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Amazon expands push into health care with online pharmacy

InternationalNov 18. 2020An Amazon.com delivery truck sits in Richmond, California, on Oct. 13, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by David Paul Morris. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Angelica LaVito, Matt Day · BUSINESS, HEALTH, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS, HEALTH-NEWS

Amazon.com unveiled its biggest push into selling prescription drugs with the launch of a digital pharmacy and discounts for paying U.S. Prime members that sent shock waves through shares of drugstore chains and distributors.

The e-commerce giant on Tuesday unveiled Amazon Pharmacy, a section of its retail website and mobile application that lets people order medication. Shoppers can pay using their health insurance. Prime members who don’t use their insurance are eligible for discounts on generic and brand-name drugs on Amazon’s site or at about 50,000 participating pharmacies.

Amazon’s new offering comes more than two years after its $753 million acquisition of PillPack, an online pharmacy known for organizing prescriptions into packets. This expansion puts the Seattle-based e-commerce company into more direct competition with pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens, the two largest chains in the U.S.

The move also helps Amazon compete with Walmart and other big-box stores that already sell prescription drugs.

Analysts have long expected Amazon to dive deeper into health care in a bet the company can bring its digital real estate and logistical prowess to bear on a roughly $4 trillion industry in the U.S. with a reputation for inefficiency. The company rattled drug retailers with its PillPack acquisition, but Amazon has been slow to integrate the online pharmacy startup into its offerings.

The announcement Tuesday marks the first time that shoppers can order prescription drugs directly on Amazon. Previously, they were redirected to PillPack’s website. An integrated pharmacy removes one of the few gaps in Amazon’s offerings compared with major big box and grocery rivals, some of whom have long filled shoppers’ prescriptions in the same stores where they sold flat-screen televisions or cans of soup.

The discounts are a clear play for people who pay for their medications with cash, whether they are uninsured or are looking to save money. Strong demand for transparency and better deals have helped fuel the rise of discount card programs like GoodRx. Amazon will display both the price when using insurance and the price without. Infusing transparency into a system that has been frustratingly opaque for consumers could alter the supply chain.

“We designed Amazon Pharmacy to put customers first — bringing Amazon’s customer obsession to an industry that can be inconvenient and confusing,” said TJ Parker, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy and co-founder of PillPack.

Amazon’s push comes as consumers are shunning stores and ordering more items online, a trend the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated. With consumer behavior shifting, chain drugstores have already started rethinking their strategies. CVS acquired health insurer Aetna for $68 billion in 2018 and is adding more health services to its stores. Walgreens is dabbling with numerous partnerships to add items like groceries and mobile phones to its stores.

Amazon could find it difficult to quickly pry away customers from pharmacy chains. For many consumers, asking doctors to steer recurring prescriptions elsewhere is cumbersome, especially for those who rely on insurance to pay for their medication.

In some cases, such a switch might also require an office visit — at a time when Americans have been steering clear of the doctor’s office out of concerns about the pandemic. And the ubiquity of the biggest pharmacy chains means most consumers have one nearby, and shopping at them is an ingrained habit.

Amazon’s entry into a market doesn’t guarantee its dominance. Drugstores have long insisted that patients prefer to talk to their pharmacist at the counter, an experience Amazon will try to recreate digitally.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has positioned Prime, Amazon’s paid membership program, at the center of the company’s efforts to create loyal customers. What was originally an unlimited shipping program has grown in recent years to include video streaming, games and digital storage, and discounts at Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market.

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Trump administration announces troop cuts in Afghanistan, Iraq amid concerns

InternationalNov 18. 2020Forward Operating Base Lightning, a U.S. Army base in eastern Afghanistan, has been abandoned. MUST CREDIT: Photo by Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Washington Post. 

By The Washington Post · Dan Lamothe · NATIONAL, WORLD, POLITICS, NATIONAL-SECURITY, MIDDLE-EAST

The U.S. military will halve the number of troops it has in Afghanistan within the next two months and cut a smaller number in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump seeks to move closer to keeping a four-year-old campaign promise despite concerns that the decision in Afghanistan could undermine negotiations with the Taliban.

Acting defense secretary Christopher Miller announced the plan in a speech at the Pentagon, eight days after he took over for fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who submitted a classified memo to the White House recommending that the conditions on the ground in Afghanistan did not warrant such reductions.

Miller said the U.S. military will carry out Trump’s orders in both countries by Jan. 15, with the numbers reduced from about 5,000 to 2,500 in Afghanistan and from about 3,000 to 2,500 in Iraq. He took no questions from reporters but said he was celebrating the decision.

“We owe this moment to the many patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice and our comrades who carry forward their legacy,” Miller said. “Together, we have mourned the loss of more than 6,900 American troops who gave their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we will never forget the more than 52,000 who bear the wounds of war, and all those who still carry its scars – visible and invisible.”

The decision in Afghanistan comes about nine months after the Trump administration and the Taliban reached a deal that will remove all U.S. troops there by next May if certain conditions are met.

Senior U.S. military officials have raised concerns about the Taliban’s commitment to meeting the terms of the deal, citing a spike in violence against Afghans since the agreement was signed and ongoing questions about whether the militant group will break with al-Qaida.

Miller said the troops cuts are consistent with the administration’s established plans and strategic objectives, and based on continuous conversations with national security advisers in his Cabinet.

During his remarks, Miller did not mention Esper’s dissent but said he had spoken with military commanders in recent days, “and we will all execute this repositioning in a way that protects our fighting men and women, our partners in the intelligence community, our diplomatic corps, and our superb allies.”

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Deadlocked board in key Michigan county fails to certify vote totals by deadline

InternationalNov 18. 2020Supporters of President Trump protest the vote count outside of TFC Center where absentee ballots were counted in Detroit following Election Day. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges 

By The Washington Post · Kayla Ruble, Tom Hamburger · NATIONAL, POLITICS

DETROIT – In a party line vote, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers failed on Tuesday to certify its ballot count, punting the question of who won the state’s most densely populated region to a state regulatory board that meets Nov. 23.

The four-member board’s two Republicans voted against certification, while its two Democrats voted to certify the results. Joe Biden holds a lead of nearly 148,000 votes in Michigan, and Democrats here believe the partisan split of the board in Wayne County – home to heavily Democratic Detroit – simply delays an inevitable official victory for Biden in the state.

But in the short term the standoff provides a public relations advantage to the Trump campaign and a group of Republican lawyers and activists who have questioned the legitimacy of the count in Detroit, which went overwhelmingly for Biden.

The head of the Michigan GOP congratulated the board in a statement.

