US election 2020: Joe Biden ‘barred from seeing world leaders’ messages’
World leaders’ congratulatory messages are reportedly piling up because the State Department won’t allow Joe Biden to see them.
The US State Department is reportedly preventing Joe Biden from gaining access to congratulatory messages from global leaders, forcing the President-elect’s team to contact foreign governments themselves.
Many countries sent messages to Mr Biden via the State Department after his election win at the weekend. But with Donald Trump still refusing to concede the race, the State Department has declined to pass them on.
As a result, a stack of messages from foreign leaders are still sitting at State, CNN reports.
Mr Biden on Thursday spoke by phone with Scott Morrison, after he held calls with Canada, Britain, Germany, France and Ireland.
But Mr Biden had to make do without the logistical and translation support that the State Department operations centre provides for these calls.
“They would prefer to be using the State Department resources,” a source told CNN, noting the difficulty of facilitating the calls without these resources.
The hold up with messages is the latest demonstration of how the stand-off between the President and President-elect is complicating Mr Biden’s ability to prepare for the White House, with the Trump administration refusing to make the usually routine technical designation that would grant the former vice president crucial transition resources.
Until the winner is formally identified by the General Services Administration, Mr Biden’s team is also unable to view detailed classified information, or send representatives in to embed with government agencies. The lack of access could also push back Mr Biden’s selection of cabinet officials because the ability to conduct background investigations for security clearances is also frozen.
Typically, in the weeks after an election the president-elect’s transition operation sends a team of people to embed in government agencies to plan how to take over. According to a Trump administration official, agencies have begun preparing briefing documents for Mr Biden but cannot hand them over until the GSA makes its determination.
Mr Trump dug in further today, filing a lawsuit in Michigan and claiming a “mountain of corruption, as a recount in Georgia began by hand despite next to no chance of the recount changing the election result.
Nobody wants to report that Pennsylvania and Michigan didn’t allow our Poll Watchers and/or Vote Observers to Watch or Observe. This is responsible for hundreds of thousands of votes that should not be allowed to count. Therefore, I easily win both states. Report the News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
Should the Trump administration continue to block the transition close to Inauguration Day on January 20, there are concerns Mr Biden’s administration will be playing catch-up the day he takes office, CNN reports.
Mr Biden’s advisers are urging the GSA, a little known government agency, to identify him as the winner of the election, arguing that Mr. Trump’s efforts to contest the results of the election have little chance of success. The president-elect’s team is considering legal action if the GSA doesn’t make its designation soon, Biden transition officials said.
However Trump administration officials have instructed federal agencies not to move forward with transition activities with Mr Biden’s team until a winner is formally identified by the GSA.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo further muddied the waters on Wednesday (AEDT). Asked if the State Department was hampering a smooth transition to a Biden administration, he replied that there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
The calls taking place now, including that to the Australian Prime Minister, aren’t regarded as highly sensitive and aren’t held on secure lines. But they typically go through an operations centre, which means there is a record of them.
Denis McDonough, who served in the Obama administration and worked with Mr Obama during the transition in 2008, told CNN however that both sides would send readouts of the calls, which helped with record keeping.
“We believe that it is clear that President-elect Biden and Kamala Harris should be entitled to all GSA functions and all functions across government and we’re asking the GSA administrator to make a proper ascertainment,” a Biden transition official said earlier this week.
“And we believe that it’s been very, very clear that we are the winners in this election.”
Mr Biden aides have emphasised that he will continue to press forward with his plans, with or without the Trump administration’s cooperation.
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