President-elect Biden said, while he and Trump had not personally had any contact about the election results, he believed that his chief of staff Ron Klain and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had spoken.
The 46th commander-in-chief made the admission during his first TV interview since ascending to the presidency which aired Sunday night and Monday morning with NBC News’ Lester Holt, when asked if he had any conversations with President Trump following the election about enabling the transition.
“No, I believe that his chief of staff and my chief of staff have spoken, but no, I have not heard anything from President Trump.”
The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on whether Klain and Meadows had been in touch.
He also said his team received outreach “immediately” from Trump administration national security officials after the outgoing president authorized the General Services Administration to begin the formal transition process.
“Immediately we’ve gotten outreach from the national security shop, from just across the board. So I think we are going to not be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past,” he said.
As for other aspects of the transition, Biden said that the two teams were “already working out my ability to get Presidential Daily Briefs. We’re already working out meeting with the Covid team in the White House and how to not only distribute but get from a vaccine being distributed to a person able to get vaccinated.”
“And I must say the outreach has been sincere,” he continued, “It has not been begrudging so far, and I don’t expect it to be.”
Biden had objected in recent weeks to being blocked from the classified briefings, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was able to receive similar information in her capacity as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which she is still a member until she is sworn in.
After taping the TV interview over the weekend, Biden said while speaking to reporters that he had not spoken with White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, but that his staff members have and “he’s been very, very helpful.”
