Top Biden aide says U.S. government must approve transition this week

[November 16, 2020]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's incoming chief of staff on Sunday said the federal government needs to sign off on transition team efforts this week so that Biden's team can receive national security briefings and address COVID-19.

Vice President Joe Biden (R) is joined by Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain (L) while he speaks with organization leaders that are responding to the Ebola crisis, while in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, November 13, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing

"What we really want to see this week ... is the General Services Administration issue that ascertainment," Ron Klain said on NBC News' "Meet the Press."

Trump's tweet acknowledging Biden's win - before later saying he did not concede - had no bearing on the actuality of the election, Klain added.

"Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that,” he told NBC.

(This story has been refiled to fix typographical error in headline)

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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