“I am proud that, due to the efforts of the Michigan Republican Party, the Republican National Committee and the Trump Campaign, enough evidence of irregularities and potential voter fraud was uncovered resulting in the Wayne County Board of Canvassers refusing to certify their election results. This action will allow more time for us to get to the bottom of these deeply troubling irregularities,” said Laura Cox, the state party chair. “The people of Michigan deserve fair, open and transparent elections, and we will continue to fight for just that.”

The state board – also made up of two Republicans and two Democrats – has until Dec. 13 to reach a final decision certifying the winner of the election statewide.

Mark Brewer, a leading Democratic election lawyer in Michigan, called the vote “outrageous, unprecedented, and racist.”

He said the two white Republicans on the Wayne County board “have essentially disenfranchised black voters.”

He said the Republicans on the board failed the county, state and their legal obligation. “They had a legal duty to certify,” a vote that was fair he said.

The head of the Michigan GOP congratulated the board in a statement.

“I am proud that, due to the efforts of the Michigan Republican Party, the Republican National Committee and the Trump Campaign, enough evidence of irregularities and potential voter fraud was uncovered resulting in the Wayne County Board of Canvassers refusing to certify their election results. This action will allow more time for us to get to the bottom of these deeply troubling irregularities.” Said Laura Cox, the state party chair. “The people of Michigan deserve fair, open and transparent elections, and we will continue to fight for just that.”

Democrats expressed anxiety in recent weeks that Republican legislators will seek to use a quirk in state law to appoint their own electors.

“By indulging partisan conspiracy theories and debunked claims of fraud, legislative Republicans are eroding our citizens’ faith in our democratic institutions,” Christine Greig, the Michigan House Democratic leader, said in an interview Monday. “Stubborn refusal to acknowledge the election result flies in the face of the oath that each of us swore when we assumed our offices in the Michigan Legislature. It all needs to stop.”

Because electors must be chosen by Dec. 8 under federal law, some supporters of President Donald Trump have argued that if there is no winner by that date, the legislature should try to name its own representatives to the electoral college.

At a rally outside state Capitol in Lansing on Saturday, pro-Trump activists urged the legislature to take control of the situation and select Michigan electors committed to the president.

“You’d better, and I mean better, send electors for Donald Trump,” organizer Kevin Skinner shouted. “We’re not going to take a stolen election.”

Whether the legislature could pick its own electors is the subject of an ongoing debate among legal experts of both parties.

Last week, Republican legislative leaders in Lansing issued carefully worded statements saying that the legislature should honor the will of the voters and not play a role in selecting electors.

Key GOP leaders also backed away from a call to audit the results before certifying.

“I don’t believe that enough votes are in question in Michigan to change the outcome, so I think we need to move forward” with county and state canvassing board certification, Michigan’s Republican former secretary of state, Ruth Johnson, told The Washington Post in an interview.

Johnson, now a member of the state Senate and chair of its Elections Committee, said she still thought an audit was necessary – but that it did not need to be conducted until after the votes were certified.

But the Trump campaign is continuing to press its case to try to block certification of the vote, despite multiple legal setbacks. On Monday, Michigan’s Court of Appeals ruled against two Republican poll watchers, days after a lower court judge had rejected their request to halt certification, saying he saw no convincing evidence of election fraud at the center where workers tallied absentee ballots.

A similar suit filed by the Trump campaign in federal court Tuesday is still pending. As part of it, the campaign filed 238 pages of affidavits from Republican poll watchers across Michigan. They contained no evidence of significant fraud, but included complaints about rude behavior or unpleasant looks from poll workers or Democratic poll watchers.

Retired Democratic U.S. senator Carl Levin said the Republican complaints about the vote process recalled an ugly history of racist and anti-immigrant attitudes.

“The Republican complaints smacked, as they so often do, of an anti-big-city bias,” he said.

The NAACP went to court Friday to intervene in the Trump lawsuit, calling the legal complaint “an all-out attack on votes cast by Black voters.”

Trump’s campaign has said that their lawsuits in Michigan are aimed at ensuring equal protection under the law, alleging Republicans were denied their rights.

“In this country, voting is a fundamental right and that means that there has to be uniform standards,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, speaking in a personal capacity at a briefing earlier this month about the legal challenge.

The focus on Wayne County’s vote – which effectively put Biden over the top in Michigan – has put a spotlight on the usually anonymous officials in charge of certifying votes.

The 83 county canvassing boards in the state are required by law to report certified numbers to the state canvassing board, which will meet Monday to begin its process.

Each county board is composed of two Democrats and two Republicans, appointed by their parties for staggered four-year terms. Before they certify the results, the boards spend two weeks reviewing poll books and vote totals and resolving any discrepancies that need to be corrected. The main task: to check whether the number of votes reported by the voting machines in each precinct match the number of voters recorded in poll books.

“We’re not here to talk about the van full of ballots that showed up at 3 a.m. or whatever people are alleging happened. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to look at those poll books,” Voorheis said.

On Friday, inside a building near the riverfront on Detroit’s east side, a handful of sheriff’s deputies were posted at the entryway screening guests for coronavirus symptoms while guarding the Wayne County Board of Canvassers office, where about a dozen workers have been stationed nearly every day since Nov. 3 working to complete the certification process.

At least a half dozen observers from both political parties, as well as independent groups such as the League of Women Voters, sat quietly at their own tables on the edge of the room with a view of the process.

At one point in the evening, sheriff’s deputies had to mediate when a brief dispute broke out after two observers tied to conservative groups, who had been taking photos of the canvassing process, lodged a complaint about a Democratic observer taking a selfie with them in the background.

The flare-up was a sign of the unusual tension that has marked this year’s canvassing process.

“I’ve been doing voter protection since 2008. I’ve never, ever seen any of this. Ever,” said Alec Gibbs, a Flint attorney who does voter protection work for the Genesee County Democratic Party. “We had no reason to believe that county canvassing boards would become flash points.”

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Former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death seeks to bar evidence of past neck and body restraints

InternationalNov 18. 2020Flameless candles are illuminated after being placed at the memorial for George Floyd outside Cup Foods to celebrate what would have been Floyd’s 47th birthday on Oct. 14 in Minneapolis. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Joshua Lott. 

By The Washington Post · Holly Bailey · NATIONAL, COURTSLAW, RACE

MINNEAPOLIS – Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who held his knee at George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes and is now charged with his murder, has asked the judge in his case to block prosecutors from introducing evidence of his allegedly having used similar neck and body restraints on other suspects. Chauvin’s lawyer argues in new court documents that his “use of force” in those cases was legal and cleared by police supervisors.

