Biden begins transition plans as Trump refuses to concede

By Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes and Melissa Macaya, CNN

Updated 8:12 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020
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5:15 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Harris tested negative for Covid-19 today

From CNN's Jasmine Wright

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the press on November 10, at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the press on November 10, at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 today and Covid-19 was not detected, according to a Harris aide.

The President-elect's office via the protective pool also informed reporters earlier this afternoon that Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 today.

5:02 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Massachusetts GOP governor: "I can’t think of a worse time to stall a transition than amid a deadly pandemic”

From CNN’s Sahar Akbarzai

Governor Charlie Baker speaks about the mask mandate at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, on November 3.
Governor Charlie Baker speaks about the mask mandate at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, on November 3. Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, on Tuesday criticized President Trump for stalling the presidential transition process during Covid-19, calling the President’s election claims “baseless.”

“I can’t think of a worse time to stall a transition than amid a deadly pandemic,” Baker said.

“I’m dismayed to hear the baseless claims coming from the president, from his team, and many other elected Republican officials in Washington,” Baker said. “I’ve been a Republican for 40 years…What this president is doing at this point in time is not in the best interest of this country.”

6:01 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Another top Pentagon official is departing

From Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Kristen Holmes

(L-R) Robert Wilkie, Mark Esper, Joseph Kernan and Guy Roberts testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee during their confirmation hearing in the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2017
(L-R) Robert Wilkie, Mark Esper, Joseph Kernan and Guy Roberts testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee during their confirmation hearing in the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2017 Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Pentagon’s top intelligence official is leaving his post, becoming the latest in a series of high profile departures from the Defense Department.

Retired Navy Vice Adm. Joseph Kernan, the defense department’s Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence has left his position according to a defense official. It not immediately clear if Kernan resigned or was fired.

Another official said Kernan had plan to leave the administration sometime after the election but his departure has been accelerated.

Kernan sent the following message to his colleagues upon his resignation:

“I tendered my resignation as USD (I&S) which will take effect today. I want to thank all of you for your tireless commitment to our nation and supporting me personally over the last three years. It has been my honor to serve with all of you.  
My family and I have long planned this departure and I leave knowing that our efforts will continue given your unrelenting dedication to the security of this Nation.”

Kernan has been in the post since 2017 following an unanimous Senate confirmation.

Trump announced on Twitter Monday that he had fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and that Christopher Miller, who serves as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will become acting secretary "effective immediately."

4:34 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

US farmers "concerned about being forgotten” under Biden administration

From CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich

Following a turbulent few years under President Trump's policies, farmers across the US are trying to figure out what a Biden administration means for their futures.

Phil Ramsey, a fourth-generation farmer from Shelbyville, Indiana, supported President Trump in both 2016 and the most recent election. So now, he's worried about his place under a Joe Biden presidency.

“I’m concerned about being forgotten. And my concern is are they’re going to shut down government because of coronavirus,” said Ramsey whose crop prices took a hit at the height of the pandemic.

Farmers have been at the political forefront of President Trump’s administration. He has called them the “backbone of our country,” promising to make things better, but what ensued in the four years of his administration were trade policies that often hurt — not helped — US farmers. 

The President launched a trade war with China that cut into farmers’ incomes in the form of Chinese tariffs on US agricultural exports. The Trump administration provided Market Facilitation Program payments to help offset their losses in revenue, but the funds often benefitted larger farms rather than family farmers.

Meanwhile, the spread of the coronavirus this year shut down meat packing facilities — forcing farmers to kill their livestock — and closed ethanol plants across the country, leaving farmers nowhere to sell the corn used in production.

Still, Trump’s supporters stuck by him in the rural parts of states, adding to his more than 71 million votes.

“I had confidence in his business experience,” said Ramsey, who believes China has held up their end of the Phase 1 US-China Trade agreement the President negotiated earlier this year. 

After nearly three years, a partial agreement was reached between the US and China in mid-January, right before the pandemic struck. The two countries agreed China would buy $50 billion in agricultural products in the first two years in exchange for the US reducing some tariffs. 

As of August, China was on pace to purchase less than half of what it had agreed to, according to an analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics

Ramsey, like many farmers, is concerned President-elect Biden will undo many of the Trump policies popular with those in agriculture, such as the USMCA and Phase 1 of US-China Trade deal. However, Biden has not said he would undo either of those policies.

4:45 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Biden tested negative for Covid-19 today

From CNN's Daniella Diaz

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 10.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 10. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

President-elect Joe Biden tested negative for coronavirus today.

“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected," according to the President-elect's office via the protective pool.

