On Tuesday, 10 November, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a statement saying “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
He announced that Donald Trump will remain in power, saying, "The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is functional today will be successful," reported NDTV.
Several other republican leaders are backing Trump’s litigation and like Pompeo are refusing to acknowledge Biden as the President-elect of the United States.
Trump’s Delaying Tactics
Trump’s refusal to concede brought about fears that the transition to the White House may not be as smooth as it has been for previous US presidents. Traditionally, the president invites the president-elect into the Oval office and Biden’s inauguration will happen on 20 January.
However, transition officials told The Guardian that the General Services Administration hasn’t yet issued a letter of ascertainment that would allow Biden’s team to begin the transfer of power. Without the letter, Biden’s staff won’t have access to funding, will not be able to meet with White House officials or federal agencies to begin the background check for potential appointees or receive any security briefings, the report added.
Leaked Call Audio Shows Trump Administration in Denial of Election Results
A leaked audio of a conference call between USAID staff and top-ranking official John Barsa was obtained by Axios where he told the staff to “play until the whistle blows” and that until the General Services Administration determines who won the election, “there is no transition in place.”
On the same call, Catharine O’Neill, White House liasion said, “The election is still happening. The Electoral College has not voted yet,” reported Axios. CNN's Jake Tapper first reported, and Axios confirmed, White House Presidential Personnel Office director John McEntee "is spreading the word throughout the administration that if he hears of anyone looking for another job they will be fired."
Trump loyalists in his administration are publicly refusing to acknowledge Biden and are operating under the assumption that Trump will serve a second term. Officials have instructed the staff that the transition process must not begin because the election is not over, reported Axios.
"While there will be legal disputes requiring adjudication, the outcome is sufficiently clear that the transition process must now begin," the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition wrote in a letter obtained by Politico, urging the Trump administration to begin the formal process of transition to Biden’s administration. reported Axios.
Biden Dismisses Trump’s Proclamations
But Biden confidently dismissed Trump’s delaying tactics and said, “We don’t see anything slowing us down, quite frankly.”
President-elect Joe Biden finds Trump’s resistance to concede the race an ‘embarrassment’ and said ‘it won’t help his legacy’.
In a press conference in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday, Biden addressed Trump’s refusal to concede the elections that declared the former the winner on 3 November and said, “The fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence to our planning.”
Biden will start naming Cabinet members as soon as this month. Along with Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect, Biden defended the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) where arguments to strike down the entire law were heard in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Biden’s campaign had healthcare as a central theme since US recently surpassed 10 million cases of coronavirus. “Each and every vote for Joe Biden was a statement that healthcare in America should be a right and not a privilege,” Harris said in her remarks as reported by The Guardian. She added: “And Joe Biden won this election decisively.”
Biden Connects With Allies of US
As world leaders began to pour in their congratulations to the new president-elect Biden on Tuesday spoke to Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkey President Tayyip Erdoğan, and leaders of Canada and Ireland, the reported added. Biden said his conversation with these allies was to let them know that “America is back in the game.”
The Chinese and Russian presidents, however, were yet to convey their congratulations to the US.
Reports suggested that Trump’s presidential activities have come to a standstill including his routine media briefings with Fox news and he doesn’t leave the White House much except to play golf. His tweets on early Tuesday indicate that he continues to believe the courts will rule in his favour as he wrote, “We will win. Watch for massive ballot counting abuse”. Trump's only significant presidential action has been the abrupt firing of defence secretary Mark Esper on Monday, which he announced on Twitter.
Biden said on Tuesday that he did not favour taking legal action to force Trump into complying, reported NDTV. The president-elect said with a smile: "Mr President, I look forward to speaking with you."
(With inputs from NDTV, The Guardian, Politico and Axios)
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