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Prosecutors have said they want to cite eight incidents from Chauvin’s 19-year career as a Minneapolis police officer to show a pattern of excessive force and behavior similar to the Memorial Day encounter that left Floyd dead. Prosecutors want to include four cases from 2014 to 2019 in which they claim Chauvin restrained suspects “beyond the point when such force was needed.”

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In a court filing Monday, Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, asked Hennepin County District Judge Peter A. Cahill, who is overseeing the case, to block that proposed evidence, arguing that his client had used approved force and, after routine investigations, had been essentially “acquitted by MPD supervisors of applying force in a manner that was either unreasonable or unauthorized.”

“The state attempts to characterize Mr. Chauvin’s use of force as ‘unreasonable’ or ‘beyond what was needed,'” Nelson wrote, noting that Chauvin had reported his use of force in each of the incidents. “And in every single one, it was determined by a supervisor that Mr. Chauvin’s use of force was reasonable in the circumstances and authorized by law and MPD policy.”

Prosecutors have argued that Chauvin’s behavior while on the force is relevant because they could use it to rebut defense claims that he used “reasonable force” in restraining Floyd, who died May 25 while officers pinned him, face down and handcuffed, on a South Minneapolis street. Officers had been investigating a 911 call about a counterfeit $20 bill that had been passed at a local convenience store, and they were trying to interview Floyd and put him into a police vehicle, which Floyd resisted, saying he was afraid of being in a confined space.

During an ensuing struggle with police, Floyd was placed on the ground, where Chauvin pressed his knee into the man’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd repeatedly complained of struggling to breathe. Floyd ultimately lost consciousness and a pulse while restrained. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

One of the cases prosecutors have sought to mention at Chauvin’s trial is a July 2019 domestic disturbance incident in which a caller reported that a man had poured gasoline throughout a house and was armed with a knife. In seeking to subdue the suspect and keep him from reaching for scissors on a nearby table, Chauvin allegedly “delivered a single kick” to the man’s midsection and then applied a neck restraint, causing the man to lose consciousness.

Chauvin later told a supervisor that he realized the man had passed out and placed him in a “recovery position” until he “came to,” prosecutors said, something they say the officer did not do when Floyd complained of struggling to breathe.

In his motion to block the incident from being cited at trial, Nelson argued the case is not relevant or similar to Chauvin’s encounter with Floyd and should not be allowed as evidence.

In what appears to be a new defense argument, Nelson repeatedly claimed Chauvin did not use a neck restraint on Floyd but rather what he called “body weight control techniques.”

That is a shift from previous defense motions, in which Nelson defended how Chauvin handled Floyd by arguing that he used an approved neck restraint. In an August motion to dismiss charges, Nelson filed exhibits that included past department training materials with photos demonstrating the knee-on-neck hold similar to the one Chauvin used on Floyd and argued that his client “did exactly as he was trained to do.”

Prosecutors said in a filing Monday that they want to show the jury body-camera video of one of the incidents: a September 2017 encounter where Chauvin allegedly hit a 14-year-old boy in the head with a flashlight during a domestic assault investigation and then restrained him with a knee to the back for 17 minutes even though the child was handcuffed and complained of struggling to breathe. According to prosecutors, the boy’s mother, who had called police, repeatedly asked Chauvin to get off her son, who was bleeding from the ear and later received stitches. Prosecutors described Chauvin’s behavior as “far more violent and forceful” than his police report had implied.

Three of the incidents that prosecutors have sought to use as evidence include encounters in which Chauvin was working as an off-duty police security guard, including in February 2015, when he allegedly pushed a man against a wall and used a neck restraint before placing him in a prone position on the ground.

Prosecutors have said they want to cite that case, in part, because it “demonstrates the common method Chauvin employs when dealing with individuals larger than himself – Chauvin allegedly described the man in police records as “a large individual (with a) muscular type build.” They also said it shows Chauvin regularly used such techniques with “suspected intoxicated people who Chauvin believes are not perfectly complying with his demands.”

They wrote that the evidence shows “a repeating pattern of very similar conduct . . . and demonstrates that his use of force was not reasonable.”

Nelson defended his client’s behavior, arguing that Chauvin “was the only officer on the scene” in an incident that happened late at night and that he behaved “as his MPD training had taught him.” On this instance and the others, Nelson said prosecutors had offered no evidence that Chauvin’s actions violated department policy or the law.

Chauvin’s “modus operandi was simply that of a Minneapolis Police officer performing his duties and reacting to the circumstances,” Nelson wrote. “The state’s attempt to characterize these incidents as evidence of some kind of ill will intent or common scheme of violence that is somehow unique to Chauvin is specious, at best.”

He argued that allowing the incidents to be cited as evidence before a jury would violate Minnesota legal precedents on how past acts can and cannot be used in current cases. Nelson wrote that he believes prosecutors want to use past incidents to “illegally prove propensity,” which he argued is not allowed under state law and would be “unfairly prejudicial.”

Chauvin is facing second-degree unintentional murder and manslaughter charges, while three other officers at the scene – J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane and Tou Thao – are charged with aiding and abetting. All four are set to be tried together in March.

In a separate motion, prosecutors asked Cahill to reconsider his recent decision to allow audio and visual coverage of the upcoming trial, which the judge said was necessary because of the anticipated need to accommodate social distancing requirements due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Monday’s request did not specify a reason, but prosecutors have argued against such coverage in the past, citing concerns that it might impact court proceedings.

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In rare rebuke of Trump, NATO chief warns against troop cuts in Afghanistan

InternationalNov 18. 2020

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

By The Washington Post · Adam Taylor, Michael Birnbaum · NATIONAL, WORLD, NATIONAL-SECURITY, WHITEHOUSE, ASIA-PACIFIC, EUROPE

Afghanistan could once again become a haven for international terrorist organizations that seek to harm Western countries if foreign forces leave too abruptly, the head of NATO said Tuesday in a rare rebuke of U.S. policy, following reports that the Trump administration would withdraw thousands of troops from the country.

“We now face a difficult decision. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, and no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than necessary,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. “But at the same time, the price for leaving too soon or in an uncoordinated way could be very high.”

“Afghanistan risks becoming once again a platform for international terrorists to plan and organize attacks on our homelands,” he said. “And ISIS could rebuild in Afghanistan the terror caliphate it lost in Syria and Iraq,” Stoltenberg added, referring to the Islamic State militant group.

The warning, though couched in diplomatic language, marked the sharpest tone that Stoltenberg has taken toward President Donald Trump. The United States is by far the most powerful member of NATO, and Trump has repeatedly clashed with the other partners and privately threatened to quit the military alliance altogether.

