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ancianita

(36,055 posts)
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 12:34 AM Feb 2020

What Awaits A New Democratic President

"Democrats are bracing for the possibility that if President Donald Trump loses the 2020 election, he and his aides will bungle a smooth handover of power — and maybe even try to outright sabotage the transition.

"At least one outside group that works with the 2020 Democratic campaigns has quietly launched a transition-related effort designed to offer an early look at the landscape that awaits them if they oust Trump.

"And one leading Democratic presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren, just days ago unveiled a plan that, among other things, describes how she would move quickly to staff the government if she wins the White House.

"In the plan, Warren voices the fears of many Democrats. “This will be no ordinary transition between administrations,” she states. “Unlike previous transitions, we will not be able to assume good faith cooperation on the part of the outgoing administration.”

"Every transition is tricky given the thousands of positions that need to be filled and the array of policy priorities a new team wants to pursue.

"But several Democrats attached to different 2020 campaigns mentioned very specific concerns about what a Trump departure could mean. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, and because no campaign wants to be seen as assuming that Trump will lose.

"The Democrats said they worry that Trump’s political appointees won’t meet with the incoming team, that there will be little, if any, paperwork left behind to guide them, and that what documents are shared will not be trustworthy.

"Some fear that Trump aides will destroy paper trails related to controversial issues, not to mention quietly push through last-minute initiatives that could constrict the next administration’s ability to tackle hot button issues such as immigration or relations with Iran.

"Some Democrats fear they will have to devote precious time in the early weeks of a new administration piecing together what happened under Trump on a range of areas.

"And that’s all if Trump accepts the election results and agrees to leave.

“This could be the most hostile, least professional transition in American history,” a former senior official in the Barack Obama administration said. “And the new administration will have to spend the early period — when it should be hitting the ground running — unearthing buried bodies.”

"One center-left organization, National Security Action, is already coordinating more than a dozen working groups focusing on specific areas — such as climate change, China, and defense policy — with the goal of producing transition-related information for the eventual Democratic nominee.
"The organization, which is led by former top officials in the Obama administration, declined to give many details about the initiative. ...

... what the nominee can hope to get from the working groups is a layout of what awaits them: for instance, compilations of various regulations rolled back under Trump; paths to recommitting to international pacts that Trump has abandoned; and what options — executive order? legislation? nothing? — a new president has to overturn other Trump moves.

"The initiative is called “FP21” — as in “foreign policy in 2021.” Each working group is led by a “true expert,” a representative of National Security Action said. The idea is to be “nominee-agnostic" — offering something useful to whoever winds up challenging Trump during the general election......"

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/29/trump-transition-democrats-108513

20 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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What Awaits A New Democratic President (Original Post) ancianita Feb 2020 OP
We're gonna have to flush the Trumpites out. NCLefty Feb 2020 #1
We're gonna need a bigger MontanaMama Feb 2020 #2
LOL... 2naSalit Feb 2020 #5
Let's just get a high powered hose and push the entire mess into the street gutters directly. lunatica Feb 2020 #7
I'm afraid you could be right! 2naSalit Feb 2020 #9
I suspect we will have to flush more than 15 times. smirkymonkey Feb 2020 #12
Not just the Trumpites... JHB Feb 2020 #17
My belief is that IF Trump decides to leave lapfog_1 Feb 2020 #3
Agreed, except I don't think Bettie Feb 2020 #4
Executive orders can be immediately undone after the inauguration of a Dem president. (nt) scarletwoman Feb 2020 #8
Clean up in Aisle ... No wait... mwooldri Feb 2020 #6
We really must take back the Senate, too - and keep our House majority, of course. scarletwoman Feb 2020 #10
depending on the winner, a bunch of lost senate and house seats nt msongs Feb 2020 #11
If Trump Wasn't Planning To Do Any Of This - He Certainly Now Has A Road Map To.... global1 Feb 2020 #13
Can't agree. We've not handed him a roadmap so far; he's got henchmen like Miller to enable him ancianita Feb 2020 #15
If we get the Prez,house and senate... we can't waste the opportunity mitch96 Feb 2020 #14
We need to put new governmental cyber systems in. Say, the Apple platform. A tougher, more ancianita Feb 2020 #16
Agree.. Windows is all over and the prime choice for hackers... nt mitch96 Feb 2020 #20
So many cabinet agencies have been gutted NewJeffCT Feb 2020 #18
It's going to take thousands of appointments over the usual thousand. Those heads of Cabinet Depts ancianita Feb 2020 #19

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
7. Let's just get a high powered hose and push the entire mess into the street gutters directly.
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 12:58 AM
Feb 2020

It’s too much for the toilets to handle.

