Biden says outreach from Trump admin has been 'sincere' as transition begins

President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that outreach from the Trump administration has already begun and described it as "sincere," a day after a federal agency released a letter to formally begin the transition of power.

"Immediately, we've gotten outreach from the national security shop to just across the board," Biden said in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt. "And they're already working out my ability to get presidential daily briefs, we're already working out meeting with the Covid team in the White House and how to not only distribute but get from a vaccine being distributed to a person able to get vaccinated, so I think we're gonna not be so far behind the curve as we thought might be in the past."

He added, "And I must say the outreach has been sincere — it has not been begrudging so far and I don't expect it to be."

Watch more of Biden's first interview since the election on NBC's Nightly News with Lester Holt at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT

This comes as President Donald Trump has not conceded the race and appears to continue his sputtering legal battle in an attempt to overturn the election — a strategy that took a blow this week as states have begun to certify their election results. After Michigan certified its results on Monday, the head of the General Services Administration informed Biden that the official governmental transition process has been approved following weeks of delay.

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said in a letter that Biden, whom she referred to as "the apparent president-elect," is now able to get access to millions of dollars in federal funds and other resources to begin his transition to power. In her letter, Murphy also denied that she had been under pressure from the White House to delay the process.

Hours later, the president tweeted on Monday that he would “never concede to fake ballots and ‘Dominion,'” referring to a conspiracy theory that baselessly alleges a company that makes voting machines deleted millions of Trump votes.

The refusal stopped Biden's team from gaining critical access to government resources as the nation grapples with rising Covid-19 case numbers and economic uncertainty. However, Biden has begun filling out his Cabinet and announcing personnel for other senior roles during the delay. He also held briefings with former top government officials and formed his own Covid-19 task force.

Trump and the GSA faced increasing pressure as a growing number of Republican lawmakers began to publicly call for Biden to be granted access, citing national security concerns. Democratic lawmakers had also begun calling for Murphy to testify before Congress.