President-elect Joe Biden struck a more aggressive tone Monday when talking about his soon-to-be predecessor Donald Trump during a rally in Atlanta on the eve of the pivotal Georgia Senate runoffs.
"This administration has gotten off to a God-awful start," Biden said of Trump's handling of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, per Deadline. "The president spends more time whining and complaining than doing something about the problem. I don’t know why he still wants the job. He doesn't want to do the work." Trump initially claimed the United States would have 300 million doses by January 2021, but his administration later moved the goalposts back, pledging 100 million doses. The New York Timesreported earlier today that about 4.6 million people have received the vaccine.
Biden's fiery remarks come one day after the Washington Post shared audio from a leaked phone conversation where Trump privately urged the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes," which would be enough to flip the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia in his favor. It's the latest development in Trump's tireless yet fruitless efforts to illegally overturn the election while also preaching baseless claims of voter fraud.
Ever since he was declared the winner by every major media outlet, Biden has endured pushback from Trump who has cried foul about the results, and other members of the Republican party, who have not only refused to acknowledge him as the President-elect, but have even explored every possible avenue to contest the outcome.
On January 6, a number of Republicans will likely challenge the count of electoral votes during a joint session of Congress that has long been viewed as a formality. Prior to Trump taking office in 2017, several Democratic lawmakers tried to intervene, but it was fittingly Biden who hushed his own party's objections.
According to The Hill, Biden also criticized Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler of prioritizing Trump over the interests of the people of Georgia. "You have two senators who think their loyalty is to Trump, not to Georgia, who think they swore an oath to Donald Trump and not the U.S. constitution," he said.
Back in August, several WNBA players, including some on the Atlanta Dream, the team that Loeffler owns, wore shirts that read "Vote Warnock," as in, Raphael Warnock, her Democratic challenger for the Georgia Senate seat. Their show of support came after Loeffler bashed the Black Lives Matter movement and said it threatened to "destroy" America.