U.S. officials said the White House is planning to roughly halve the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, from around 5,000 to 2,500, by the time President-elect Joe Biden assumes office on Jan. 20. The officials have said that the announcement could be made as early as this week.

A U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan would gut NATO operations in the country. Although the military alliance has roughly 12,000 troops from 38 countries in Afghanistan, it is reliant on U.S. personnel and infrastructure. The expectation at NATO is that if the United States pulls out, everyone else will also, given the importance of U.S. logistical capabilities in Afghanistan.

Under the leadership of the fundamentalist Taliban group, Afghanistan became a safe haven for Islamist extremists in the 1990s. After the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. airstrikes and Afghan resistance forces ousted the Taliban from power for hosting Osama bin Laden.

NATO forces poured in after the Taliban fell, and in 2003 a U.S.-led NATO mission took control of international security efforts in the country. In his statement Tuesday, Stoltenberg emphasized the high cost that NATO allies have paid. “Hundreds of thousands of troops from Europe and beyond have stood shoulder to shoulder with American troops in Afghanistan, and over one thousand of them have paid the ultimate price,” he said.

The U.S. election results were greeted with relief inside NATO’s glassy new headquarters in Brussels this month. Many diplomats feared that Trump, given a second term, would make good on private threats to pull the United States out of the alliance.

Stoltenberg – a former Norwegian prime minister who is light-years away from Trump in temperament – has made it his mission to be a Trump whisperer since 2017. Keep Trump happy, Stoltenberg’s advisers sometimes said, and keep NATO going.

Even in private conversation, Stoltenberg has refused to criticize the man who shoved aside Montenegro’s prime minister at a summit, routinely misrepresents the NATO’s spending pledges and has appeared more eager to befriend the alliance’s main foe, Russian President Vladimir Putin, than his fellow democratically elected leaders.

Days before the 2016 election, Stoltenberg told a reporter with exasperation that Trump had exerted no influence on European defense spending, which was already rising following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

After the election, however, NATO started boasting about increased defense spending since 2016, which was a way to write Obama out of the history and give Trump an easy public relations victory. When Stoltenberg was asked about the tactic, he would simply smile.

Tuesday’s statement appeared to be the sharpest attempt yet to push back at Trump’s go-it-alone impulses on defense issues that affect many NATO militaries. It also reflects concerns that despite Trump’s push for a peace deal with the Taliban, Afghanistan is still a risk to international security.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull troops out of Afghanistan, part of a broader promise to roll back open-ended U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts. His proposals have won cautious praise from critics on the left who accuse the U.S. military of ongoing overreach abroad. But foreign policy elites generally oppose rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan, fearing for the future of the country the departing troops would leave behind.

Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the United Nations’ Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Team, told the BBC in October that al-Qaeda and the Islamic State could seek to exploit a weak Afghan state. “Both of those groups have an avowed aspiration to pose an international threat,” he said.

In a report submitted to the U.N. Security Council in May, he warned that al-Qaeda maintains a presence in the country and a relationship with the Taliban, and that peace would rely on commitments by the Taliban to oppose international terrorism.

“The challenge will be to secure the counterterrorism gains to which the Taliban have committed, which will require them to suppress any international threat emanating from al-Qaida in Afghanistan,” he wrote.

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How a Biden presidency could advance transgender rights – and lead to backlash

InternationalNov 18. 2020With her win in 2017 for a Virginia House of Delegates seat, Danica Roem, D-Prince William, became the first transgender legislator elected in the United States. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jahi Chikwendiu. 

By The Washington Post · Samantha Schmidt, Emily Wax-Thibodeaux · NATIONAL, POLITICSIn the weeks leading up to the election, the calls to Julian Harris’s office kept coming in, and the waitlist kept growing.

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There was an urgency to the phone calls. Harris, a licensed independent clinical social worker in Silver Spring, Md., who caters to the LGBTQ community, said many of the callers were transgender people seeking counseling services, fearing another four years of a Trump administration that has repeatedly attacked the rights of their community. Other clients were rushing to get legal name changes or surgeries scheduled before the election, worrying it could become more difficult in a second Trump term. At Whitman-Walker, an LGBTQ-focused community health center in D.C., the director of gender-affirming services estimated a 75% increase in the number of requests from transgender people seeking referrals for surgery in the weeks before the election.

But on Nov. 7, when major news outlets called the election for Joe Biden, the transgender community watched as the president-elect specifically mentioned them in his victory speech, the first U.S. president-elect in history to do so.

“All of a sudden, they slept well that night,” Harris, who is a transgender man, said his clients told him. “A weight had been lifted that they didn’t even realize was so heavy.”

It was only one word, but the mention of the transgender community in Biden’s acceptance speech was a symbolic shift from a presidential administration that has spent the past four years repeatedly erasing protections for transgender people – in health care, federal employment, federal prisons, homeless shelters and other housing services receiving federal funds.

The Trump administration has banned transgender members of the military and rescinded Obama-era guidance that offered protections for transgender students. It has declared that the federal Title IX rules require schools to ban transgender students from participating in school sports corresponding to their gender identity.

“Over the course of these four years I think a lot of trans people have looked on in horror,” said Gillian Branstetter, a transgender advocate and media manager at the National Women’s Law Center. “It looked to many that we were a bigger priority to our enemies than we were for our friends.”

The incoming Biden administration has already committed to reversing all of those actions and has released a lengthy platform touching on issues that were until recently rarely mentioned by national politicians. Biden has pledged to work to end what he calls an “epidemic” of violence against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color. He has committed to expanding access to health care for the LGBTQ community and ensuring their fair treatment in the criminal justice system. He plans to prioritize enacting the Equality Act, guaranteeing LGBTQ protections under civil rights laws, and to collect data on a community that advocates say has long existed in a vacuum of information.

“I think Joe Biden knows the trans community in a way that maybe previous presidents have not,” said Ruben Gonzales, vice president of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, which works to advance LGBTQ public leaders.

Beyond his policy plans, Biden has touted his relationships with the transgender community. Years ago, he wrote the foreword to a memoir by Sarah McBride, who this month was elected the country’s first transgender state senator, in Delaware. In 2017, the former vice president called Virginia Del. Danica Roem to congratulate her on the night that she became the first openly transgender elected official.

But not all transgender advocates are convinced by Biden’s symbolic gestures and campaign promises. Many feel his policies won’t go far enough to address the systemic problems facing transgender people – especially transgender women of color – in housing, employment and the criminal justice system.

