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By Reuters 
1 hour ago
Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt
Washington / Wilmington – After weeks of waiting, President Donald Trump’s administration cleared the way Monday for President-elect Joe Biden to transition to the White House, giving him access to briefings and funding even as Trump vowed to continue fighting the election results.
Trump, a Republican, has denounced widespread electoral fraud in the Nov. 3 election without providing evidence.
Although he did not concede or acknowledge his Democratic rival’s victory on Monday, Trump’s announcement that his staff would cooperate with Biden’s represented a significant change and was the closest thing to admitting defeat.
Biden won 306 state-by-state electoral votes, well above the 270 needed for victory, compared to 232 for Trump. Biden also has a lead of more than 6 million in the national popular vote.
The Trump campaign’s legal efforts to roll back the election have almost completely failed in key states on the battlefield, and a growing number of Republican leaders, business executives and national security experts have urged the president to let it begin. the transition.
The president-elect has begun appointing members of his team, including trusted aide Antony Blinken to head the State Department, without waiting for government funding or a concession from Trump. But critics have accused the president of undermining US democracy and undermining the next administration’s ability to fight the coronavirus pandemic with its refusal to accept the results.
On Monday, the General Services Administration, the federal agency that must approve presidential transitions, told Biden that he could formally begin the handover process. GSA administrator Emily Murphy said in a letter that Biden would have access to remedies that had been denied him due to legal challenges seeking to overturn his victory.
That means Biden’s team will now have federal funding and an official office to carry out his transition until he takes office on January 20. It also paves the way for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to receive periodic national security briefings that Trump also receives.
The GSA announcement came shortly after Michigan officials certified Biden as the victor in their state, making Trump’s legal efforts to change the election outcome even more unlikely to be successful.
Trump and his advisers said he would continue to pursue legal avenues, but his decision to give Murphy the go-ahead to proceed with a transition for the Biden administration indicated that even the White House understood the time to move forward was near.
“Our case continues STRONGLY, we will keep up the good … fight, and I believe we will prevail! However, in the best interest of our country, I recommend that Emily and her team do whatever is necessary regarding initial protocols, and I have told my team to do the same, “Trump said on Twitter.
A Trump adviser described the move as similar to both candidates who received reports during the campaign and said the president’s statement was not a concession.
Biden’s transition team said meetings would begin with federal officials on Washington’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, along with discussions on national security issues.
Two Trump administration officials said Biden agency review teams could begin interacting with Trump agency officials as early as Tuesday.
“This is probably the closest thing to a concession that President Trump could issue,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Murphy, who was appointed to the GSA position by Trump in 2017 and said she faced threats for not starting the transition earlier, told GSA employees in a letter that the decision to do so was hers alone.
“I was never pressured regarding the substance or timing of my decision. The decision was solely mine,” he wrote. The GSA had insisted that Murphy would “find out” or formally approve the transition when the winner was clear.
Rep. Don Beyer, who led the Obama administration’s transition at the Commerce Department in 2008, said Murphy’s delay was “costly and unnecessary” and warned that Trump could still do great harm in the time he has left. The charge.
Top House and Senate Democrats warned Monday that an executive order signed by Trump in October could result in mass layoffs of federal employees in the final weeks of his presidency and allow the Republican president to install loyalists into the federal bureaucracy.
The now-formalized transition and Michigan’s certification of Biden’s victory could prompt more Republicans to encourage Trump to back down as his chances of overturning the results fade.
Top Republicans in Michigan’s legislature pledged to honor the result in their state, likely dashing Trump’s hopes that the state legislature would appoint Trump supporters to serve as “constituents” and support him in place of Biden.
Trump has been consulting his advisers for weeks, while avoiding the standard responsibilities of the presidency. He has played several golf games and has avoided receiving questions from journalists since Election Day.
Biden, who plans to undo many of Trump’s “America First” policies, announced to top members of his foreign policy team on Monday. He appointed Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Both have high-level government experience. John Kerry, a former United States senator, secretary of state and a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, will serve as Biden’s special climate envoy.
The president-elect is likely to turn to former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to become the next Treasury secretary, according to two Biden allies, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a staffing decision that has yet to be made. it was not public.
Biden also took a step to reverse Trump’s hardline immigration policies by appointing Cuban-born attorney Alejandro Mayorkas to head the Department of Homeland Security.
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