Donald Trump on Monday took an initial step toward leaving the White House even as he said the presidency was being stolen from him.
The announcement: Trump said in a pair of tweets that while he still believes he will “prevail,” he was authorizing his team to begin a formal transition to a Joe Biden administration.
- He told his officials to begin “initial protocols” involving the handoff to Biden “in the best interest of our country.”
The president also thanked Emily Murphy, the head of the General Services Administration, who had earlier in the day officially started the transition process with a letter to Biden without recognizing the Democrat as the winner.
- Trump said he did not want Murphy to continue receiving the kinds of threats against her and her family that she described in the letter.
In a followup tweet several hours later, however, Trump said that his legal fights against the election results are “moving full speed ahead” and he will “never concede.”
- He referred to unproven claims by his campaign that Biden’s apparent victory was due to widespread mail-in voting fraud and hacked voting machines provided by a company called Dominion.
By initiating the transition, the Trump administration provided Biden’s team with federal funds and resources and cleared the way for coordination between the two camps.
Yohannes Abraham, the executive director of Biden’s transition, said in a statement on Monday that Biden aides would soon begin meeting with Trump administration officials “to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration’s efforts to hollow out government agencies.”
Biden — who is moving ahead with plans to staff his Cabinet — on Tuesday tweeted: “This election is over.”
State of play: Trump’s non-concession to Biden came as his legal and political challenges of the election results in key states continued to falter on Monday.
- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against the Trump campaign and the president’s Republican allies, stating that roughly 8,000 ballots with signature or date irregularities must be counted.
- Michigan’s canvassing board voted 3 to 0, with one of the two Republican members abstaining, to certify the statewide election results.
Also on Monday, several more Republican senators, as well as business leaders and others, called on Trump to allow the transition to move forward.
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said in a statement that “at some point, the 2020 election must end” and “if states certify the results as they currently stand, Vice President Joe Biden will be our next president.”
Some in conservative media, like Newsmax TV host Greg Kelly, still confidently predicted a second Trump term.
But over at Fox News, host Laura Ingraham told viewers: “Unless the legal situation changes in a dramatic and frankly unlikely manner, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.”
