USA TODAY International Edition
Biden is forging ahead, despite Trump’s stand
President- elect’s team gets temporary clearance, announces chief of staff
WASHINGTON – While President Donald Trump remains focused on what happened on Nov. 3, President- elect Joe Biden has his eye on what will come after Jan. 20, 2021.
The president- elect is forging ahead with setting up his administration, declaring that his transition to the White House is “well underway,” despite no concession by Trump.
Biden is facing the most contentious transition in recent American history, experts say, presenting major challenges that could hinder his first 100 days in office and pose national security threats. Federal funding for the incoming president is in jeopardy, daily presidential briefings are not getting shared and the chance of a seamless handover between administrations is falling through the cracks.
Even though the Trump administration has blocked most resources for the Biden transition, the team received some access in early September, following the Democratic National Convention, according to a transition official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Federal assistance included the use of 10,000 square feet of space in the Herbert C. Hoover Building, which houses the Commerce Department and sits two blocks from the White House.
But most of the staff is working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s team has also been given temporary security clearance and undergone FBI background checks as part of the process for personnel who will receive intelligence briefings.
The Biden team set out this week to
“They call me to say, you know, ‘ Congratulations, please convey my well- wishes to the president- elect, but I can’t say that publicly yet.’ ” Sen. Chris Coons, D- Del. Referring to Republican colleagues who have privately accepted the election results but publicly stand behind President Trump
underscore that it is getting down to business. Biden announced Wednesday that he has chosen Ron Klain, a longtime adviser to the presidentelect, as White House chief of staff. Klain brings decades of seasoning after serving as Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration and chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration.
Nothing ‘ slowing us down’
“It is critical to keep moving forward with the transition process, to do everything that the transition team can to force an acceptance of reality,” Sen. Chris Coons, D- Del., a close Biden ally, told CNN on Tuesday.
Since surpassing 270 electoral votes to secure the presidency Saturday, Biden has taken the long view, preparing for his inauguration on Jan. 20, when Trump’s presidency officially ends, rather than engaging the president on his allegations of voter fraud.
Biden has assembled a task force to help him implement his plan to combat the coronavirus, taken congratulatory phone calls from six world leaders and plans to announce Cabinet and high- level White House positions by Thanksgiving. The methodical, bythe- books approach reflects how his campaign operated.
“Mr. President, I look forward to speaking with you,” Biden said when asked what his message was for Trump in his first news conference since becoming the president- elect.
He called Trump’s refusal to concede “an embarrassment” but insisted it’s full speed ahead with the transition. “We don’t see anything is slowing us down, quite frankly.”
Trump is contesting the election results, making claims that the election was stolen, as his campaign mounts legal challenges in several states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Attorney General Bill Barr announced he’s authorized prosecutors to “pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities” despite a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud.
‘ Noise ... not really lawsuits’
Bob Bauer, a senior adviser for the Biden campaign, told reporters the Trump campaign’s lawsuits alleging voter fraud amount to “noise, not really law; theatrics, not really lawsuits.” He said Trump can’t overturn the election results.
Judges have dismissed seven Trump lawsuits since Election Day in addition to six before Election Day, he said.
“That’s quite the won- loss record, losing time after time,” Bauer said, adding that the constant theme is a lack of any evidence of fraud.
He called the lawsuits “completely meritless.”
Bauer also downplayed the impact of possible recounts in some states – a hand recount was set for Georgia on Wednesday – noting that in recounts across 31 states since 2000, the average change in vote tallies was just 430.
“These margins cannot be overcome in recounts.,” Bauer said. “The recounts are yet another piece of the political theatrics.”
Leading Biden’s transition is Ted Kaufman, Biden’s former longtime Senate chief of staff who briefly filled Biden’s seat after he was elected vice president and co- wrote an update to the law governing the transfer of power in 2015 under Obama.
The transition team on Tuesday announced the creation of agency review teams, featuring established experts ranging from former federal government officials and diplomats to local officials who specialize in key policy areas, that will evaluate the operations of federal agencies under the outgoing Trump administration.
Biden met with his transition advisers Wednesday and is scheduled to do so again on Thursday.
“We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad,” Kaufman said.
