President-elect Joe Biden didn’t offer any holiday cheer during an end-of-year address tinged by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us, so we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines,” he said in Wilmington, Delaware.
He added, “It’s going to take patience, persistence, and determination to beat this virus.”
Biden explained that he and the incoming first family had whittled down their holiday celebrations from their traditional 20- to 25-person Christmas dinner, urging others “to care enough for each other to stay apart a little bit longer.”
Citing statistics, he warned that “tens of thousands of more lives” could be lost “in the months to come,” capping off “one of the toughest years we’ve ever faced as a nation.”
Biden congratulated Congress on giving the country its “first glimpse of bipartisanship” after lawmakers reached a deal on another COVID-19 relief package. But he called the measure “far from perfect,” again describing it as a “down payment.”
“Congress did its job this week. And I can, and I must, ask them to do it again next year,” he said.
He also slammed President Trump for not naming the “advanced persistent threat actor” that accessed top-secret government networks and data, including those belonging to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
“This assault happened on Donald Trump’s watch,” he said.
