The four best ways Team Biden can show America the Donald Trump era is really over

Tame the COVID-19 pandemic? Check.

Move on an infrastructure and jobs plan? Check.

Restore ties with key allies? Check.

Presidents only have so much time and so much political capital, and not everything can be done at once. President Joe Biden has correctly focused on the big stuff, things that he thinks will pay big dividends down the road.

We’re already seeing the fruits of this focus. To give just one example, nearly 12.1 million people flew during the last seven days in May, according to “throughput” data from the Transportation Security Administration. TSA says that’s up from 2.15 million a year ago. We’re still not back to pre-pandemic levels (the comparable 2019 figure was almost 17 million, but we’re getting there). This unquestionably translates into increased business at hotels, restaurants and such – and validates the president’s view that getting Americans vaccinated and reviving the economy is a single intertwined goal.

Trump taxes and Russia documents

Given these priorities – urgent and overwhelming – it’s understandable that Biden hasn’t focused as much on other items as some of his more than 81 million voters might prefer. But the time has now come to start working through his lengthy to-do list. Just as former President Donald Trump did whatever he could to undo Barack Obama's presidency, Biden must accelerate efforts to do the same to Trump’s.

To that end, for example, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland reversed a major Trump policy last week by suspending oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a pristine 19-million acre site in northern Alaska. Environmentalists (and polar bears) are delighted.

But the biggest thing that Biden must do is show in higher profile fashion that he has reasserted respect for our laws and Constitution. Trump treated them like doormats. He turned the Department of Justice into his own law firm and his attorneys general into personal boot-licking lackeys. William Barr in particular disgraced himself by putting the needs of the president above those of the American people.

To reassert the primacy of the law – the very bedrock of our fragile democracy – here are four significant things that Biden and his team can do:

►Attorney General Merrick Garland should release DOJ documents that may contain evidence that Trump obstructed justice. Specifically, this concerns the probe by special counsel (and former FBI Director) Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump's interference with that probe. It’s notable that two U.S. District Court judges – Amy Berman Jackson and Reggie Walton – have accused Trump’s DOJ of being disingenuous about this. Mueller himself said in 2019 that Barr’s summation of his report lacked “context,” which is a euphemistic way of saying it was dishonest.

Danger zone: Two new reasons Trump should worry about the New York legal investigations. A lot.

►Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen should release Trump’s tax returns to the congressional committee that asked for them. It’s the law, actually, which means that Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was breaking it (or acting illegally) when he blocked the House Ways and Means Committee request for his boss’ returns.

New York prosecutors investigating alleged criminal wrongdoing by Trump already have his tax returns and “underlying tax documents,” but so far we haven’t heard what secrets they contain. We do know that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who requested the documents, late last month convened a special grand jury – which could be looking at those very documents right now.

Investigate Jan. 6 and get rid of DeJoy

►The White House should form its own bipartisan panel to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. This wouldn’t be necessary if congressional Republicans hadn’t disrespected the U.S. Capitol Police by blocking an investigation – shamefully turning their backs on the very same brave men and women who protect them. But here we are. There is still much to be learned about coordination among the coup plotters, who financed them (follow the money here), and even allegations that some members of Congress arranged “reconnaissance” tours ahead of the insurrection.

Republicans spent years investigating attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 but are afraid of a probe into the worst attack on Washington since 1814? Deplorable is too kind a word.

High risk: January 6 Commission defeat previews dangerous failures to come on voting and elections

►Find a way to get rid of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. In the runup to the November election, DeJoy oversaw the slowing of mail delivery, removed high-speed letter sorters from U.S. Postal Service facilities and issued a stark warning to election officials that mail-in ballots would no longer automatically be moved as priority mail. On top of that, the USPS reduced operating hours and removed letter collection boxes in several states.

Unfortunately, Biden does not have the power to fire DeJoy for politicizing and mismanaging mail delivery, and thus threatening one of our most important rights: voting. But the USPS Board of Governors does have that power, and Biden has begun to chip away at Trump's hold on the board. After Senate approval of three Biden nominees last month, five of its nine members are Democratic appointees. Democrats in Congress are already pressuring them to oust DeJoy.

Sunshine, it is said, is the best disinfectant. Let Americans see, once and for all, the truth about the Russia investigation. The truth about the traitorous attack on our Capitol. The truth about what has been going on at the Postal Service. And perhaps Trump's taxes could be released to the public, as Biden's were last month. All this will drive home the point that no one, not even presidents, is above the law or the Constitution.

Paul Brandus is the founder and White House bureau chief of West Wing Reports and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. His latest book is "Jackie: Her Transformation from First Lady to Jackie O." Follow him on Twitter: @WestWingReport

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden moves on Capitol riot, taxes, Russia, DeJoy can mark Trump era end