The latest:

  • President-elect Joe Biden signalled 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.
  • Donald Trump returned to his Virginia golf club today to play, and has yet to concede.
  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris addressed the nation for the first time as president- and vice-president-elect. Watch highlights from their speeches below.
  • Updated vote tally margins as counting continues in these swing states: Pennsylvania: Biden leads by 43,194 | Nevada: Biden leads by 31,464 votes | Arizona: Joe Biden leads by 16,952 votes | Georgia: Biden leads by 10,353 votes | North Carolina: Trump leads by 75,407 votes

6:25 P.M. ET

Trump’s election night party adds to virus scrutiny

It was supposed to be a scene of celebration.

Instead, the Trump campaign’s election night watch party in the White House East Room has become another symbol of President Donald Trump’s cavalier attitude toward a virus that is ripping across the nation and infecting more than 100,000 people a day.

Polls suggest that attitude was a serious drag on the president’s reelection bid as voters chose to deny Trump a second term in favour of his Democratic rival, now President-Elect Joe Biden. And the party — with few masks and no social distancing — is now under additional scrutiny after the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, became the latest top White House official to contract the virus, which has now killed more than 237,000 people in the U.S. alone.

The White House has repeatedly refused to say who else has tested positive, even as the virus continues to spread. The latest White House cluster, coming just a month after Trump’s own diagnosis and hospitalization, includes a top Trump campaign official as well as a handful of undisclosed White House staff, officials said.


1:25 P.M. ET

Biden seeks to move quickly to build out his administration

President-elect Joe Biden signalled 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.

Biden named a former surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, David Kessler, as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group set to get started, with other members expected to be announced Monday.

Transition team officials said that also this week Biden will launch his agency review teams, the group of transition staffers that have access to key agencies in the current administration to ease the transfer of power. The teams will collect and review information such as budgetary and staffing decisions, pending regulations and other work in progress from current staff at the departments to help Biden’s team prepare to transition.

“People want the country to move forward,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden deputy campaign manager, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press, and see Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris “have the opportunity to do the work, to get the virus under control and to get our economy back together.”

It’s unclear for now whether President Donald Trump and his administration will co-operate. He has yet to acknowledge Biden’s victory and has pledged to mount legal challenges in several closely contested states that decided the race.


In his first speech as president-elect to supporters in Delaware Saturday night, Joe Biden said he’ll announce a team of experts to make a plan to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Biden also urged Americans to not see one another as enemies, saying he “seeks not to divide, but to unify.” THE GLOBE AND MAIL


Vice president-elect Kamala Harris gave a speech to jubiliant supporters in Delaware Saturday night. Ms. Harris reflected on her mother who came to the U.S. at age 19 and the women who came before her who “paved the way for this moment tonight.” THE GLOBE AND MAIL

The Globe and Mail, November 7, 2020