Top US business leaders call on Congress to certify election results
Some of America’s top business leaders called on Congress to certify the electoral results for the president-elect, Joe Biden, in a letter Monday, arguing that “attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy”.
The letter, signed by executives at American Express, Goldman Sachs, JetBlue, Microsoft, Pfizer and others, marks the US business community’s most public effort to date to push back against Donald Trump’s continuing attempts to overturn the election result.
Organized by the business advocacy group Partnership for New York City, the letter states: “The incoming Biden administration faces the urgent tasks of defeating Covid-19 and restoring the livelihoods of millions of Americans who have lost jobs and businesses during the pandemic.
“Our duly elected leaders deserve the respect and bipartisan support of all Americans at a moment when we are dealing with the worst health and economic crises in modern history. There should be no further delay in the orderly transfer of power.”
Many leaders in the business community initially embraced the Trump administration and Trump established a high powered jobs panel to revitalize the US economy. But many of those leaders quit after his apparent support for white supremacists after a fatal rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Among the signatories of Monday’s letter is Jonathan Gray, the chief operating officer of Blackstone, the private equity group run by Stephen Schwarzman, one of Trump’s biggest backers.