Joe Biden
Joe Biden
From NBC's Ken Strickland and Mark Murray
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just read letter of resignation from Vice President-elect Biden on the U.S. Senate floor. Biden's resignation will be effective Thursday, Jan. 15 at 5:00 pm ET.
Biden is currently overseas with Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on a congressional delegation trip to Southwest Asia. He was in Kuwait yesterday.
Outgoing Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) has announced that she will appoint longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman to fill Biden's seat when he retires.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
On a day when it was revealed the gross domestic product shrank 0.5% in the third quarter and home sales plunged 8.6%, Vice President-elect Biden promised no earmarks on a potential stimulus package.
"I know it's Christmas, but the package will not become a Christmas Tree," he said, per the pool producer at an event where Biden met with several economic advisers in Washington.
At the table with Biden: Jason Furman, Jeanne Lambrew, Carol Browner, Larry Summers, Melody Barnes, Phil Schiliro and Jared Bernstein.
Biden took two other questions, including one on the economy and one on embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Biden added that the transition's economic team is getting close to an agreement with congressional leaders on the stimulus package, particularly on the scope of the investment, which has been reported to be in the neighborhood of a staggering $850 billion.
Biden was asked if the internal review the Obama transition team is promising to release later today will exonerate the transition team. He said he doesn't think exonerate is the right word, but it will show there was no inappropriate contact with Obama or his staff, per the pool producer.
*** UPDATE *** NBC's Lauren Appelbaum has the exact wording on the "exonerate" question:
Q: Sir, will the Blagojevich report exonerate the transition team?
A: I don't think there's anything to exonerate. There's-- ah --it's been clear that the President-elect has had no contact with Blagojevich and/or anyone on his team that he's asserted, and you'll soon find out in the release today that there has been no inappropriate contact by any member of the Obama staff or the transition team with Blagojevich, and I think the report you'll see will reflect that this afternoon.
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
In a nod to the Left, Jared Bernstein will serve as chief economist and economic policy adviser to Vice President-elect Biden, the Obama-Biden transition team announced today.
“Jared Bernstein is an acclaimed economist, and a proven, passionate advocate for raising the incomes of middle class families," Biden said in a statement. "His expertise and background in a wide range of domestic and international economic policies will be an invaluable asset to the Obama-Biden Administration. It’s an honor to have him on my team and I look forward to his advice and counsel.”
Bernstein has been an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that has been associated with most progressive part of the Democratic Party when it comes to economic matters -- and that's viewed as being to the left of the Brookings Institution. Bernstein also worked for Robert Reich him at the Labor Department during the Clinton years.
Most of the other economic policy advisers that have been plucked for the Obama White House and cabinet -- Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag -- have come from the more moderate Robert Rubin school of the Democratic Party.
*** UPDATE *** To suggest that Bernstein is pretty much in agreement with Rubin and his disciples on what to do regarding the current economic troubles, someone close to the transition passes along this recent New York Times op-ed that Bernstein and Rubin co-wrote. What's more, the transition source says that Berstein was recommended to Vice President-elect Biden by Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee.
Brief bio on Bernstein, per the transition, after the jump:
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From NBC's Savannah Guthrie
Vice President-elect Biden wasn't in Washington today just to meet with the bipartisan commission on weapons of mass destruction.
He also met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the transition offices here. (We'll update with details as we get them.)
*** UPDATE *** A transition source says Biden and Gates met to "discuss a wide-range of issues, including global health and development, as well the need to improve resources for secondary education, particularly for community colleges."
So, there you go.
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro, Mark Murray and Doug Adams
Delaware Gov.
Ruth Ann Minner will appoint longtime
Joe Biden loyalist, adviser and former chief of staff
Ted Kaufman to fill Biden’s Senate seat when the vice-president-elect resigns.
Per a Biden spokeswoman, the longest-serving Delaware senator will resign within the next 40 to 50 days.
"As you know, VP-elect Biden has been a senator for 36 years and is chairman of a major Committee,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander tells NBC News. “He has two transitions going on, with the Senate and the Foreign Relations Committee, and he wants to ensure that they are as smooth as possible.”
Biden won re-election to another six-year term in November (he was allowed to be on the ballot for both the presidential ticket and U.S. Senate seat). Under state law, however, a successor would serve through just 2010 and then there would be a special election for the seat.
