US election: Joe Biden’s team considering legal action to force formal transition of power
Joe Biden’s team is considering legal action as the Trump administration continues to refuse defeat, behavior Mr Biden says “will not help the president’s legacy.”
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At an address and press conference in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday local time, US President-elect Joe Biden said that he has not spoken to Donald Trump since the election was called in Mr Biden’s favour on Saturday.
A week after losing the US election, Mr Trump has remained shut up in the White House on Tuesday, pushing an alternate reality that he is about to win, while Mr Biden ignored him and acted like a leader in waiting by taking a string of calls from foreign capitals.
Mr Biden is increasingly moving toward the moment he will take the oath of office.
Today he joked: “Mr President, I look forward to speaking with you.”
But Mr Biden viewed Mr Trump’s refusal to concede defeat dourly.
“It’s an embarrassment, quite frankly,” he said in response to a press question.
“How can I say this tactfully? It will not help the president’s legacy.”
The formal process of Mr Biden’s transition is being blocked by Mr Trump while he attempts to overturn the election results in court on the basis of so far flimsy fraud allegations.
Mr Biden’s team is considering legal action over the ongoing refusal to grant the president-elect a formal transition into the White House, according to reports.
Amid Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election, the federal agency needed to green light his transition has also held back from declaring him the victor — a move usually made within 24 hours, reports the New York Post.
The delay by the General Services Administration (GSA) freezes the Biden team out of access to US$6.3 million ($A8.6 million) in federal funding, classified information and security clearances or background checks for potential cabinet nominees, Axios noted. It also prevents access to the State Department, which facilitates calls between foreign leaders, Fox News said.
“There’s a number of levers on the table and all options are certainly available,” a Biden transition official told reporters.
Legal action is “certainly a possibility,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, according to reports.
“It’s a changing situation and certainly rather fluid,” added the official, according to Axios.
On Tuesday morning (local time), as Mr Biden attended meetings about the Affordable Care Act, Mr Trump again went on the attack, tweeting, “WE WILL WIN”, before later tweeting, “BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE”.
WE WILL WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2020
WE ARE MAKING BIG PROGRESS. RESULTS START TO COME IN NEXT WEEK. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2020
BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2020
Highly Respected Ken Starr: “Pennsylvania’s three-day extension of the mail-in ballot deadline is a Constitutional Travesty.†Legal scholars agree!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2020
Mr Trump did not clarify what he meant.
Mr Trump is not expected to formally concede but is likely to vacate the White House at the end of his term, several people around him told the Associated Press.
A GSA spokesperson told the wire service late on Monday (local time) that an “ascertainment” on the winner of the election had not yet been made.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted at the Senate on Monday that “our institutions are actually built for this” kind of challenge.
“We have the system in place to consider concerns and President Trump is 100 per cent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” the Republican said.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer countered that the Republicans’ refusal to accept the election results was “extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy.”
“Joe Biden won the election fair and square,” Mr Schumer said.
But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted on Tuesday local time that Mr Trump would emerge victorious in this year’s election.
During a press briefing at the State Department’s headquarters, Mr Pompeo was asked by a reporter whether officials there were “preparing to engage” with Joe Biden’s transition team.
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Mr Pompeo said with a smile, according to the New York Post.
It was not clear whether Mr Pompeo was joking.
AFP described the briefing as “testy”.
Since Election Day on November 3, Mr Trump has made few public appearances and seems to have all but shelved normal presidential duties.
BORIS CONGRATULATES BIDEN
It also emerged that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson telephoned Mr Biden to congratulate him on his win.
“I just spoke to Joe Biden to congratulate him on his election [win],” Mr Johnson tweeted on Tuesday (local time).
“I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our countries and to working with him on our shared priorities – from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy and building back better from the pandemic.”
A spokesman for Mr Johnson later said that the British PM “looked forward to working closely together on their shared priorities, from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy, and building back better from the coronavirus pandemic”.
“The Prime Minister invited the President-elect to attend the COP26 climate change summit that the UK is hosting in Glasgow next year. They also looked forward to seeing each other in person, including when the UK hosts the G7 Summit in 2021.”
There was earlier embarrassment for the British government, however, when a tweet posted congratulating Mr Biden after the election was called on Saturday, seemingly contained a hidden message congratulating Donald Trump for winning a second term.
