After a long, hard, tedious election “night” that spanned the course of nearly five days, the American people have spoken, our voices have been heard loud and clear, and Joseph R. Biden is now the president-elect of the United States of America.
To say that this has been a long, hard road would be an understatement — not just the unprecedentedly long election process as a result of an influx of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the entirely unprecedented four years we have suffered through under the reign of terror that has been the Trump administration. But the end is finally near.
However, according to a new report from The Washington Post, things are not going as smoothly as they should.
As we’ve seen with our own two eyes over the past week, Donald Trump is clinging tight to the pipe dream of a second term and outright refusing to accept the result of the presidential race, which has ultimately resulted in countless, baseless lawsuits, court filings, litigations, and tweets. To be perfectly honest, it’s beginning to seem like the man may literally have to be physically removed from the White House come inauguration day. And according to this new reporting, it’s not just the President himself that’s stirring up so much trouble.
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Now that Biden is officially the president-elect in this nation, it’s time for him and his team to start working on their transition. However, the Post reports that a little known Trump appointee who’s tasked with handing over transition resources to the Biden team is refusing to cooperate — serving as further proof that the incumbent Donald Trump intends to make this transition as painful as possible.
According to the report, General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Emily Murphy is refusing to sign a letter that would allow President-Elect Joe Biden and his transition team access to the resources needed to start making the swap — including but not limited to millions of dollars in funding, access to government officials, certain office spaces, and equipment that is authorized for use by the tax-payer funded transition team of the election winner.
Essentially, this letter amounts to a formal declaration by the federal government, going above and beyond the projections and calls of media networks, of who won the presidential race. And being that Donald Trump has made it crystal clear that he has no plans to concede the race, despite the numbers, it comes as no surprise that the Trump team is refusing to sign such an essential document, and apparently has no plans to do so any time soon. However, by refusing to sign the letter required to start the transition, the Trump administration could be the cause of the first presidential transition delay since the infamous Bush vs. Gore recount of 2000.
A spokeswoman for GSA, Pamela Pennington, wrote in an email, “An ascertainment has not yet been made and its Administrator will continue to abide by and fulfill, all requirements under the law.”
This statement has reportedly left transition experts to wonder just when, exactly, the Trump administration intends to allow the transition to move forward. One senior administration official spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity and has this to say: “No agency head is going to get out in front of the president on transition issues right now.”
The source also predicted that agency heads within the Trump administration will be instructed not to talk to the Biden transition team.
Thus far, no information has been given as to a timeframe for when the transition process will be allowed to begin.
You can read the full report from The Washington Post here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
