Blocking Biden’s path
What happened
Donald Trump is still refusing to accept defeat in the US election, and his team is still refusing to work with the next administration: Joe Biden has yet to be given access to briefings usually provided to an incoming president. The president-elect has warned that this failure to cooperate in the transition process could severely compromise efforts to distribute a coronavirus vaccine and result in many needless deaths. The warning coincided with a surge in Covid-19 infections; more than a million cases were recorded in America in the past week alone.
On Tuesday, Trump fired a senior Homeland Security official, Christopher Krebs, who had refused to endorse claims of voter fraud. The president has already suffered a string of legal defeats relating to such allegations. Nevertheless, thousands of people marched in Washington on Saturday in support of Trump’s claim that this month’s election had been “rigged”.
What the editorials said
The scale of Trump’s defeat – he lost the popular vote by more than five million – is becoming clearer by the day, said The New York Times. Yet, backed by Republican loyalists, the outgoing president is spending his days repeating false claims of “voter fraud and other nefarious behaviour”. But in doing so, he is causing great harm to the process of government. A presidential transition is a massive undertaking – incoming presidents must make no fewer than 4,000 political appointees, all while assuming leadership of a two millionstrong workforce and preparing a $4.7trn budget. Biden must be allowed to get on with the job. His predecessor is leaving a dangerous legacy, said The Economist: 86% of Trump voters now think Biden’s win was illegitimate. Trump will soon be gone from the White House – “but the distrust he has sowed will not”.
Actually, Trump has every right to challenge the results, said the New York Post. For Democrats – who spent the last four years claiming the 2016 election was “stolen” with help from Russia – to pretend otherwise is hypocrisy of the highest order.
US president-elect Joe Biden has warned that America’s ability to combat Covid-19 could be undermined if Donald Trump does not help facilitate an orderly transition of power. New cases in the US have almost tripled over the past month, to a seven-day average of 160,000 a day, and the rate is still moving upwards. As of last Friday, a record 69,000 patients were in hospitals across the country. On average, around 1,100 people a day are now dying with Covid – around half as many as at the peak in April. However, Biden’s team has so far been refused access to official Covid-19 data and vaccine distribution plans. “More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” said Biden (pictured). “It’s about saving lives, for real – this is not hyperbole.”
A dozen states have imposed new restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, but only New Mexico has ordered a mandatory shutdown. After relatively stringent measures were announced in Michigan,
Dr Scott Atlas, a White House coronavirus adviser, urged people in the state to “rise up” against the restrictions on their freedom. “The only way this stops is if people rise up,” he tweeted. “You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp.”