即将上任的白宫办公厅主任罗恩·克莱恩周日说，当选总统乔·拜登将很快宣布他的第一个内阁人选，这表明他行动迅速继续他的转变尽管总统唐纳德·特朗普的拒绝放弃比赛。

“你将在本周二看到当选总统的第一次内阁任命，”克莱恩在“本周”的独家采访中告诉美国广播公司首席新闻主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯。

“但如果你想知道他们是什么内阁机构，或者谁将成为这些内阁机构，你必须等待当选总统，他将在周二亲口说，”克莱恩补充说。

虽然拜登和他的过渡仍然停滞不前，但克莱恩确实表示，他们的团队正在推进在华盛顿举行就职典礼的计划，尽管由于冠状病毒流行病。

“这肯定必须改变。我们已经开始就此与众议院和参议院的领导层进行磋商。显然，这不会是我们过去的就职典礼，”克莱恩告诉斯特凡诺普洛斯，并指出拜登和副总统当选人卡玛拉·哈里斯的首要任务将是公共卫生，并确保他们不会加剧新冠肺炎的蔓延。

克莱恩说:“乔·拜登和卡马拉·哈里斯在开展这场运动时，考虑到了美国人民的安全。”。“他们将试图举行一次就职典礼，纪念这一时刻的重要性和象征意义，但也不会导致疾病的传播。这是我们的目标。”

克莱恩还坚称，尽管公共安全至关重要，但拜登获胜后，美国人民确实有很多值得庆祝的事情。他说，预计民主党在8月份的虚拟大会上部署的许多策略和方法将在就职典礼上再次使用。

“我们看到乔·拜登和卡马拉·哈里斯被宣布为美国总统和副总统的那一天，全世界的人，尤其是美国人，在街上跳舞。我们知道人们想要庆祝。这里有值得庆祝的事情。我们只是想尽可能安全地找到一种方法，”克莱恩说。

克莱恩还继续推动总务管理局(GSA)确定拜登是选举的获胜者，这将使他们的团队能够正式开始过渡工作。

“我们无法对内阁提名人进行背景调查。所以肯定会有影响。这些影响每天都在升级，我希望美国总务管理局的局长能尽职尽责。

斯蒂芬诺普洛斯也对即将上任的白宫办公厅主任提出质疑，他质疑特朗普和他的政府值得称赞的进步在发现新冠肺炎疫苗的基础上做出的，克莱恩转而赞扬了致力于疫苗开发的科学家，并展望了他所说的分发该疫苗的“更大的一步”。

“我认为，每个参与其中的人都应该为此受到表扬。最重要的是从科学家和杰出的男女科学家开始，他们完成了这项工作，但是...疫苗不能拯救生命。接种疫苗拯救生命，”克莱恩说。“因此，为使这种疫苗能够被美国食品和药物管理局批准而进行的科学工作，希望非常非常快，只是第一步。更大的一步实际上是让美国人民接种疫苗。这很难。”

当斯特凡诺普洛斯指出负责特朗普政府“曲速行动”的四星陆军上将古斯塔夫·佩纳将军本周早些时候说美国广播公司的《早安美国》克莱恩指出，由于过渡期的停滞，疫苗分发已经并将不会“放缓”，他指出政府测试工作的不足之处，证明美国人质疑他们有效协调新冠肺炎疫苗分发的能力仍然是正确的。

“特朗普政府已经为此努力了八九个月。在此过程中，不到三分之一的美国人接受了COVID测试。所以，现在的问题是，我们如何在短时间内让100%的美国人接种疫苗?克莱恩说:“我认为，美国人民对特朗普政府处理这一问题的方式持怀疑态度是正确的，这一挑战在很大程度上落在了拜登政府的肩上。”

