Joe Biden’s moves suggest he will not wait for a Trump concession that might not come

President golfs and raises money for legal fees as he presses ahead with legal challenges in several swing states

President-elect Joe Biden is not waiting on Donald Trump to concede the election, moving ahead with an agenda that includes assembling his own coronavirus task force and addressing the climate crisis.

Mr Biden is expected to formally announce his Covid-19 group on Monday after attending church services on Sunday and then retreating to his Wilmington, Delaware, home to get deeper into transition planning. The White House is not expected to begin cooperating with the Biden team, as is custom once a sitting president has conceded a loss.

Mr Biden is believed to be preparing a series of executive orders to reverse some of Mr Trump’s policies. They include re-entering the Paris climate accords, which the US officially left last week, and to stop the process of leaving the World Health Organisation. He is also expected to repeal Mr Trump's ban on travel to the US from some Muslim-majority countries.

As the incoming administration gets to work, progressives like New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are making waves and – less than 24 hours after he was declared the winner – defying his calls for national unity and bipartisan compromise in Washington. As she defended her liberal policy whims on cable news on Sunday, Mr Biden’s team was already trying to hold together what promises to be a wobbly and bickering House Democratic caucus.

“I think that vice president Biden campaigned on an incredibly progressive and aggressive agenda. Take a look, for example, at his climate plan. It's the boldest, biggest climate plan that's ever been put forward by, you know, by a nominee running for president and now a president-elect. He's going to make good on those commitments,” Biden deputy campaign manager and communications director Kate Bedingfield told NBC News.

“He spent time during this campaign bringing people together around this climate plan. He was able to get the endorsement of groups like the Sunrise Movement and the endorsement of labour for this plan,” she contended. “It's a big, aggressive plan. It's a perfect example of the kind of, you know, big effort that he is going to make to meet this moment and to meet these crises that we’re in.”

Mr Biden used part of his Saturday evening victory speech to signal achieving most of his agenda will require addressing the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over 237,000 people in the United States and infected nearly 10 million.

“What is the will of the people? What is our mandate? I believe it's this: America has called upon us to marshal the forces of decency, the forces of fairness. To marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time,” he said. “The battle to control the virus, the battle to build prosperity, the battle to secure your family's healthcare.

“The battle to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country. And the battle to save our planet by getting climate under control. The battle to restore decency, defend democracy and give everybody in this country a fair shot. That's all they're asking for. A fair shot,” Mr Biden said. “Folks, our work begins with getting Covid under control.”

How quickly does he intend to move towards what will be a difficult task?

“On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris Covid plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on January the 20th, 2021,” he said in front of car-honking supporters, many of whom waved American flags.

“That plan will be built on bedrock science,” he said in a jab at Mr Trump, whom he has said is not listening to experts about the virus he both contracted and admitted to publicly downplaying. “It will be constructed out of compassion, empathy and concern. I will spare no effort, none, or any commitment to turn around this pandemic.”

Biden aides say they are starting with a handful of pressing matter the boss sees as his top priorities.

‘Right away’

Kate Bedingfield, Mr Biden’s deputy campaign manager, said on Sunday “the work starts right away”.

“I mean, you know, those are the promises that he's campaigned on throughout this entire campaign. He's addressed these four crises that we're facing,” she said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“You're going to see, for example, he's going to launch the coronavirus task force tomorrow. It's going to be led by Vivek Murthy and David Kessler, who've been advising him and our campaign since this virus emerged back in March,” she said, adding the former vice president also wants to stress finding ways to “address a mandate to bring the country together, to unify, to lower the temperature, to set aside the harsh rhetoric of the campaign and get to the hard work of governing”.

Mr Biden has yet to speak to the House and Senate Republican leaders, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, who both have yet to congratulate or publicly refer to him as the president-elect. But he is expected to speak to more senior Republicans this week.

As his election sets in, Mr Biden will “begin transition work in earnest this week,” Ms Bedingfield said. “He'll be making calls. He'll be making announcements to the American people about how he's going to make good on these campaign promises.”

“And I think, look, we saw the Biden-Harris ticket get the most votes of any presidential ticket in the history of presidential politics,” she said. “People are hungry for change. They want to unify, they want to come together. That's how president-elect Biden is going to lead.”

But as he prepares to take over on 20 January, he will have to deal with his party’s rowdy and headstrong progressive wing.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday would not say she is ready to negotiate with moderate Republicans even after Mr Biden urged the parties to seek compromise.

Asked if she would seek common ground on legislation with “moderate” Republicans, the soon-to-be sophomore member did not say yes. Instead, she told CNN she plans to try helping Democratic Senate candidates in races that have not yet been called win “so we don’t have to negotiate in that manner”.

Her resistance to even consider seeking legislation that also could pass a GOP-controlled Senate is in stark contrast to her party’s now-leader.

“Refusal of Democrats and Republicans to cooperate with one another. It’s not some mysterious force beyond our control,” Mr Biden said on Saturday night. “It’s a decision, a choice we make. And if we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate.”