President Joe Biden mentioned that his predecessor, Donald Trump, left him a “very generous letter” earlier than leaving Washington forward of his inauguration on Wednesday.
Biden informed reporters within the Oval Office: “The president wrote a very generous letter. Because it was private, I will not talk about it until I talk to him.”
The remarks got here after Biden signed three government actions, together with a requirement for face masks on federal property and a measure that will re-enter the U.S. into the Paris Agreement on local weather.
He was anticipated to signal additional actions behind closed doorways. The textual content of the orders and directives haven’t but been launched.
The signing was Biden’s first press availability within the Oval Office, the place some decor from the earlier administration has been changed. He sat on the Resolute Desk, the identical desk Trump, Barack Obama and several other different presidents have used. Busts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, whose careers impressed Biden’s work in public service, flanked the room’s hearth.
On a desk behind the desk sat footage of Biden’s household and a bust of the labor chief Cesar Chavez.
Trump departed Washington early Wednesday and arrived at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, earlier than Biden was sworn in to exchange him within the White House.
After signing the actions, Biden swore-in about 1,000 political appointees on the White House and federal businesses, who participated through video convention within the East Room.
After being sworn-in, Kamala Harris provides Joe Biden a fist bump on the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (The New York Times: Ruth Fremson)
“We have to restore the soul of this country and I’m counting on all of you,” he mentioned. “We’ve reached a point, in my view, where the American people — the blinders have been taken off.”
He mentioned that the federal government’s coronavirus vaccination program could be the “most consequential logistical thing that’s ever been done in the United States,” and that his administration “can meet this existential threat of climate change.”
But he additionally admonished his appointees to steer with “one core American value: humility and trust.”
“If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands or buts,” Biden mentioned. “Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity. That’s been missing in a big way the last four years.”
In response to a query from a reporter, Biden mentioned that he’s not involved about his cabinet nominees being confirmed. The Senate has but to fill any of his cabinet posts.
