“President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not institute another nationwide lockdown upon assuming office in January, emphasizing that a more targeted approach would be better for fighting COVID-19 while keeping the U.S. economy intact. Biden made the comments in response to a question from veteran NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker with reference to an earlier statement he made in an ABC interview in August. Biden said at the time that he would follow the advice of the scientific community in combating the coronavirus — a clear contrast to the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration, which routinely disregarded science. Biden told ABC’s David Muir that he would “listen to the scientists” and institute a shutdown if they said it was necessary. But Biden on Thursday said his earlier remark was a response to a “hypothetical question.” “The answer was I would follow the science,” Biden told Welker. “I am not going to shut down the economy, period. I’m going to shut down the virus. … I’ll say it again. No national shutdown. No. National. Shutdown. Because every region, every area, every community can be different. And so there’s no circumstance which I can see that would require a total national shutdown. I think that would be counterproductive.” Biden also outlined examples in which businesses could remain open. “In a state … where the infection rate is not as high, you can have a gymnasium open. It’s another thing to say it can only be open four hours a day with X number of people. The church I go to, … they don’t allow more than 40% of the people to come into the church. Those are rational decisions. It’s not shutting down everything. It’s calibrating based on what the threat is.” Another national lockdown may not be in the cards, but the president-elect’s team last week reportedly began phoning governors and mayors of major cities to encourage them to institute mask mandates that can stop the spread of COVID-19 while still keeping businesses open. Watch Biden’s full remarks below.
Biden Selects Marcia Fudge As Housing Secretary, Tom Vilsack For Agriculture
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["WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration,...
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["White House trade adviser Peter Navarro repeatedly violated a federal law that prohibits some members of the federal government from engaging in political activity, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel reported Monday...
Biden To Tap Rochelle Walensky To Lead CDC: Reports
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["President-elect Joe Biden plans to tap Rochelle Walensky, the head of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, as his incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Politico and R...
Trump’s Parting Gift To Biden: An Even Worse Catastrophe In Yemen
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["Video credit: Skye Fitzgerald, director, Spin Film As one of its final foreign policy acts in office, the Trump administration could take a step that would push millions of people in Yemen into starvation and prolon...
Biden Predicts ‘Bleak Future’ If Congress Doesn’t Act On COVID-19 Aid
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["WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is predicting a “bleak future” if Congress doesn’t take speedy action on a coronavirus aid bill amid a nationwide spike in the virus that’s hampering the country’s e...
Biden Hints At A Mostly Virtual Inauguration Ceremony: ‘The Key Is Keeping People Safe’
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["President-elect Joe Biden — who received the most votes in presidential election history — may also end up having the quietest inauguration in recent memory. Biden hinted at a toned-down ceremony devoid of the usua...
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["President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday he hoped President Donald Trump would attend his inauguration next month, at the very least to demonstrate to Americans that the country had moved beyond the “chaos that he’s ...
Trump To Sell Arctic Refuge Oil Leases 2 Weeks Before Biden Inauguration
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["U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Caribou migrate onto the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. The Trump administration will sell off rights to drill for oil in Alaska’s pri...