WASHINGTON (OSV News) — This week in Washington, President Joe Biden pledged a peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Donald Trump in January, reminding Americans, “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Following the Nov. 5 election, control of the U.S. House control of the House remained unclear as of Nov. 8. And a coalition of Western Apache people, along with other Native American and non-Indigenous supporters reiterated their request to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their sacred site at Oak Flat, Arizona, in what could be a major religious liberty case.
Biden pledges peaceful transfer
In Nov. 7 remarks at the Rose Garden, Biden said there will be a “peaceful transfer of power” on Jan. 20, 2025, pledging to uphold the norm after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.
The speech was notable as Trump never conceded to Biden in the wake of his 2020 loss, and sought to remain in office despite Biden’s election.
“Yesterday, I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory,” Biden said. “And I assured him that I would direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve.”
Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, praised Harris, his running mate he endorsed to replace him as the Democratic nominee when he ended his own reelection bid in July, as a person of character.
“She has a backbone like a ramrod,” he said. “She has great character, true character. She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.”
But Biden said “I know, for some people, it’s a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it’s a time of loss.”
“Campaigns are contests of competing visions,” he added. “The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree. Something I hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans, bring down the temperature.”
Biden also said he hopes the outcome lays to rest “the question about the integrity of the American electoral system.”
“It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent,” he said. “And it can be trusted, win or lose.”
Additionally, on Nov. 7, Trump named Susie Wiles, his campaign co-chair and the Florida strategist who oversaw his political operation since after he departed from the White House in 2021, as his White House chief of staff for his incoming administration. Wiles will be the first woman to hold that role, an influential position that generally consists of managing the president’s staff and schedule, as well as interactions with government agencies and lawmakers.
Republicans extend Senate gains, control of House remains unclear
Although Republicans were projected to have won control of the Senate, control of the House was not yet clear on Nov. 8, as about two dozen races were still uncalled. If Republicans maintain control of the lower chamber, they will likely have a narrow majority, but will have unified control of government to enact Trump’s legislative agenda for the next two years.
Whichever party wins at least 218 seats will control the lower chamber, and although neither party had reached the threshold as of the morning of Nov. 8, results were on track to favor the GOP. According to projections by the Associated Press, of the races that have been called, Democrats won 199 seats while Republicans had won 211.
In the Senate, Republicans won control after they were projected to win races in Ohio and West Virginia, flipping two seats currently held by Democratic incumbents Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Catholic and the Senate’s last pro-life Democrat. They extended that lead further with Montana’s Democratic Sen. Jon Tester falling to Republican challenger Tim Sheehy.
That lead continued with another notable flip. The Associated Press projected Nov. 7 that Republican David McCormick, the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, defeated three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. in a key-swing state contest.
Casey’s father, the late Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey Sr., was a notable pro-life Democrat and Catholic, who was denied a speaking slot at the 1992 Democratic National Convention because he spoke out against abortion. The junior Casey seemed to share his father’s pro-life convictions early in his Senate career, but eventually reversed his position by the time the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Justices asked again to intervene in Native American case backed by US bishops
A coalition of Western Apache people, along with other Native American and non-Indigenous supporters, under the banner of the non-profit Apache Stronghold, again asked the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 7 to protect their sacred site at Oak Flat, Arizona, from by rejecting plans by the federal government to give the land to a copper mining giant.
Apache Stronghold previously sought relief from the Supreme Court earlier this year after a federal appeals court rejected their request.
Oak Flat in Tonto National Forest — about 70 miles outside of Phoenix — is considered a sacred site by the region’s Indigenous peoples and is on the National Register of Historic Places. However, after the discovery of copper deposits on the land, in December 2014, Congress authorized the U.S. Forest Service to swap the land for other sites with Resolution Copper, a foreign-owned mining company, and lifted a mining ban on Oak Flat.
An environmental impact report mandated by the National Environmental Protection Act estimated that mining the site would result in a crater nearly 2 miles in diameter and about 800 to 1,000 feet deep, which the group argued would destroy land they hold as sacred.
“Oak Flat is our spiritual lifeblood — like Mt. Sinai for Jews or Mecca for Muslims — the sacred place where generations of Apache have connected with our Creator,” Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold said in a statement. “The government should protect Oak Flat just like it protects the sacred places of all other faiths in this country — not give it to a foreign-owned mining company for destruction.”
In October court filings, Catholic bishops, groups and legal scholars were among the religious groups who offered their support to Apache Stronghold in friend of the court briefs, also known as amicus briefs.
“Blasting the birthplace of Apache religion into oblivion would be an egregious violation of our nation’s promise of religious freedom for people of all faiths,” Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, a religious liberty law firm, said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has a strong track record of protecting religious freedom, and we expect the Court to take this case and confirm that Native American religious practices are fully protected by federal law.”
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @kgscanlon.