Millions in funding delayed
But the review teams can’t begin working with staff in federal agencies until the head of the General Services Administration, Trump appointee
Emily Murphy, ascertains the results of the election.
Murphy hasn’t acted, delaying millions of federal funding dollars and use of resources for the new administration. It has also blocked the new administration from using federal office space and gaining access to government agencies that they’ll soon take over.
Biden also has not received a daily classified briefing on national security threats that are given to incoming presidents.
Biden said his team will be fine without the federal transition funding or access to presidential daily briefings known as “PDBs.” He also dismissed “a need for legal action,” contradicting his aides who reportedly floated the idea, to force the Trump administration to cooperate.
But the lack of access could pose a threat to Biden’s first weeks in office, according to Kathryn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
“This strikes me as a matter of the country’s reputation internationally and being so vulnerable. The whole world is watching and clearly our enemies can see that vulnerability,” Tenpas said. “So the question is do people try to take advantage of that?”
4,000 political appointments
Part of the delay is preparing personnel through initiating full security clearances and ethics agreements to ensure there’s no financial conflicts of interest, according to Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit and nonpartisan group that focuses on peaceful transfers of power and oversees the Center for Presidential Transition.
Of the 4,000 political appointments the Biden administration will have to make, about 1,200 require Senate confirmation. The Obama administration has the best record on formal nominations being confirmed during the first 100 days with just 69 positions confirmed, according to Stier. By comparison, Trump had just 27 confirmations during the same period.
“The operating rule is you need to get your critical people in as fast as possible so they’re on the field when the game starts,” Stiel said.
‘ They’re the engine room’
“The outgoing Administration's failure to accept @ JoeBiden ' s election is one last, dangerous attempt to undermine our democracy. It will fail. The President- elect & Vice President- elect are already working to tackle the urgent challenges we face, and will not be distracted.”
Pete Buttigieg Tweeted former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and a member of the Biden transition team's advisory board
Rebecca Lissner, a nonresident scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies, said the longer Trump refuses to cooperate, “the more harmful the impacts.”
“It is certainly the case there is a whole lot the Biden team can do to prepare to govern on Jan. 20 even in the absence of any cooperation from the Trump administration,” Lissner said. “But there are also certain crucial functions that can only happen with that cooperation.”
Among those is access to the career workforce inside the federal agencies and the extensive briefing books they’ve spent months preparing for the next administration, Stier said.
“They’re the engine room – they are the people that get stuff done and actually have all the right information,” he said. “Part of this transition process is building those relationships.”
Murphy, the GSA administrator, has not indicated when she might ascertain the election results. If she waits for electors to formally cast their votes for president, then it wouldn’t be until Dec. 14, about five weeks before the Biden administration will take over. After Trump’s 2016 victory, the GSA signed off the morning after the election.
Given the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn, Lissner said the transition challenges were “already tremendous.”
“It’s just made all the more difficult by the lack of cooperation, and at this point, outright opposition that we’re seeing from the Trump administration.”
Biden: ‘ America’s back’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has echoed the president’s false claims, saying “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” when asked whether the Trump administration would cooperate with the Biden transition.
Biden laughed off Pompeo’s remarks, pointing out he had already spoken by phone with six world leaders including U. K. Prime Minster Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“I’m letting them know that America’s back. Back in the game. America’s not alone,” Biden said.
The former vice president has spoken to more foreign leaders than congressional Republicans. Only four Republican senators – Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – have congratulated Biden on winning. Others, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have said the election had not been decided.
Sen. Coons expressed frustration that his Republican colleagues have privately accepted the results but publicly stand behind Trump.
“They call me to say, you know, ‘ Congratulations, please convey my well wishes to the president- elect, but I can’t say that publicly yet,’ ” Coons said.
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a member of the Biden transition team’s advisory board, said Biden and Vice President- elect Kamala Harris won’t be fazed by Trump’s resistance.
“The outgoing Administration’s failure to accept @ JoeBiden ‘ s election is one last, dangerous attempt to undermine our democracy,” tweeted Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate speculated to be in line for a White House appointment. “It will fail. The President- elect & Vice President- elect are already working to tackle the urgent challenges we face, and will not be distracted.”
“We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad.”
Ted Kaufman Leader of Biden’s transition team