克林也叫川普的拒绝让步选举对拜登“有腐蚀性”和“有害”，但表示这不会改变拜登获胜的事实。

“唐纳德·特朗普一直拒绝民主。他一直在……发起毫无根据的选民欺诈指控，毫无根据的诉讼被34家法院驳回，现在这些努力试图让选举官员推翻选民的意愿。克莱恩说:“这是腐蚀性的，也是有害的，但是……这不会改变1月20日中午12点这里发生的事情的结果，乔·拜登将成为下一任美国总统。”。

斯特凡诺普洛斯担心特朗普可能试图对拜登总统任期的合法性散布怀疑，并担心70%的共和党人在最近的蒙莫斯大学民意测验克莱恩说，他们认为拜登因选民欺诈而击败了特朗普，他认为当选总统和他的团队知道他们需要努力接触共和党人。他还明确表示，拜登将遵守他在竞选期间做出的承诺，努力团结全国。

“我们知道我们必须接触共和党人。我们知道我们必须把国家团结起来。事实上，这是乔·拜登总统竞选的全部精髓，试图治愈这个国家，修复它的灵魂，恢复它的脊梁，团结这个国家——团结这个国家是他正在做的事情，”克莱恩说。

即将上任的白宫办公厅主任还表示，他希望参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)等共和党高层尽快接受选举结果，并表示，宾夕法尼亚州共和党参议员帕特·图梅(Pat Toomey)和犹他州共和党参议员米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)的声明令他感到鼓舞，他们呼吁特朗普做出让步，开始过渡进程。

斯蒂芬诺普洛斯(Stephanopoulos)今年2月在接受美国广播公司(ABC News)采访时，拜登曾表示，民主党人需要夺回美国参议院——除非他们赢得佐治亚州剩余的两次决胜选举，否则他们将无法做到这一点——对此，克莱恩表示，他们的团队已经开始向南方各州投入资源，将两个席位都变成蓝色。他还补充说，拜登将与明年1月最终当选的任何参议院合作。

“当然是现实...克莱恩说:“即使我们赢得了他们两个，我认为我们也会赢得他们两个——我认为两个候选人都做得很好——我们将有一个几乎分裂的参议院，在任何情况下都是如此。”他吹捧拜登在过道对面工作的记录，并重申拜登可能在1月份的决选之前亲自在格鲁吉亚竞选。

“无论格鲁吉亚发生什么。显然我们想赢得那些席位。我真的很想看到查克·舒默成为美国参议院的下一任多数党领袖...但是不管结果如何，我们都将为美国人民服务。而这就是使命。”

Biden's 1st cabinet picks coming on Tuesday: Incoming WH chief of staff

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday that President-electJoe Bidenwill soon announce his first cabinet picks, a sign that he is moving swiftlyforward with his transitiondespite PresidentDonald Trump's refusalto concede the race.

"You're going to see the first of the president-elect's cabinet appointments on Tuesday of this week," Klain told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on "This Week."

"But if you want to know what cabinet agencies they are or who's going to be those cabinet agencies, you'll have to wait for the president-elect, He'll say that himself on Tuesday," Klain added.

While Biden and his transition remain stalled, Klain did say that their team is moving forward with plans for an inauguration in Washington, albeit one that is drastically different than in years past due to thecoronaviruspandemic.

"It's going to definitely have to be changed. We've started some consultations with House and Senate leadership on that. Obviously this is not going to be the same kind of inauguration we've had in the past," Klain told Stephanopoulos, noting that Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris' top priorities will be public health and ensuring they do not exacerbate the spread of COVID-19.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris conducted this campaign with the safety of the American people in mind," Klain said. "They're going to try to have an inauguration that honors the importance and the symbolic meaning of the moment, but also does not result in the spread of the disease. That's our goal."

Klain also maintained that while public safety is paramount, the American people do have a lot to celebrate after Biden's win. He said to expect many of the tactics and methods deployed by Democrats during their mostly virtual convention in August to be utilized again for the inauguration.

"We saw the day that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were announced as president and vice president of the United States people all over the world, and particularly in America, dancing in the streets. We know people want to celebrate. There is something here to celebrate. We just want to try to find a way to do it as safely as possible," Klain said.

