The increasingly tenuous efforts by US President Donald Trump to reverse his electoral defeat to President-elect Joe Biden could take a lethal blow on Monday, as Biden sets about the task of building his cabinet.
Michigan is ready to certify its results Monday, and Pennsylvania is likely to get one step closer to doing so.
Trump, a Republican, lost both states on the battlefield in the November 3 election, but refused to admit defeat and instead launched a legal battle to nullify the results there and in other close races around the world. country.
Trump’s hopes of preventing Democrat Biden from taking office on January 20 will likely be dashed if Michigan and Pennsylvania certify their results, confirming Biden as the winner of 36 electoral votes combined. Biden won 306 electoral votes, 36 over the threshold of 270 needed to win the White House.
It is unclear if the process in Michigan will work as state law dictates. Michigan’s canvassing board, which is split evenly between two Democrats and two Republicans, will meet Monday to decide whether to certify the results.
Biden defeated Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes, and the law requires the board to validate the count.
But a Republican board member, Norman Shinkle, has suggested in recent media interviews that he favors delaying the certification due to technical irregularities. County officials noted wrongdoing that may have affected a few hundred votes, and the Trump campaign has suggested it points to widespread fraud.
Read also | Trump’s legal team yelled election fraud, but courts found none
A stalemate in progress with certification would likely force the matter to go to state appeals courts, where an order would be sought to force the board to perform its function. If the members refused, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D, has the authority to replace them.
Monday is also the Pennsylvania deadline for counties to report their certified accounts to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat. Boockvar is likely to certify the results on behalf of the state within days. Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.
Trump’s push to delay certification in several states failed, most recently on Saturday, when a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit, saying it was not in the power of the court to violate the Constitution.
BIDEN CABINET
Biden, who works in his home state of Delaware, has gone ahead with his transition plans despite a lack of cooperation from the current administration. Ron Klain, the incoming White House head of state, said Sunday that Biden will announce his first cabinet elections on Tuesday.
Joe Biden will elect Antony Blinken as US secretary of state, a person close to the president-elect’s transition said Sunday, raising one of his most experienced and trusted aides as he prepares to undo the foreign policy of “America First. “from Trump.
Blinken’s appointment makes another Biden aide with foreign policy experience, Jake Sullivan, the leading candidate to be the United States’ national security adviser.
The president-elect chose another veteran diplomat, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who held a senior diplomatic post in former President Barack Obama’s administration, as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, media reported Sunday.
Read also | Joe Biden to name former aide Antony Blinken secretary of state
Biden said last week that he had chosen a Secretary of the Treasury and would announce the winner around Thanksgiving, Nov. 26. The former head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, is said to be the top candidate.
MORE ACCOUNTS, AUDITS TO COME
Meanwhile, Trump’s focus remains on his quixotic quest to overturn the election.
Trump’s push to delay certification in several states failed, most recently on Saturday, when a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit, saying it was not in the power of the court to violate the Constitution.
Ahead of Monday’s vote for Michigan’s canvassing board, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, a Trump ally, and Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox wrote a letter urging the board to conduct an audit. before certification.
The Trump campaign has also petitioned for another recount in Georgia, which on Friday certified results showing Biden narrowly won that state, a long-standing Republican stronghold in the presidential election.
While most Republicans continue to publicly endorse Trump’s efforts or remain silent, an ever-growing chorus pleads with him to grant the election and help with the transition to the Biden administration.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski tweeted Sunday that “it is time to begin the full and formal transition process,” noting that the courts have so far found Trump’s legal claims unsubstantiated and that the lobbying campaign on state lawmakers ” not only is it unprecedented, it is inconsistent with our democratic process. “
Voters in each state will meet as a so-called “Electoral College” on December 14 to formally select the next president.
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