Biden unveils his administration as Trump's firewall crumbles

After nearly three weeks of his absurd legal claims and corrosive attacks on democracy, a cascade of momentous developments Monday obliterated the President's fantasy that he would have a second term.

In the most significant and symbolic sign that it's over for Trump, General Services Administrator Emily Murphy, heeding the inevitability of constitutional processes, finally switched on the administrative machinery that will formally transfer power to President-elect Joe Biden.

The legally mandated transition will unblock millions of dollars in funding and compel the administration to grant access and briefings to the President-elect's incoming team. Most importantly, it will allow Biden's representatives to huddle with government health officials to learn how best to escalate the effort to tackle the Covid-19 disaster that is ravaging the nation.

Yet even before Murphy's belated move, Biden had engineered a tangible shift in implied power from the current administration to the next, unveiling a slew of high-profile Cabinet appointments. In the process, he turned his White House from a theoretical proposition into a tangible glimpse of the policies and leadership style that will set America's course from January 20 next year.

Biden's choices, including longtime aide Antony Blinken as secretary of state, signaled that the President-elect plans an era of serious, unostentatious governance after years of Trump's dictates by tweets and a Cabinet assembled from appointees who can be relied upon to pay him homage. Biden also plans to pick former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as treasury secretary, according to two sources familiar with his plans.