Others fear the conservative resistance to the transgender community will continue long after President Donald Trump leaves office, in state houses and in the courts.

“As far as political problems go, they are far bigger than Trump,” Branstetter said. “Trump’s exit won’t erode them for us.”

– – –

While the Trump administration froze or reversed many of the rights and protections the transgender community gained under President Barack Obama, it also galvanized a swell of transgender activism, including transgender young people and their parents testifying in legislatures across the country, and a growth in transgender visibility and acceptance.

More than 6 in 10 Americans said they have become more supportive toward transgender rights compared with five years ago, according to one 2019 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. More than 8 in 10 Americans favor protections for LGBTQ people in jobs, public accommodations and housing, and more than two-thirds of Americans favor allowing transgender people to serve in the U.S. military, support that has slightly increased since 2017, according to the PRRI.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law barring employment discrimination on the basis of sex also applies to gay and transgender people, a landmark victory that could ripple across many realms of American life. That same month, an estimated 15,000 people marched in a striking show of support for Black transgender lives in New York City. And in this year’s election, a record number of LGBTQ candidates ran for office, including several transgender people elected to state legislatures.

Now, advocates are calling on Biden to appoint LGBTQ people – including transgender people – to positions in the White House.

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, the first openly transgender appointee in the Obama White House, served as the primary liaison to the LGBTQ community and as an outreach and recruitment director in the Presidential Personnel Office. She said the Obama administration appointed six transgender people to roles in the White House over the years, and she hopes Biden will go further. “I’m not going to be surprised when we hear about our first nonbinary appointee,” she said. “I would expect it.”

Biden has named to his transition team Shawn Skelly​, former special assistant to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and coordinator of the Defense Department Warfighter Senior Integration Group. Skelly was the first transgender veteran to be appointed by a U.S. president. The Victory Institute plans to provide the Biden transition team with a list of suggested LGBTQ leaders, in the hopes of seeing the first LGBTQ person in a Cabinet-level position. Among them is Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who has been leading the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Transgender advocates in the nation’s capital, long a leading hub of LGBTQ resources, say they hope the Biden administration helps support local centers that cater to homeless and vulnerable transgender people. “We appreciate the solidarity, we appreciate all those things, but at the end of the day the only thing that makes a difference is the resources we need to survive every day,” said Ruby Corado, founder of Casa Ruby, a center in D.C. for LGBT youth.

Tamika Spellman, a longtime advocate for transgender sex workers in the District, said she sees Biden as a “cop lover” who supports more policing, instead of less. “If they think that’s what is going to be the answer to the issue, that is not it,” Spellman said. “The answer to the issue is housing, resources, job opportunities.”

– – –

Beyond Washington, advocates are already seeing echoes of the Trump administration in Republican-led state houses and in conservative courts. Sarah Warbelow, head of the Human Rights Campaign’s team of lawyers and fellows focused on federal, state and municipal policy, said anti-LGBTQ bills are already being filed for the coming year. “What we have seen historically is that when a conservative state house does not like a federal policy,” she said, “they will then try at the state level to discriminate.”

She’s also keeping a close eye on judges confirmed under the Trump administration who “have extreme views that are outside the mainstream and the understanding of constitutional law.”

In Texas, state Rep. Steve Toth, R-Spring, has filed a draft of a bill to classify gender-affirming hormones and surgeries as child abuse when performed on minors. It follows a wave of similar proposals in state legislatures across the country earlier this year.

“A doctor’s first covenant is do no harm,” Toth said in an interview. “These children are too young to be taking hormones when the vast majority are confused and end up going back. These are 7-year-old and 11-year-old kids, picking up ideas from social media and being confused.”

The House Bill (HB) 68 would amend the definition of child abuse in the Texas Family Code to include the removal of healthy tissue, the prescription of puberty-blocking hormones and sterilization surgeries if the procedures aim to “change or affirm a child’s perception of the child’s sex.” The act also targets mental health professionals “attempting to change or affirm a child’s sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.”

Susan Williams, an activist in South Dakota and parent of a transgender child, said she hopes state lawmakers do not direct anger over election results against the community. “Transgender South Dakotans have been under attack in our state house since 2014, if not earlier,” Williams said. “This deeply harmful trend has continued regardless of the national political landscape or which party the president belongs to.”

Legislation at the state level can also have unanticipated effects, experts say. Public opinion research shows those debates can actually lead to greater acceptance, said Andrew Flores, an assistant professor of government at American University whose research focuses in part on attitudes of the LGBTQ community. He cited research showing that in states where people were asked to vote in ballot measures banning same-sex marriage, attitudes shifted in favor of same-sex marriage at a stronger pace over time. Even anti-LGBTQ backlash can ultimately be “a source of potential change,” he said.

From LGBTQ issues to immigration to racial justice, the Trump administration galvanized liberal activism across the country, in marches and protests and get-out-the-vote efforts. The question for some transgender advocates is whether that level of energy will continue after Trump leaves the White House.

“When there’s not this big personality attracting attention, when there’s not this chaotic circus at the top,” Branstetter said, “are people going to be paying as much attention?”

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Shelton’s Fed nomination blocked in Senate

InternationalNov 18. 2020Judy Shelton, President Donald Trump’s nominee for governor of the Federal Reserve, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrew Harrer 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Laura Litvan, Erik Wasson · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, POLITICS, CONGRESS

Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board was blocked in the Senate Tuesday, a stunning defeat for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and a blow to President Donald Trump’s drive to reshape the U.S. central bank before he leaves office.

After covid-19 exposure forced two Republican senators into quarantine, the GOP was left short of enough votes needed to overcome united Democratic opposition.

Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine joined with 47 Democrats and two independents in a 50-47 vote against advancing Shelton’s nomination. Once the outcome was clear, McConnell switched his vote to no, a tactical move that would allow him to bring the nomination up for reconsideration later.

McConnell’s plans to confirm Shelton were blown up Tuesday morning when Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced he would be in quarantine after exposure to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also is in quarantine. Both were expected to back Shelton.

Shelton, 66, a former informal adviser to Trump, was long known for her advocacy of a return to the gold standard, ultra-hawkish views on inflation and opposition to federal deposit insurance. She provoked further controversy and opposition by abandoning those views and calling for interest-rate cuts to align herself with Trump as she emerged as a candidate for a Fed post.

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Category 4 Hurricane Iota slams into Nicaragua

InternationalNov 17. 2020

By The Washington Post · Anna-Catherine Brigida, Anthony Faiola · WORLD, SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT, THE-AMERICAS

MANAGUA – Hurricane Iota, the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic this late in the year, slammed into the Nicaraguan coast late Monday, bringing catastrophic winds and pounding rains to a swath of Central America still reeling from the destructive force of Hurricane Eta nearly two weeks earlier.

