Biden Is Projected To Be The President-Elect. Here’s How It All Went Down.

I’ve been monitoring many of the “Stop the Steal” Facebook groups that have cropped up this week, which attract tens of thousands of users and are chock full of misinformation about unsupported claims of voter fraud, partly spurred by Trump’s claims in the same vein. It’s worth noting that a common theme in these groups are supporters saying they will not accept the election results until they “hear it from Trump.” Trump’s silence only allows the distrust to simmer.

The Washington Post wrote about some of the executive actions Biden might take right as he enters office. They include:

• Ending the Trump-era ban on people coming to the U.S. from some majority-Muslim nations.
• Reinstating the DACA program that protected some undocumented immigrants from deportation.
• Reentering the United States in the Paris climate accords.

As you can tell from his speech tonight, COVID-19 mitigation is also going to be a big Biden priority.

I guess I have a brand, because my phone is exploding from everyone I know texting me about Biden talking about mandates. Maybe I should send him a copy of my book. In terms of the answer about whether we snap back to normal, I think that Biden’s use of the mandate idea is actually a way of side-stepping that question. As I note in my work, presidents use this idea when they’re embattled and struggling with legitimacy. I’m not sure how this will play out, but I don’t think polarization is going to end in the next 74 days. However, Biden is using that rhetoric, it seems, to define his presidency as a crisis presidency. He just mentioned Lincoln and FDR. These were not moments when the nation was united and at peace; they were challenging and incredibly divided times. But national leaders worked to address those problems because they were so pressing and the country depended on it.