Trump administration gives green light to proceed with Biden transition

WASHINGTON-Reuters

After weeks of waiting, President Donald Trump's administration on Nov. 23 cleared the way for President-elect Joe Biden to transition to the White House, giving him access to briefings and funding even as Trump vowed to continue fighting the election results.

Trump, a Republican, has alleged widespread voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election without providing evidence. Although he did not concede or acknowledge his Democratic rival's victory on Nov. 23, Trump's announcement that his staff would cooperate with Biden's represented a significant shift and was the closest he has come to admitting defeat.

Biden won 306 state-by-state electoral votes, well over the 270 needed for victory, to Trump's 232. Biden also holds a lead of more than 6 million in the national popular vote.

The Trump campaign's legal efforts to overturn the election have almost entirely failed in key battleground states, and a growing number of Republican leaders, business executives and national security experts have urged the president to let the transition begin.

The president-elect has begun naming members of his team, including tapping trusted aide Antony Blinken to head the State Department, without waiting for government funding or a Trump concession. But critics have accused the president of undermining U.S. democracy and undercutting the next administration's ability to fight the coronavirus pandemic with his refusal to accept the results.

On Nov. 23, the General Services Administration, the federal agency that must sign off on presidential transitions, told Biden he could formally begin the hand-over process. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said in a letter that Biden would get access to resources that had been denied to him because of the legal challenges seeking to overturn his win.

That means Biden's team will now have federal funds and an official office to conduct his transition until he takes office on Jan. 20. It also paves the way for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to receive regular national security briefings that Trump also gets.

The GSA announcement came shortly after Michigan officials certified Biden as the victor in their state, making Trump's legal efforts to change the election outcome even more unlikely to succeed.

Trump and his advisers said he would continue to pursue legal avenues but his decision to give Murphy the go-ahead to proceed with a transition for Biden's administration indicated even the White House understood it was getting close to time to move on.

"Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good ... fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same," Trump said on Twitter.

'Closest thing to a concession'
A Trump adviser painted the move as similar to both candidates receiving briefings during the campaign and said the president's statement was not a concession.

The Biden transition team said meetings would begin with federal officials on Washington's response to the coronavirus pandemic, along with discussions of national security issues.

Two Trump administration officials said the Biden agency review teams could begin interacting with Trump agency officials as soon as Tuesday.

"This is probably the closest thing to a concession that President Trump could issue," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Murphy, who was appointed to the GSA job by Trump in 2017 and said she faced threats for not starting the transition earlier, told GSA employees in a letter that the decision to do so was hers alone.

"I was never pressured with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. The decision was solely mine," she wrote. The GSA had insisted that Murphy would "ascertain" or formally approve the transition when the winner was clear.

Representative Don Beyer, who led the Obama administration's transition at the Commerce Department in 2008, said Murphy's delay was "costly and unnecessary" and warned that Trump could still do great harm in his remaining time in office.

Top Democrats in the House and Senate on Nov. 23 warned that an executive order signed by Trump in October could result in mass firings of federal employees in the final weeks of his presidency and allow the Republican president to install loyalists in the federal bureaucracy.