2naSalit

(86,612 posts)
9. I'm afraid you could be right!
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 01:04 AM
Feb 2020

I've already claimed that we may have to burn down the WH to rid it of the vermin within... there just isn't anything that can get some filth/roach-like life forms out of the woodwork.

JHB

(37,160 posts)
17. Not just the Trumpites...
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 11:34 AM
Feb 2020

...but the Bush-administration "embeds" too: political appointees converted to civil service specifically so they could stay on after the Obama administration took over... and keep up the sabotage of departments from within.

lapfog_1

(29,204 posts)
3. My belief is that IF Trump decides to leave
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 12:41 AM
Feb 2020

when he is defeated... and there is a large part of me that says he will do what Bill Maher believes... but if he leaves... he will issue hundreds of executive orders to kill the ACA, SS, Medicare... legal immigration, Welfare, etc.

He will lift all sanctions on Russia... and pardon anyone that he thinks was loyal to him (Manafort, etc)

mwooldri

(10,303 posts)
6. Clean up in Aisle ... No wait...
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 12:57 AM
Feb 2020

... have to clean up the whole store it got trashed by some mobster....

Yep, an incoming Democratic administration will have a whole lot of clean up to do. I do however believe that a lot of expertise will be there - a number of Obama era (and also pre-Obama) former government employees would be willing to pitch in and rebuild government so it works for the people.

scarletwoman

(31,893 posts)
10. We really must take back the Senate, too - and keep our House majority, of course.
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 01:04 AM
Feb 2020

I'm very glad to know about this:

...compilations of various regulations rolled back under Trump

global1

(25,247 posts)
13. If Trump Wasn't Planning To Do Any Of This - He Certainly Now Has A Road Map To....
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 02:09 AM
Feb 2020

sabotage the transition - that he didn't have before this post.

This is what we've been doing all along for this guy. We've been enabling him to do things like this OP suggests because - in his mind he tells himself - if this is what they expect me to do - I can and I'll do it.

It's kinda like we give him permission. Then when he does this crap - we say - we knew or expected him to do this. We predicted it. And he gets away with it.

ancianita

(36,055 posts)
15. Can't agree. We've not handed him a roadmap so far; he's got henchmen like Miller to enable him
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 11:27 AM
Feb 2020

with these same ideas. There's no reason to discuss why we should hope for the best and expect the worst, which is what Politico does here.

We don't give permission. We certainly have not "been enabling" him. We've exposed all his bad decisions, and have used what little recourse we've learned that we really have. All the hundreds who've flown from this administration showed how his side didn't expect what he's really done, either.

To look back and say we knew what to expect all along is post hoc reasoning. We never caused his decisions, and we only suspected. But we didn't expect most of what he's done so far.

We're only predicting right now because of three years of tallied up damage we've seen.

He has not gotten away with anything. It just looks that way right now.

He and his henchmen have yet to be indicted for oath breaking. But they will be.

mitch96

(13,904 posts)
14. If we get the Prez,house and senate... we can't waste the opportunity
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 08:59 AM
Feb 2020

We need to clean house, yes and you KNOW McTurtle is gonna try to waste time and slow the process till such time that the repubs come around again with their fuckery...
m

ancianita

(36,055 posts)
16. We need to put new governmental cyber systems in. Say, the Apple platform. A tougher, more
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 11:30 AM
Feb 2020

resistant operating system. All systems can be encrypted in codes never used before.

The PC platform of this government is swiss cheese for our hostile foreign enemies.

NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)
18. So many cabinet agencies have been gutted
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 11:53 AM
Feb 2020

that's it's going to take a lot of work just to rebuild State and others (CDC?)

ancianita

(36,055 posts)
19. It's going to take thousands of appointments over the usual thousand. Those heads of Cabinet Depts
Mon Feb 3, 2020, 12:05 PM
Feb 2020

can proceed with the work of rebuilding. It's got to be the West Wing that monitors it all, once a solid White House is installed, gets into full operation to clean up this occupant's mess of the Executive branch.

The work, I hope, should entail a lot of DOJ indictments. Evidence of campaign lawbreaking are already on record.

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