Klain also continued to push for the General Services Administration (GSA) to ascertain Biden as the winner of the election, which would allow their team to formally begin its transition work.

"We're not in a position to get background checks on cabinet nominees. And so there are definite impacts. Those impacts escalate every day and I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job," Klain said.

The incoming chief of staff also was also challenged by Stephanopoulos on whether Trump and his administrationdeserve credit on the progressmade on the discovery of a COVID-19 vaccine, to which Klain pivoted and praised the scientists who have worked on vaccine development and looked ahead to what he said is the "bigger step" of distributing said vaccine.

"I think that everyone involved should get credit for that. It starts most importantly with the scientists and brilliant men and women who have done this work, but ... vaccines don't save lives. Vaccinations save lives," Klain said. "So the scientific work that's been done to get this vaccine to the place where it can be approved by the FDA, hopefully very, very soon, is just the first step. The much bigger step is actually getting those vaccinations to the American people. That's hard."

When Stephanopoulos pointed out that Gen. Gustave Perna, the four-star Army general in charge of the Trump administration's "Operation Warp Speed," said earlier this week onABC's "Good Morning America"that there has been and will not be a "slowdown" in vaccine distribution due to the stalled transition, Klain pointed to the shortcomings in the administration's testing efforts as evidence that Americans are still right to question their ability to effectively coordinate the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"The Trump administration has been at this for eight or nine months. In the course of that, fewer than one in three Americans has gotten a COVID test. And so, now, the question is how can we get 100% of Americans a vaccine in short order? That is a challenge that I think the American people are right to be skeptical about in terms of the way in which the Trump administration would handle it, and that's a challenge that has been largely fallen to the Biden administration," Klain argued.

Klain also called Trump'srefusal to concedethe election to Biden "corrosive" and "harmful," but said it will not change the fact that Biden won.

"Donald Trump's been rejecting democracy. He has been … launching baseless claims of voter fraud, baseless litigation rejected by 34 courts and now these efforts to try to get election officials to overturn the will of the voters. It's corrosive, it's harmful, but … it's not going to change the outcome of what happens here at 12 noon on Jan. 20, Joe Biden will become the next president of the United States," Klain said.

Pressed by Stephanopoulos on worries that Trump may be attempting to sow doubt about the legitimacy of Biden's presidency and that 70% of Republicans in a recentMonmouth University pollsaid they believe Biden defeated Trump due to voter fraud, Klain argued that the president-elect and his team know they need to work to reach out to Republicans. He also made clear that Biden will keep the promise that he made during the campaign to try and unite the country.

"We know we have to reach out to Republicans. We know we have to bring the country together. In fact, that's been the entire essence of Joe Biden's campaign for the presidency, trying to heal this nation, repair its soul, restore its backbone, unite the country -- and uniting the country is what he's doing," Klain said.

The incoming White House chief of staff also said he hopes top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will soon accept the results of the election, and said he is encouraged by statements from Republican Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah who have called on Trump to concede and begin the transition process.

Pressed by Stephanopoulos on a comment Biden made during an interview with ABC News back in February about the need for Democrats to take back the United States Senate -- something they will fail to do unless they win the remaining two runoff elections in the state of Georgia -- Klain said that their team has already begun devoting resources to the southern state to flip both seats blue. He also added that Biden will work with whatever Senate is ultimately elected come January.

"The reality, of course ... is that even if we win them both, and I think we will win them both -- I think both candidates are doing a great job -- we're going to have a closely divided Senate, kind of under any scenario," Klain said, touting Biden's record of working across the aisle and reiterating that Biden is likely to campaign in-person in Georgia ahead of the January runoff elections.

"Whatever happens in Georgia. Obviously we want to win those seats. I really want to see Chuck Schumer be the next majority leader in the U.S. Senate ... but however that comes out, we are going to deliver for the American people. And that's the mission."