Biden unveils plans for expanded access to the vaccine

Pence called his soon-to-be successor Harris on Thursday to congratulate her, more than two months after she and Biden won the November election and just five days before the new administration takes office.

Pence’s belated call to Harris came a week after Congress formally certified the electoral college votes. Pence recognized Biden and Harris as the winners when he declared it Jan. 7 at 3:41 a.m. once Congress completed the count.

Trump’s refusal to accept the election results complicated Pence’s timeline for reaching out to Harris. Trump hasn’t called Biden to congratulate him and has not formally conceded defeat, and for weeks Pence deferred to Trump on their post-election position.

But after last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington that saw Trump supporters and the president himself turn against Pence for upholding his legal responsibility to oversee the electoral college vote count, the vice president has stepped into a sort of de facto presidential role.

Not only did Pence call Harris to offer his congrats, he also is planning to attend the inauguration, which Trump is not. This week it was Pence, not Trump, who sat in on an FBI security briefing about efforts to counter violent actors who may descend on Washington again.

It’s unclear whether Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, will have Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to the vice-presidential residence before Wednesday as is custom. Trump has no plans to invite Biden and wife Jill Biden to the White House.