JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to president-elect Joe Biden's public rollout today of the team he
wants advising him on the economy.
They come with a new agenda that's intended to make a sharp break with the Trump years.
Lisa Desjardins reports.
LISA DESJARDINS: The president-elect slowly made his way into Wilmington's Queen Theater,
wearing a walking boot after he fractured his foot playing with his dog over the weekend.
But, inside, he said he's moving ahead full speed on the nation's economic troubles.
JOE BIDEN (D), President-Elect: I know times are tough, but I want you to know that help
is on the way.
LISA DESJARDINS: At the tables around him, president-elect Joe Biden's key economic team
and a theme repeated by each one, to not just regain a full economy, but to tackle inequality
and make it more fair.
JOE BIDEN: We can build a new American economy that works for all Americans, not just some,
all. We need to act now, though.
LISA DESJARDINS: It's a team of policy heavyweights, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen
to serve as Treasury secretary, Neera Tanden, the president and CEO of the Center for American
Progress, a liberal think tank, to lead the Office of Management and Budget, and labor
economist Cecilia Rouse to chair the president's Council of Economic Advisers.
Yellen spoke first.
JANET YELLEN, Treasury Secretary Nominee: We will be an institution that wakes up every
morning thinking about you, your jobs, your paychecks, your struggles, your hopes, your
dignity, and your limitless potential.
LISA DESJARDINS: If confirmed, Neera Tanden would be the first woman of color to be OMB
director. She reflected on being raised by a single mother, an immigrant from India.
NEERA TANDEN, Office of Management and Budget Director Nominee: I am here today because
of social programs, because of budgetary choices.
LISA DESJARDINS: But Tanden's become a lightning rod for some Republicans, like Arkansas Senator
Tom Cotton, who say she has been a partisan, divisive figure.
NEERA TANDEN: I think Neera Tanden's nomination, like so many of the nominations that Joe Biden
has already made, show that he is not committed to unifying the country.
LISA DESJARDINS: Princeton dean Rouse would be the first African American to lead the
Council of Economic Advisers.
CECILIA ROUSE, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Nominee: This is a moment of urgency
and opportunity unlike any we have faced in modern times.
LISA DESJARDINS: Among the other Biden selections, Nigerian-born attorney and political adviser
Wally Adeyemo, who worked with Biden when he was vice president, will serve as deputy
Treasury secretary.
Longtime Biden adviser Jared Bernstein would serve on the Council of Economic Advisers,
alongside economist Heather Boushey, the president, CEO, and co-founder of the Washington Center
for Equitable Growth.
As team Biden moves toward governing, President Trump continues to fight, suing in Wisconsin
to try and throw out 221,000 ballots in two heavily Democratic counties. He repeated baseless
claims of voter fraud, this the same day as Attorney General William Barr said there is
no evidence to support those claims.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Lisa joins me from Wilmington, Delaware, while Yamiche Alcindor is here in
Washington.
Hello to both of you.
So, Lisa, picking up on that, now that we have seen the economic team that Joe Biden
wants advising him, what does that tell us about what they want to do now and once they're
in office?
LISA DESJARDINS: Well, this is a team that faces unprecedented double crises and, rarely,
a new president taking over with them at the same time.
However, this team is also unique, in that the president who is elected, who will be
their leader, has had many plans in the works for a long time.
Right off the bat, we know this team, Judy, is working on a larger plan, bigger stimulus,
bigger COVID relief coming next year, in addition to what they hope will be perhaps some relief
coming in the next few months.
And I think we see in this team some of the hints of how they hope to get this done. And
I think what we will see from more Biden announcements, this is a team of experienced people, they
are diverse, and they are known for doing the hard work of policy.
Also, what I noticed today, they are disciplined and very coordinated, right down to the masks,
each one of them wearing the exact same mask that was handed out to them beforehand. And
they're also coordinated in another goal, trying to not just respond to the economic
crisis, but to try and solve more than one problem at once.
Listen to the coordination on these talking points. We heard from Yellen she's concerned
about the disproportionate impact of the crisis. From Tanden, she wants a fair shot for American
workers. From Adeyemo, he wants to reduce inequality.
Biden is being very aggressive in signaling that he is concerned about inequality in America.
He wants whatever plan they come up to address the crisis to squarely tackle inequality and
also perhaps climate change, as I'm told by some who are working with him that that's
something we could also see as part of their plan.
One other thing, Judy, that they have to continue with, of course, is Congress and whether or
not any immediate relief will come out. As you reported earlier, this is a tricky situation
for a new president, doesn't want to spend any capital before he comes into office. But
they also would like to have some kind of stimulus moving now.
I want to also add, Speaker Pelosi sent out a statement late today saying, interestingly
enough, that she says there must be some COVID relief passed in this lame-duck session of
Congress. That's the next two weeks.
So, we see both sides at least acknowledging they need to do something. Whether they will
is a different question.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We have heard it before. We will see if it's real this time.
Lisa, thank you.
And, Yamiche, to you.
As we reported earlier, the attorney general, Bill Barr, said today in an interview the
Department of Justice has found no widespread evidence of fraud that would change the outcome
of the election.
How is the president, how is his campaign responding to this?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, Attorney General William Barr has really angered the president's campaign,
as well as allies of President Trump, simply by telling the truth, and that truth being
that the election was not full of any sort of voter fraud that would have tipped the
scales and changed the outcome, thus lending credibility to the fact that president-elect
Biden is, in fact, the projected winner and President Trump is, in fact, the projected
loser.
I have been talking to people that are close to the president all day about this. They
say that they think -- they think Attorney General William Barr is -- quote -- someone
who is a "total failure." They also said this was a complete betrayal on his part, talking
to the Associated Press.
In that interview, William Barr told the Associated Press that some see the Department of Justice
as a sort of fix-it-all. In there, he was essentially hinting at the fact that there
are people who want to look at the courts and the criminal justice system and say, you
overturn election this election for President Trump. You try to do something.
And Attorney General William Barr is making it very clear that he's not going to do that.
Another thing to note is that, as all this is going on, the rhetoric is really getting
more and more tense from the Trump campaign. We heard yesterday a Trump campaign lawyer
suggests that Christopher Krebs, the former U.S. head of election security that President
Trump fired, that he should be shot, Judy.
He said those words. And now Christopher Krebs is saying that he's looking at legal action.
All this is happening as a Republican official in Georgia tonight is saying, someone is going
to get killed. We need you, President Trump, to really lower down this rhetoric, calling
up to the president. The president has not done that as of yet.
Another thing to note, as all of this is happening, the president has continued to fund-raise
for this election defense fund. He's raised at least $150 million, we're told by sources.
So, as the president is dealing with all of this, he's continuing to get supporters to
give him money for what is really now a longshot bid to try to win back the election in some
way.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So disturbing, those reports about the potential for threats and for loss
of life. Really disturbing.
Yamiche Alcindor, Lisa Desjardins, we thank you both.