4:42 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Schumer defends Democrats' efforts in 2020 election and says “we won the most important election"

From CNN's Ali Zaslav and Manu Raju 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on November 10, in Washington, DC.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on November 10, in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer defended Democrats campaign efforts in the 2020 election, despite potentially losing the Senate majority, at his policy news conference on Tuesday.

Schumer argued Democrats are “happy” because “we won the most important election.”

CNN’s Manu Raju asked Schumer about his efforts with Democratic groups to try to take back the Senate and whether he personally miscalculated the effort spent in red states where Senate Democrats lost.

“Georgia is close,” Schumer said, referring to the two Georgia Senate run-offs in January. “People forget something there's this conventional wisdom that Democrats don't win run offs in Georgia. That's not true. There were two run offs in 2018. Not much Democratic money or effort behind them and each was it within 4%. So we are working very hard to win Georgia and we believe that we have a very good chance of winning.”

Asked his reaction to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refusing to acknowledge Joe Biden's victory, saying Tuesday that "there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration," Schumer replied shouting into the mic: “Secretary Pompeo, Joe Biden has won, he’s won the election, now move on.”

Schumer also criticized the many Senate Republicans who continue to back President Trump’s “patently ridiculous lawsuits,” despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

“It never ceases to amaze me, how afraid just about… close to every Republican senator is just so afraid of Donald Trump that they’re willing to tie themselves in legal pretzels to not offend him,” Schumer also said.

"This is not one state where there is a 597 vote difference," Schumer said of the presidential race. "These are many states where there are tens of thousands of votes different. The Republicans have no legal case. They are politically distraught. But that's not going to create any success for them in the courts."

3:48 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

State Department officials shocked and confused by Pompeo's remarks on transition

From CNN's Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington DC, on November 10.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington DC, on November 10. Jacquelyn Martin/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

State Department officials and diplomats are shocked, confused and outraged after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to recognize Joe Biden’s presidential election victory and said “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” when asked if State Department will cooperate with the Biden transition.

“I am sick,” said one US diplomat overseas. “How dare he undermine our work.”

“How can he be serious?” said another US diplomat. “This is actually incredibly scary.”

One State Department official said they had been watching the news conference until Pompeo "joked about the transition" and then they "flipped it off in disgust."

"For someone who created a code of ethos and a West Point graduate, he's stooping to the lowest of the low," they said, adding that Pompeo is "sinking his legacy, even with all the work and diplomacy of his term."

US diplomats have received no guidance from the State Department as to how to discuss the election results, and Pompeo did not answer a question about the matter during Tuesday’s news conference.

Diplomats are angry and confused about whether Pompeo was suggesting that they should be telling their counterparts that Trump will somehow get a second term, which they know is virtually impossible. Pompeo did not answer directly about whether he believed there was widespread voter fraud – there is no evidence to support such beliefs.

The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement Tuesday that Pompeo “shouldn’t play along with baseless and dangerous attacks on the legitimacy of last week’s election.” 

“In fact, all Administration officials should drop their false claims about electoral fraud and GSA should release the funding and support necessary for a smooth transition that protects our national security,” Chairman Eliot Engel said. “The State Department should now begin preparing for President-elect Biden’s transition.”

 CNN has asked the State Department for clarity on Pompeo’s remarks.

3:55 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

White House is advising agencies to prepare a budget as Trump refuses to concede loss

From CNN's Sarah Westwood and Kevin Liptak

Gardening crew works on replacing the lawn on the ground of the White House on November 10, in Washington, DC.
Gardening crew works on replacing the lawn on the ground of the White House on November 10, in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The White House’s Office and Management and Budget is continuing to advise agencies to prepare the budget proposal as if nothing is changing, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The person said the team is “going forward assuming a win” when it comes to budget preparation, despite the major networks calling the race for President-elect Joe Biden.

Trump has refused to admit defeat even though his claims contesting the election results haven't held up in court.

Another person says while there hasn't been a formal memo spelling this out, the message to agencies is to proceed as normal.

The President’s budget, which normally comes out in February, is more of a political document than a policy proposal, since Congress determines how money is spent.

It amounts to a yearly signal of the White House's priorities in the coming months.

5:45 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Biden-Harris transition team announces agency review teams tasked with evaluating government agencies

From CNN's Elizabeth Hartfield

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden listens as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the press on the Affordable Care Act on November 10.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden listens as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the press on the Affordable Care Act on November 10. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Biden- Harris transition team has released their full list of the members of their agency review teams — the teams tasked with reviewing operations at the federal agencies across the government. They reiterated that their transition is "continuing full steam ahead." 

“Our nation is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change. We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad," Sen. Ted Kaufman, the co-chair for the Biden-Harris transition, said in a news release. 

"The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One,” he continued.

Read more here.