Biden says the White House is cooperating fully with his transition, but that Trump still won't speak to him
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- President-elect Biden praised the smoothness of his delayed presidential transition, saying that efforts from the White House to hand over to him are "sincere."
- The transition was authorized on Monday after an unprecedented two-week standoff while President Trump groundlessly disputed the outcome of the election.
- Speaking to NBC News, Biden said he had been authorized to receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and that agencies have been forthcoming with information.
- Biden said their respective chiefs of staff have spoken, but that he has not heard directly from Trump.
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President-elect Joe Biden has described efforts from the White House to help him prepare for power as "sincere," after his long-delayed transition was allowed to proceed.
But he said he has still had no contact at all from President Donald Trump himself, who continues to wrongly claim that he won the election.
In his first interview after Election Day, Biden told NBC News' Lester Holt that the progress in his transition had "not been begrudging so far."
Trump has refused to admit defeat. However, on Monday, after increasing public pressure, he said he had "recommended" the General Services Administration go ahead offering Biden transition resources.
(The GSA's administrator, Emily Murphy, said her decision to do so was independent of political influence.)
It ended a two-week standoff in which Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were forced to develop an unofficial transition without full access to the federal government and its vast resources.
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Asked if there had been "backchannel" communications with Trump during that time, Biden said he had not heard anything.
"I believe that his chief of staff and my chief of staff have spoken, but no, I have not heard anything from President Trump," Biden said.
Nonetheless, information from the White House had started to flow, Biden said.
He described outreach from national security officials and the coronavirus task force, and expects to receive the Presidential Daily Brief — which includes top-level national security information — "maybe as early as tomorrow."
Biden said he was "feeling good" about making up for lost time in his delayed transition.
"I think we're going to not be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past," he said.
"And there's a lot of meaty discussion, and I must say, the outreach has been sincere. It's not been begrudging so far. And I don't expect it to be."
"It's a slow start, but it's starting."
Biden announced several of his picks for top cabinet positions on Tuesday, including Antony Blinken as secretary of state, Alejandro Mayorkas for homeland security, and Avril Haines for director of national intelligence.
Asked if his nominations signaled a return to the era of President Barack Obama — in which he was vice-president — he said: "This is not a third Obama term, because we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration."
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