Also the most powerful storm of the extraordinarily active 2020 hurricane season, Iota made landfall at 10:40 p.m. EDT in the town of Haulover, before plowing into fishing and farming towns in northeastern Nicaragua. The storm slightly weakened from a Category 5 to an extremely intense Category 4 as it came ashore, with sustained winds of 155 mph.

Iota came ashore only 15 miles south of where Eta made landfall earlier this month, on Nov. 3.

In Puerto Cabezas, about 30 miles north from center of the storm, eyewitnesses said strong winds were bending coconut palms and lower lying areas had started to flood by late Monday afternoon, leading more residents to scramble toward overcrowded and undersupplied shelters in a poverty-stricken corner of the country. Parts of the port town of 50,000 had already lost power.

“The winds, the rain, are very strong, I can hear the sound of the sea surrounding us,” said Shira Downs, Puerto Cabezas resident and director of a woman’s rights organization, “This is going to be worse that Eta, and this is just the beginning. I just hope God has mercy on us.”

Jose Coleman, an indigenous activist in Puerto Cabezas, said winds had blown the wood siding off a neighborhood house, leaving it partially collapsed. His brother, Presly Coleman, said by Monday morning it was already too dangerous to leave the house.

“It’s very strong,” Presly Coleman said. “The winds are whipping.”

Thousands of people in the storm’s path had already evacuated from Eta, and were still sheltering inland when Iota hit. But thousands of others, many of them impoverished Indigenous and Afro-Nicaraguans, remained on the ground and in Iota’s path, with hardest-hit areas forecast to receive up to 30 inches of rain.

The hurricanes hit the region at the time when it is already roiling not only from the aftermath of Eta, but from the socioeconomic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which is spiking poverty and food insecurity in the region.

Nicaraguan authorities estimated 80,000 families will be affected by Iota, both in coastal communities where the hurricane will hit directly and in other parts of the country that could experience flooding and deadly landslides.

The government has prepared nearly 1,300 shelters, according Nicaragua’s National System for the Prevention, Mitigation and Attention of Disasters (SINAPRED).

Some residents in areas previously hit by Eta told Nicaraguan media they didn’t want to evacuate their homes now because they feared looting if they abandoned them.

Vittoria Peñalba, director of sustainability for the aid group World Vision in Nicaragua, said 50,000 coastal dwellers had been evacuated over the weekend and on Monday, a process hampered by roads left washed out and bridges pulverized in Eta’s wake.

In Nicaragua, a troubled Central American nation of 6.5 million where the authoritarian government of Daniel Ortega has come under fire for poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic, concern centered heavily on the destructive force of Iota in northeastern towns of Puerto Cabezas, Waspam, and, further south, Prinzapolka. There was overcrowding in shelters lacking in food, mattresses and personal protective equipment.

“The houses on the coast are mostly made from wood, they are of very fragile construction, so people are going to schools, shelters, anywhere they can be protected from the wind and rain,” Peñalba said. “But there are too many people in each shelter. The government is trying its best, but there’s too many people.”

Before making landfall, Iota pummeled the small Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia, located east of the Nicaraguan coast. Early Monday, communications went down on Providencia, a tropical island between Jamaica and Costa Rica with a population just over 5,000, according to Colombian news outlets. Colombian President Iván Duque said later Monday that regular communications had also been lost with San Andrés, population 80,000, leaving the government to rely on links via satellite phone.

The Colombian outlet Semana TV showed video footage of San Andres, with power lines downed on flooded roads and corrugated iron roofs blown off homes.

“This is a big challenge our country is facing,” said Duque said in televised comments. “As soon as the circumstances allows us to get there, we will do that with all our capacity.”

On the Colombian islands, Twitter became the main source of communication with media outlets and government institutions posting videos of the most affected areas. The Colombian Navy tweeted footage of a 67-year-old Italian sailor found adrift off the coast of San Andres.

“Thank you to the Colombian Navy,” says the man in the video, whose name was not disclosed.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami showed Iota losing strength into Tuesday while tracking toward more densely population centers in Honduras, where devastating mudslides from Eta have already left more than 100 dead.

Maite Matheu, Honduras director for the charity Care, said storm conditions had already begun hitting parts of that country. Concern centered on an estimated 100,000 people who were fleeing their homes, including in forced evacuations imposed on Monday by the government.

“The problem is the shelters are already full because of the Eta.

Matheu said groups were particularly fearful about the impact in the capital of Tegucigalpa, with high concentrations of people living in areas prone to flooding, and in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, where storm refugees from Eta were already living precariously on the streets.

“There have not really been preparations for everyone to go to shelters,” she said. “An emergency is coming.”

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Trump administration to cut troop levels in Afghanistan despite Pentagon warnings

InternationalNov 17. 2020

By The Washington Post · Missy Ryan, Ellen Nakashima, Dan Lamothe, John Hudson, Karen DeYoung · NATIONAL, WORLD, NATIONAL-SECURITY, MIDDLE-EAST

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is planning to move ahead with a significant reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan before President Donald Trump leaves office in January, taking steps toward delivering on his long-delayed campaign promise to bring home troops from insurgent wars.

According to officials familiar with the discussions, the White House is preparing to announce as soon as this week plans to roughly halve the number of U.S. troops, from around 5,000 to 2,500, by the time President-elect Joe Biden assumes office on Jan. 20.

The administration is also expected to announce a more modest troop reduction in Iraq, bringing the military force there from about 3,000 to 2,500 troops, another step that would advance the goal Trump has espoused since before he was elected to wind down the wars launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and refocus resources at home.

But the reductions may not bring an end to America’s long-running wars, as militant groups continue to evolve and fracture. The proposed cuts also have an uncertain meaning less than 70 days before Biden takes office and launches a process to scrutinize his predecessor’s decisions.

The Trump administration’s decision to make a major reduction in Afghanistan, where violence has surged as Afghan negotiators engage in halting peace talks, in particular could bring to a head tensions that have intensified between some at the Pentagon and White House during a chaotic transition period.

Officials cautioned that the plans from the White House, where foreign policy zigzags have been common, could change. Some aides are proposing a Trump speech later in the week to announce the planned cut from Afghanistan, which was first reported by CNN.

The discussions come as the president continues to falsely assert victory in the Nov. 3 election. Trump, who fired his defense secretary and elevated loyalists at the Pentagon last week, has also blocked agencies from working with Biden’s transition team.

