden’s campaign to be tapped for key slots. Before Biden can get that far, though, there are bigger questions about the overall tone of the transition.

– Joe Biden's transition team isn't waiting for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work. He also worked on Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008, and helped write legislation formalizing the presidential transition process. Clay Johnson, who headed Bush's transition team, said Biden’s advisers “can’t wait to be sure that the president-elect really is the president-elect. “And they should have started doing that last Tuesday night.”Biden's campaign has refused to comment on the transition process. The transition process formally starts once the General Service Administration determines the winner based on all available facts.

PHOENIX – Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Sen. John McCain, will advise Democrat Joe Biden's presidential transition team as it prepares for him to take office if he wins in November, the team announced Monday. McCain is the second Republican on the 16-member transition advisory board, joining Bob McDonald, the former Procter & Gamble Co. chief executive who headed the Department of Veterans Affairs under President Barack Obama. Biden's team says it is focused especially on the pandemic and its economic fallout. Ted Kaufman, one of five co-chairs of Biden's transition team, cited McCain's experience in business and philanthropy and her advocacy for women and children. Biden's transition team this month signed a lease for office space with Trump's General Services Administration.

The president should step down,” the Democratic presidential nominee said to applause from a CNN drive-in town hall crowd in Moosic, outside his hometown of Scranton. Biden faced a half-dozen questions about the coronavirus and a potential vaccine in the town hall from moderator Anderson Cooper and audience members. The town hall marked the first time that Biden had faced live, unscripted questions from voters since winning the nomination. Trump signaled he'd been watching the town hall before he took the stage for a rally in Misonee, Wisconsin, on Thursday night. “They’ve got cars ... it’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”Trump's ABC town hall was held inside a half-empty auditorium, with attendees socially distanced and wearing masks.

But it made plain his intention to test the reach of liberal populism as he tries to create a coalition that can defeat President Donald Trump in November. Trump and his Republican allies argue that Bidens positioning, especially his ongoing work with progressives, proves hes captive to a radical left wing. Whats different in 2020, he said, are the countrys circumstances a public health crisis, near-Depression level unemployment, a national reckoning on racism and the office Biden now seeks. The former vice president also has amassed an impressive slate of endorsements and built a stable of regular campaign surrogates, including all his major primary rivals. For his part, Trump accused Biden of plagiarizing his economic populism but also tarred Biden as a leftist who cant win.