Biden instructed civil rights leaders in personal assembly that progressives’ hopes for government actions are ‘approach past the bounds’ of his presidential authority

Biden told a group of seven civil rights group leaders that some progressive Democrats are calling for executive action “well beyond the limits” of a president’s legal authority. The comments reflect what Biden has said publicly about the limited scope of executive action and the need for Presidents to work with Congress to pass lasting policies.

During the meeting, Biden said he plans to roll back everything President Donald Trump has done through executive action rather than with the approval of Congress. He said he would use his powers “to undo every damn thing that executive guy did”.

“I’m not going to break the Constitution. The executive power that my progressive friends talk about is way beyond the borders,” he said.

But he said he would not seek executive action to instigate policy changes that he has long said should be made by Congress.

Biden cited gun control as an example, saying that a future Republican president could lift that ban and use it as a precedent to drastically expand gun rights if he signed an ordinance banning offensive weapons.

“We’ll do that, the next one comes and says, ‘Well, you know what? By order of the executive, everyone can have machine guns again,'” he said. “So we have to be careful.”

The audio of the call, received by The Intercept’s Ryan Grim, was included in the publication’s “Deconstructed” podcast on Thursday and in greater detail in a report on the Progressive Outlet’s website.

When asked about the audio from The Intercept, a Biden transition official said, “President-elect Biden is the same closed-door person he is in public. He is honest, direct and realistic about the challenges ours face Nation on the day he is sworn in. ” The remarks shared at the session reflect the same positions he has taken publicly by order of the executive and, like his predecessors, has the same levers of power to address immediate political issues under the Constitution. “

Biden’s comments came as he continued to expand his cabinet and put together his early agenda. He will take office with a slim majority in the House of Representatives, but the Senate is still undecided. Democrats must win both runoff elections in Georgia on January 5th to take control of the chamber. Otherwise the Republicans would stay in power.

He is facing a tumultuous moment in which Trump refuses to allow the lost elections and many Republicans refuse to acknowledge Biden’s victory and rifts within the Democratic Party at all, as the progressives urge Biden to pursue a bold agenda.

Biden’s decision on Thursday to appoint Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture and repeat the role he held in the administration of former President Barack Obama could smoke the groups on Tuesday’s call.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson warned Biden before calling that choosing Vilsack would upset Georgia black farmers. He pointed to Vilsack’s 2010 sacking of Shirley Sherrod, then director of rural development for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, after right-wing website Breitbart published parts of a speech it later found incoherent.

Johnson told Biden that Sherrod is a hero to Georgia black voters.

“Former Secretary Vilsack could have a disastrous impact on Georgia voters. Shirley Sherrod is a civil rights legend, a heroine,” Johnson said at the meeting.

But Biden turned down Johnson’s comment on Vilsack, The Intercept reported. He also said the issue of police reform should be avoided – by accusing the “Defund the Police” slogan that some progressives adopted for democratic losses in the 2020 election.

“I also don’t think that we should get too far in tackling the police reform, because they have already referred to us as ‘Defund the Police’, which we put forward in relation to the organizational structure for changing the police – – which I promise you, will enter. Promise you, “said Biden.

“So they beat us all over the country and said we’re talking about defusing the police. We’re not. We’re talking about holding them accountable. We’re talking about giving them money for it.” The right things. We’re talking about getting more psychologists and psychiatrists on the phone when 911 calls. We’re talking about spending money so they can do their job better, not with more strength, with less strength and with more understanding. “