Days before being dismissed, Pentagon chief Mark Esper sent Trump a classified memo that cautioned that conditions were not adequate to make additional troop cuts in Afghanistan, citing the possibility of undermining peace talks and a variety of other factors. His assessment was based on input from senior military leaders.

As part of a deal struck between U.S. and Taliban negotiators in February, the United States promised to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the militants meet certain terms of the agreement, including a break with al-Qaida and progress toward a peace deal.

But military leaders have repeatedly said that timeline is predicated on the Taliban fulfilling its commitments and the security situation, which has deteriorated sharply in recent months, and indicated their support for forgoing further troop reductions until conditions allow.

The expected withdrawal announcement is in keeping with an earlier statement by national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who last month got into a public spat with Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the course ahead in Afghanistan. At the time, Milley said that O’Brien’s assertion that the troop level would be cut to 2,500 by January was “speculation.”

The apparent divide over a possible eleventh-hour cut, which officials have said was among the reasons Esper was fired, raises the possibility of greater Pentagon-White House friction in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency. O’Brien has told other officials that Milley isn’t listening to the president on Afghanistan.

Spokesmen for Milley and for Christopher Miller, the former Green Beret and counterterrorism expert who Trump tapped to replace Esper, did not immediately provide a comment.

In a message to Defense Department employees on Monday, Miller cited as among his top priorities to “bring the current war to an end in a responsible manner that guarantees the security of our citizens.”

A senior defense official said the reduction to 2,500, if finalized, was in line with earlier plans to incrementally bring the troop level down ahead of the May 2021 withdrawal deadline, but would simply accelerate the interim move to 2,500 by a month.

In a podcast recorded on Thursday, before news about the White House plans emerged, U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie Jr. said the United States would take a conditions-based approach to further troop reductions. He appeared to suggest the Taliban had not made good on denying al-Qaida a safe haven in Afghanistan. “We need to see action here,” he said.

“The sheer volume of Taliban-initiated attacks against the people of Afghanistan are not indicative of an organization that is serious about peace,” McKenzie added.

A significant withdrawal would inject an element of unpredictability into ongoing peace negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban negotiators.

If Taliban leaders “can see they can win on the battlefield, then they don’t need to make concessions at the negotiating table,” said Carter Malkasian, a former Pentagon official who took part in some of the talks U.S. officials have conducted with Taliban leaders in recent years.

The planned move in Iraq would make a modest reduction to a force installed in 2014 after Islamic State forces took over most of the country. Since then, U.S. forces have helped train and support local troops as they battled extremists. In recent years, they have focused on seeking to prevent a militant comeback.

Reports about an imminent announcement prompted warnings from senior Republicans on Capitol Hill. In an impassioned speech Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., implored the president not to end U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, saying it would be an embarrassment “reminiscent of the humiliating American departure from Saigon in 1975.”

McConnell, avoiding direct criticism of Trump, encouraged the president to preserve the “limited, but important role” of those who remain. “Leaving the field in Afghanistan to the Taliban and ISIS would be broadcast around the world as a symbol of U.S. defeat and humiliation,” he said.

For months, Republicans who have long defended maintaining the presence of U.S. forces in conflicts have struggled to reconcile that with their political instinct to defer to Trump.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., once the GOP’s most ardent advocate for keeping forces stationed in Afghanistan, told reporters Monday that he had been “for the idea of coming down” and simply appreciated that the number left in place would not be “zero.”

“2,500 may be the residential force that protects us from a collapse,” he said, adding that he wanted “to hear more about it” from Trump.

Some Pentagon officials, however, expressed confidence that the United States would be able to maintain an effective counterterrorism operation with a force of 2,500.

One senior defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the move would not “put any undue risk on U.S. forces or on our ability to support Afghan national security forces in their efforts against the Taliban. . . . Most importantly, it does not degrade our ability to conduct counterterrorism operations.”

A lean American force would be focused on extremist groups and, possibly, continue air support for Afghan troops, who remain heavily reliant on foreign air power. Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has been preparing his units for deeper cuts for more than a year.

A model for the future mission might be found in Syria, where a modest U.S. force consisting mainly of Special Operations troops has provided intelligence, reconnaissance and airstrikes for local forces on the ground. Support and air cover is provided from nearby countries.

A big U.S. cut could also impact the 38 NATO and partner countries that have fielded troops alongside the United States for more than a decade. They are reliant on U.S. air, medical and logistical support and would likely draw down as well.

In telephone calls last week to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and defense ministers of those with the largest number of troops, the new acting defense secretary assured them there would be no change in policy and “no surprises.” But senior officials in several governments said they had come to understand that no Trump administration policy was finalized until the president announced it, and sometimes even not then.

Trump’s plans have been only marginally coordinated, if at all, with his negotiating envoy to the Afghans, Zalmay Khalilzad, and with the Afghan government.

While Trump has battled many of his top aides in his pursuit of a withdrawal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has come to accept the president’s wishes to end the costly conflict, said senior U.S. officials familiar with his actions.

Pompeo fought to increase the U.S. military footprint in the country at the outset of the Trump administration, but as the president has grown weary of the conflict, Pompeo shifted his position to supporting a “conditions-based” withdrawal. As Trump appears poised to accelerate the withdrawal despite missing key benchmarks, he is not expected to face significant resistance from Pompeo, officials said.

“At the end of the day, Pompeo appreciates that this is the commander-in-chief’s prerogative and it’s an issue that the president campaigned on,” a senior U.S. official said.

Biden has not commented directly on the U.S.-Taliban agreement or the intra-Afghan negotiations. His policy, stated throughout the campaign, is somewhat similar to Trump’s – ending U.S. “forever wars,” and leaving a residual counterterrorism force in Afghanistan to fight al-Qaida and a growing Islamic State movement.

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Biden pressures Trump to cooperate, citing risk of additional coronavirus deaths if handoff is delayed

InternationalNov 17. 2020President-elect Joe Biden makes an appearance in Delaware on Monday. Biden said he is focusing on staffing the White House and forming his Cabinet. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges 

By The Washington Post · Matt Viser · NATIONAL, HEALTH, POLITICS

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday ratcheted up pressure on the Trump administration to engage in a transition of power, mincing no words on the dire consequences if his incoming team faces further delays in working with federal agencies.

“More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” Biden said during a news conference in Wilmington, Del., following remarks on the economic impact of the coronavirus in which he warned of a “very dark winter” where “things are going to get much tougher before they get easier.”

He also pointed out the absurdity that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., the vice president-elect, still has access to classified intelligence briefings because she is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But Biden himself is not able to get those briefings because Trump’s administration has yet to acknowledge that Biden won the election.