The message, posted on Twitter as an image, congratulates Mr Biden on his election, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris “on her historic achievement”.
But the image, which is a white-on-black block of text, shows a hidden message after the colour is adjusted.
Above and behind the words “Joe Biden on his election”, the shadow of the words “Trump on” are faintly visible. Where the main message reads “the US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together”, the words “second term” appear. And below the words “shared priorities” is the phrase “on the future of this”.
The gaffe comes amid a relationship already muddied by Mr Biden’s description of Mr Johnson as the “physical and emotional clone of Donald Trump”.
The only other major “strongman” foreign leader to reach out with congratulations to Mr Biden, ignoring Mr Trump’s claim that he won last Tuesday, was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who referred to Mr Biden’s “election success.”
‘YOU’RE FIRED’: TRUMP TAKES AIM
Racing a calendar that gives him just 71 more days in the White House unless his lawyers can prove their claims of election fraud, Mr Trump sacked the first in what was predicted to be a conga line of political foes.
The President announced he had pushed out US Defence Secretary Mark Esper, with whom Mr Trump had publicly sparred over his refusal to deploy troops to quell civil unrest in June.
“Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service,” Mr Trump said on Twitter.
Mr Trump was also reportedly considering the ouster of FBI Director Christopher Wray, below, and CIA chief Gina Haspel.
It came as Attorney-General Bill Barr said he had directed the Department of Justice to investigate the Trump campaign’s “substantial allegations” of widespread voter fraud.
He said he was bucking regulations that would usually delay such an investigation until the election restyle were certified and recounts concluded, which could take weeks.
“Such a passive and delayed enforcement approach can result in situations in which election misconduct cannot realistically be rectified,” he said in a statement.
And a top aide to Mr Trump said the President had no intention of accepting that Joe Biden had won the election and would not “concede”.
“That word is not even in our vocabulary right now,” said Jason Miller on Monday, local time.
He said Team Trump would continue mounting legal challenges and that they believed there would be recounts that could reshape the map, in some cases automatically triggered by margins of less than one per cent, in several states.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also said Mr Trump’s legal challenges had merit and that the race was not yet over, accusing Democrats of hypocrisy for the four years they spent challenging the Trump administration’s legitimacy.
“President Trump is 100-per cent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” Mr McConnell said.
“We have the tools and institutions we need to address any concerns. The President has every right to look into allegations and request recounts under the law.
“Let’s not have any lectures about how the President should cheerfully and happily accept the preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years questioning the validity of the last election and who insinuated that this one would be illegitimate too. If they lost again. Only if they lost.”
But the arguments have started wearing thin in some quarters, with Fox News cutting away from a press conference with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, accusing her of lying.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa – I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance show you this,” said Fox News host Neil Cavuto.
Almost a week after poll day and three days after Mr Biden was declared winner by several media outlets, doubts about election integrity were split along party lines.
A new Morning Consult poll showed seven-in-ten Republicans now don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair, compared to the 35 per cent who had the same view before the election.
But 90 per cent of Democrats said the election was free and fair, up from just 52 per cent ahead of the November 3 poll.
Meanwhile, Washington’s elite COVID-cluster also spread further chaos at the heart of Team Trump, with the diagnosis of David Bossie, who had been guiding the campaign’s legal challenges in Nevada and Georgia.
Housing Secretary Ben Carson also tested positive, just days after Mr Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows was diagnosed. The three men attended a White House election party last week.
On news of Pfizer having developed a COVID vaccine, President-elect Joe Biden pushed ahead with his transition plans, convening his first coronavirus advisory board meeting.
As DC authorities began erecting the inauguration stage near the White House, Mr Biden warned that any COVID vaccine was still months from being available.
“We’re still facing a very dark winter,” the president-elect said.
“The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing.”
Meanwhile, Washington is buzzing with speculation over who, if anyone, in Mr Trump’s inner circle will finally persuade him to go.
Former President George W. Bush, the only living Republican ex-president, congratulated Mr Biden on his victory, but he is an outlier in a party dominated by the still hugely popular Trump.
Mr Biden’s inauguration is on January 20
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— With reporting from AFP
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