PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden’s top advisers yesterday outlined his plans to tackle the nation’s multiple crises while balancing the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, as an historic inauguration week opens in the United States.

Washington was under the watch of thousands of National Guard troops and ringed with security barriers ahead of Biden’s swearing in on Wednesday, in a nation still rattled by the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Pro-Trump protests planned at state capitols nationwide got off to a quiet start with only small groups of armed demonstrators gathering in states, including Ohio, Texas, Oregon and Michigan.

“The events of the past few weeks have proven out just how damaged the soul of America has been and how important is to restore it. That work starts on Wednesday,” Biden’s incoming chief of staff Ron Klain told CNN.

“We’re inheriting a huge mess here, but we have a plan to fix it.”

As the president-elect prepares to take power in a city where only two weeks earlier Trump supporters launched a violent attempt to overturn the election, Biden faces overlapping crises: not only the pandemic but a struggling economy, climate change and racial tensions.

Biden wants the Congress to act quickly on a massive, US$1.9 trillion (RM7.8 trillion) stimulus package to revive the economy, and he plans a blitz to accelerate the United States’ stumbling Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

His target of seeing 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine injected within his first 100 days in office is “absolutely” achievable, top US scientist Anthony Fauci told NBC yesterday.

“The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear, there’s no doubt about it,” said Fauci, who will be Biden’s chief adviser on the virus, as he was Trump’s.

But the coming Senate impeachment trial – an unprecedented second for Trump – casts a shadow over Biden’s path forward.

Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have yet to say when the trial will begin. 

“I don’t think there’s any promised date when speaker Pelosi is going to present the articles of impeachment,” Dick Durbin, a Democratic leader in the Senate, told CNN. 

“We understand, under the constitution, we have a responsibility to act as quickly as possible.”

Biden has said he hopes the Congress can deal with that stark distraction even while advancing his aggressive agenda.

Adding to the uncertainty is a badly riven Republican Party – divided over Trump’s false assertions that he won November’s elections, his fanning of emotions ahead of the deadly Capitol invasion, and on the future direction of the party. – AFP, January 18, 2021.