Biden generally refrained, however, from threatening Trump – “I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to Jan. 20,” he said at one point – and he said that the lack of cooperation so far was not yet significantly affecting his ability to build a team and chart a path.

“I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started,” he said.

Biden’s attempt to increase pressure on Trump to behave like previous presidents came on a day the man in the White House began with a declarative, if false, tweet: “I won the Election.”

Trump went on to criticize the Georgia recount being conducted by Republican officials; praise OAN, a competitor to Fox News, which angered him with a correct projection of Biden’s win in Arizona; suggest a challenge to Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, after he referred to Biden as the “president-elect”; and vent about Democrats and the news media.

Trump’s White House, meanwhile, has instructed senior government leaders to block any cooperation with Biden’s transition team.

Without entree into the workings and plans of the current administration, Biden said he would focus on meeting with business and labor leaders, staffing the White House and forming his Cabinet.

Two sources on Monday confirmed that Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., one of Biden’s earliest backers, plans to join the administration. Richmond, a national co-chair for Biden’s campaign, was one of Biden’s most prominent African American supporters, frequently defending him and campaigning for him dating back to the early days of the Democratic primary.

It was not immediately clear what role Richmond would play, although some Biden allies saw him as a potential senior adviser in the White House.

Richmond did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His plans were first reported by Bloomberg News and confirmed by two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address internal conversations.

Biden also said Monday that Trump’s lack of cooperation had not stopped foreign leaders from calling to congratulate him.

“They’re calling with some degree of enthusiasm – everyone from the Holy Father to prime ministers across the globe,” Biden said. “So we’re moving along knowing what the outcome will be.”

Biden officials see their most crucial disadvantage as being unable to plan for the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine, which would need to be closely coordinated with current Trump administration officials and civil servants who work in important government departments such as Health and Human Services and Defense.

“A vaccine is important. It’s of little use until you’re vaccinated. So how do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated?” Biden said. “What’s the game plan? It’s a huge, huge, huge undertaking to get it done.”

Ideally, while some work may be underway within the Trump administration to plan for the distribution of a vaccine, Biden officials would be clued in so that their transition to running the program would be seamless. Similar coordinated handoffs have marked previous changes of power.

“If we have to wait until Jan. 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind – over a month, month and a half,” Biden said. “And so it’s important that it be done, that there is cooperation. Now. Now, or as rapidly as we can get that done.”

Top Biden advisers this week are hoping to meet with drug companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, which are developing some of the vaccines, but those meetings would take place outside of government channels and may not include details on government-run distribution. Ron Klain, Biden’s newly named chief of staff, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the conversations would begin this week.

“But I think in some ways the bigger issue – I’ve been saying this since April – the bigger issue will be the mechanics of manufacture and distribution, getting this vaccine out,” said Klain, who coordinated the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola virus in 2014 and 2015. “And that really lies with folks at the Health and Human Services Department. We need to be talking to them as quickly as possible. . . . It’s a giant logistical project.”

In the 10 days since Biden was declared the winner of the election – and the two weeks since voting ceased – Trump has created a standoff in place of a transition. The transition is unable to fully proceed until the head of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency the normally handles real estate issues for the sprawling federal government, makes an official ruling. In past elections, that decision has been noncontroversial and typically decided in the hours after the results are clear and called by news networks.

In this case, the administrator – Emily Murphy, a Trump political appointee who has been in the post for nearly four years – is refusing to sign the paperwork while her boss continues to falsely claim that he won the election.

Without it, Biden officials are unable to formally meet with Trump administration officials. They also cannot gain access to thick briefing books prepared for them that detail the inner workings of various agencies.

Biden’s advisers had laid the groundwork for a lawsuit, thinking that they would have standing to argue that Murphy lacked the authority to ascertain the results and make an independent judgment when she is taking instructions from someone who has a stake in the election results.

Biden’s transition team had prepared for the possibility of a lawsuit even before the election, based on Trump’s earlier refusals to commit to a peaceful transition of power.

But over the past week, they have attempted to publicly avoid a drawn-out court fight, with Biden himself last week saying, “I don’t see the need for legal action, quite frankly.” Privately, however, some top Biden advisers say it is still an option they could pursue, while holding out hope that pressure will force a Trump reversal.

Asked Monday what his message was to those who discount the election results, Biden responded: “My message is – I will work with you. I understand a lot of your reluctance because of the way the president operates.”

Biden said he has been communicating with some Republicans and will be contacting others.

“If it has to wait until Jan. 20 to actually become operational, that’s a shame,” he said. “But maybe that’s the only way to get it done.”

Several Senate Republicans – almost all of whom are still unwilling to declare Biden the winner of the election – late last week began calling for Biden to gain access to classified briefings.

Those briefings have not happened, but Biden’s advisers saw the Republican calls as a promising sign.

“The good news here is my colleague is still on the Intelligence Committee,” Biden said, referring to Harris, who joined him on Monday. “So she gets the intelligence briefings. I don’t anymore.”

White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien on Monday seemed to break with other top Trump administration officials in saying that Biden appeared to have won the election and that he planned to help in a transition.

“If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner, and obviously things look that way now, we’ll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council. There’s no question about it,” O’Brien said at the Global Security Forum, an annual forum that was held virtually because of the pandemic.

Former first lady Michelle Obama on Monday wrote a lengthy post on Instagram, recalling the personally painful process of transitioning to Trump’s White House, but saying that doing so reflected respect for the election results.

“This isn’t a game,” Obama wrote in a post accompanied by a photo of her and President Obama leaving Washington after Trump was sworn in. “So I want to urge all Americans, especially our nation’s leaders, regardless of party, to honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a smooth transition of power, just as sitting presidents have done throughout our history.”

Pressure has increased on Murphy, meantime, with MoveOn delivering a petition to the GSA on Monday with more than 268,000 signatures calling on her to declare Biden the winner and authorizing the transition.

Murphy recently sent a message inquiring about possible employment opportunities next year, according to an ABC News report, in an apparent acknowledgment that she will be working elsewhere in 2021.

A spokeswoman for Murphy did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who led the Obama administration’s transition at the Commerce Department in 2008, called the job search “an act of gross political hypocrisy” and at “the worst possible time to refuse to honor one of our country’s most sacred democratic norms.”

“Administrator Murphy knows who won the election, and her job search confirms it,” Beyer said. “While she is prioritizing her own future and helping Donald Trump weaken our democracy, Americans are dying by the thousands in a pandemic that is raging out of control. Murphy must put the country first and allow the transition to move forward.”