BUSINESS LEADERS TO TRUMP: GIVE IT UP
Ever so slowly, ever so carefully, Republicans and even some White House officials are acknowledging that Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president January 20. Some have openly congratulated him, others have coyly called him the president-elect. More have tacitly recognized his win by calling for him to receive intelligence briefings, even if they are too afraid of Donald Trump still to contradict his desperate claims that he was the true victor and that the election was rigged against him.
But after nearly two weeks of this nonsense, these kinds of baby steps are no longer cutting it. The cost of dragging this out further is too high—the Biden transition is being delayed, and the GOP’s strategic silence is allowing Trump to erode his successor’s legitimacy and trust in the electoral process in the minds of his base. As Biden himself warned this week, describing the added complications Trump’s tantrum could have on the coronavirus vaccine rollout plans: “More people may die if we don’t coordinate.”
Using that message of national security and public health, Biden and the Democrats are pushing Republicans harder to acknowledge reality and for General Services Administrator Emily Murphy to sign the letter of ascertainment to allow his transition to begin in earnest. “At some point, we have to recognize defiance for what it is,” Gerry Connolly, a House Oversight subcommittee chairman who has urged Murphy to sign off on the results, told Politico. “We had an election. Joe Biden won.” Increasingly, business leaders, even some aligned with Trump, have been adding to the pressure, calling on the president and his allies to move on and allow the peaceful transition of power to go forward. “President-elect Biden and the team around him have a wealth of executive branch experience that should allow them to hit the ground running,” Tom Donohue, CEO of the United States Chamber of Commerce, told Axios Thursday. “While the Trump administration can continue litigating to confirm election outcomes, for the sake of Americans’ safety and well-being, it should not delay the transition a moment longer.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/biden-transition-gsa-emily-murphy?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=pol&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=thematic_ballot_112020&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9f8cb24c17c6adf0e5d24&cndid=25394153&sourcecode=thematic_ballot&utm_term=Thematic_Ballot_Subscribers
