WILMINGTON, Del. -- Democrat Joe Biden on Monday warned of dire consequences if President Donald Trump and his administration continue to refuse to coordinate with Biden's transition team on the coronavirus pandemic and block briefings on national security, policy issues and vaccine plans.
The remarks were Biden's toughest to date on Trump's refusal to concede the election and cooperate with the incoming administration for a peaceful transfer of power.
"More people may die if we don't coordinate," Biden told reporters during a news conference in Wilmington.
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Biden and his aides have emphasized the importance of being briefed on White House efforts to control the pandemic and distribute prospective vaccines. The Trump administration is working on its own distribution plan, while Biden's chief of staff indicated the transition team will proceed with its own planning separately because of the obstruction.
Biden called the vaccine distribution a "huge, huge undertaking" and said that if members of his team have to wait until he takes office to dig into the government's plan, then they'll be "behind, over a month, month and a half."
"So it's important that it be done, that there be coordination now, now, as rapidly as we can get that done," he said.
Before taking questions, the former vice president outlined his plans to alleviate inequality and boost the U.S. economy, but he said that any structural changes depended first on reining in the pandemic and delivering more immediate relief.
"Once we shut down the virus and deliver economic relief to workers and businesses, then we can start to build back better than before," he said.
Biden has vowed to spend trillions of dollars to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing, expand health care coverage and combat climate change, among other priorities. But his chief priority remains controlling the pandemic, which is surging to record levels and forcing state and local leaders to implement new rounds of restrictions on businesses.
Biden has so far tried to sidestep difficult questions about whether he might support a short-term national lockdown to slow the surge of coronavirus cases. Since being projected as the winner in the presidential election, Biden has devoted most of his public remarks to encouraging Americans to wear masks and embrace social-distancing measures.
But members of his coronavirus advisory board have been more specific. One member, Dr. Michael Osterholm, recently suggested a four- to six-week national lockdown with financial aid for Americans whose livelihoods would be affected. He later walked back the remarks and was rebutted by two other members of the panel who said a widespread lockdown shouldn't be under consideration.
Speaking Monday on "CBS This Morning," Osterholm was not asked about a potential lockdown, but he said the nation needs "a standard set of principles."
"Right now, we don't have a standardized set, so you're hearing all these governors and mayors are scrambling to try to find what is the right answer for us. And it would surely help all of them, and that's what I'm hearing from them, that we have a standardized set of recommendations and protocols," he said.
Biden was asked Monday whether he would encourage leaders to look at potentially reinstating stay-at-home orders now that the pandemic is surging nationwide. He avoided answering directly and instead called on officials to embrace mask-wearing and criticized those who haven't.
Before his Monday address, Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, who is in line to be the next vice president, held virtual meetings with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, among others.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Biden and Harris were speaking at a particularly tricky time for economic policy.
The U.S. economy has recovered from the pandemic-induced shutdowns this spring more quickly than most economists expected. The unemployment rate dropped a full percentage point last month to 6.9%, and those who still have jobs -- many of them working from home -- have stepped up their spending on cars, electronics and home renovations.
But much of the rebound was fueled by $2 trillion in stimulus money that has largely run its course. And there are signs that the ongoing increases in confirmed virus cases are making Americans more cautious about traveling and shopping.
Consumers cut back on spending in early November, according to JPMorgan Chase, which tracks spending on 30 million of its debit and credit cards. Spending declines have been larger in some states with severe outbreaks, such as Iowa and North Dakota.
Most economists support another round of stimulus funding, including loans to small businesses, extended unemployment benefits and support for states and cities. Congressional Democrats have previously backed another $2 trillion in aid.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has pointed to the falling unemployment rate as evidence that much less stimulus is needed.
ELECTION SUITS
Trump's campaign on Monday asked to withdraw a central request in its lawsuit seeking to stop the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania.
Ahead of a hearing scheduled for today, Trump's campaign dropped its request in the lawsuit that hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballots -- 682,479, to be precise -- be thrown out because they were processed without its representatives able to watch.
The campaign's revised lawsuit, filed in federal court on Sunday, maintains the aim of blocking Pennsylvania from certifying a victory for Biden in the state, and it maintains its claim that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters.
The campaign still contends in the lawsuit that hundreds of thousands of ballots weren't properly processed.
"Our lawsuit in Pennsylvania absolutely still makes an issue of the 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots that were counted in secret," Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh tweeted.
The campaign said in a statement Monday that it "strategically decided to restructure its lawsuit to rely on claims of violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."
Also on Monday, lawyers for conservative group True the Vote moved to dismiss voter fraud lawsuits it had filed in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Jim Bopp Jr., an attorney for the group, declined to say why it was ending the lawsuits but confirmed there were no other cases pending from the group.
Based in Houston, True the Vote is one of several conservative groups that have contested election results. True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht had accused states that Biden won of counting illegal votes.
"All we want are the facts -- regardless of the final outcome -- so that we can determine where vulnerabilities in the election system exist and take steps to fix them," Engelbrecht said in a statement Friday announcing the group's Wisconsin lawsuit.
Instead, Engelbrecht's group ended that case and others before the lawsuits could proceed further. Engelbrecht did not return messages seeking comment.
ADVISER'S REMARKS
In an interview broadcast Monday, national security adviser Robert O'Brien promised a "very professional transition" with Biden's team.
Speaking to the Global Security Forum hosted in part by Qatar, O'Brien several times mentioned the transition and referred to recent normalization deals that Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates struck with Israel as "a great legacy for the president to have as he leaves office."
O'Brien did note in his comments that Trump has outstanding court challenges.
"If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner -- 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. "They're going to have very professional folks coming in to take these positions."
He added: "We've passed the baton and had peaceful, successful transitions even in the most contentious periods."
Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Rugaber, Jon Gambrell, Nomaan Merchant and Marc Levy of The Associated Press.