So, given Kaufman's ties to Biden, is he just a placeholder for Biden’s son Beau, Delaware’s attorney general, who is currently on a one-year stint as an attorney with the Delaware National Guard in Iraq?
In a (lengthy) statement from Biden, he references his son and even indicates he would have been open to having him appointed to the seat. (Full statement after the jump.) Last week, Beau rejected the notion of being appointed.
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From NBC's Savannah Guthrie
According to a transition official, Obama today surprised Biden one day before his 66th birthday with cupcakes after their weekly lunch. He lit the candles on the 12 cupcakes and brought them over to Biden.
Obama joked, "You're 12 years old!"
Biden laughed, replying: "Maybe in dog years!"
Then Obama led the staff in singing Biden Happy Birthday. Obama also surprised him by giving him a Chicago White Sox hat, a Chicago Bears hat, and a bucket of Garrett's popcorn as gifts.
From NBC's Doug Adams
With President-elect Obama having resigned his Senate seat yesterday, folks may be wondering about what Vice President-elect Biden might do.
Biden told a local TV station right before Election Day he didn't want to resign his seat right away, leading to speculation about whether he is trying to deny the outgoing governor of Delaware -- Democrat Ruth Ann Minner -- the chance to appoint his successor.
Under that scenario, Biden would wait until moments before he is sworn in as vice president to resign his seat, which could enable the new governor, Jack Markell, to make the appointment.
Biden has been said for some time to be grooming his son Beau Biden to succeed him in the Senate. Beau is currently Delaware's Attorney General. He is on leave while he serves on active duty in the Delaware National Guard, where he is a captain.
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From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
In a 13-minute address at a Veterans Day memorial service, Biden told Delaware residents even though he may be leaving his Senate seat, they will always own his heart.
"I want to tell you straight up with the national press here that the title that means the most to me other than father is being the senator from the state of Delaware," Biden said at the War Memorial Plaza in New Castle, Del. "Nothing, nothing. And I mean it sincerely. If you haven't figured it out yet, you own my heart. And there is no title, including Vice President of the United States that will ever be as honorific to me as being the senator from the state of Delaware for so many years, and I thank you for that, that honor, genuinely an honor."
Biden reflected on the national and state transitions, calling their ease a testament to veterans' service.
"It's amazing in this democracy how smoothly the transitions go," Biden said. "It is really, literally, amazing that I can tell you in my discussions with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, it is a remarkable testament to what you all fought for, that there is absolutely, absolutely, totally complete unadulterated cooperation and movement as if it's seamless. And it's a real testament to this country."
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From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
GEORGETOWN, Del. – Vice President-elect
Biden said that he and President-elect
Barack Obama have begun to form a new administration with an eye to the “precarious position” he nation and the world find itself in.
“I think the world is looking to us -- not Barack and me -- looking to America in the same way the public’s looking to us,” he said. “They sense there’s a need for immediate help, immediate help for people who are drowning. … And what I’m excited about is, there’s an awful lot of talented people out there. An awful lot of talented people who are ready, who are thinking this way.”
Biden, speaking with reporters as he flew to Delaware for the first time since Tuesday’s election, talked about the “sense of excitement” he felt yesterday as he and Obama sat together “actually beginning to put together a government.”
“We’ve thought a lot about it, but it was the first time -- he’s as superstitious as I was -- the first time we actually started talking about names and places and organizations,” he said. “We both know it’s going to be a very difficult road.”
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From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli
IN THE AIR FROM RICHMOND TO CHICAGO -- During the 90-minute flight to Chicago, one of Joe Biden’s top political advisers paid a visit to the press section. His 10-year-old granddaughter, Finnegan, that is.
“She’s the one who pushed the hardest for me to be vice president,” Biden said after joining her.
The Delaware senator was joined on the flight by 35 members of his extended family, who will join him for what the campaign hopes to be a victory celebration. Biden has generally been reluctant to speculate about the future, but talked candidly about the possibility that he could be vice president-elect by day’s end.
“If we were to win I don’t know that it would change a lot,” he said when asked how a victory would impact his family life. His youngest son, Hunter, lives in Washington, DC, already, and in fact his daughter-in-law drove with Finnegan one day to measure the distance from their home to the Naval Observatory.
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