From ‘wonk’ to warrior for Donald Trump: the woman who delays the transition of Joe Biden

The head of an obscure US federal agency that is delaying the presidential transition knew well before Election Day that she could soon have a tough situation on her hands.

Prior to November 3, Emily Murphy, director of the General Services Administration, placed a Zoom call with Dave Barram, 77, the man who was in her place 20 years earlier.

The conversation, hosted by mutual friends, was an opportunity for Barram to tell Murphy a bit about his torturous experience with “determination,” the task of determining the expected winner of the presidential election, which begins the official transition process. .

Barram led the GSA during the 2000 White House race between Republican George W Bush and Democrat Al Gore, which was decided by a few hundred votes in Florida after the US Supreme Court intervened more than a month after election day.

“I told him, ‘I’m looking at you and I can tell you that you want to do the right thing,'” recalled Barram, who declined to reveal details of what Murphy told him.

“I’ll tell you what my mother told me: ‘If you do the right thing, then all you have to do is live with the consequences.’

It has been 10 days since President-elect Joe Biden crossed the 270 electoral vote mark to defeat President Donald Trump and win the presidency.

Unlike the 2000 election, when the winner of the election was really unknown for weeks, this time it is clear that Biden won, although Trump refuses to budge.

But Murphy has yet to certify Biden as the winner, stalling the launch of the official transition process.

When you ensure that Biden won, it will free up transition money and clear the way for Biden’s team to begin placing transition personnel in federal agencies.

Trump administration officials also say they will not give Biden the classified presidential daily report on intelligence matters until the GSA makes the verification official.

Murphy declined to be interviewed for this article. A GSA spokesperson, who declined to be identified by name due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that Murphy and Barram spoke before the election about their experience in the 2000 election.

The White House has not said whether there have been discussions about verification between officials there and at the GSA.

On social media and cable television, Murphy is coming under fire from those on the left who say he is thwarting the democratic transfer of power.

Some Trump supporters, for their part, say he is doing the right thing on the part of the president, who has filed a series of lawsuits with unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.

Murphy, 47, runs a 12,000-person agency tasked with managing the government’s real estate portfolio and serving as its global supply chain manager. Before last week, he was hardly a household name in politics.

The self-described “clumsy” University of Virginia-trained attorney had spent most of the past 20 years honing specialized knowledge in government procurement through a series of jobs as a Republican congressional staff member and in high-level positions. in the GSA and Small Business Administration.

She did shorter stints in the private sector and volunteered for Trump’s transition team in 2016.

He worked his way through partisan politics to a position that is not in the limelight, but is undeniably a powerful cog in government.

“I’m not here to get headlines or make a name for myself,” Murphy said at his Senate confirmation hearing in October 2017. “My goal is to do my part to make the Federal Government more efficient, effective, and responsive to the people. American . “

However, during his time in government, Murphy has also encountered controversy.

Murphy took over the reins of the GSA in late 2017 and was soon embroiled in a Congressional battle over the future of the collapsed FBI headquarters in central Washington.

Trump scrapped a decade-old plan to demolish the building and move the agency out of the capital.

Some House Democrats believed that Trump, who operates a hotel on nearby property leased by the federal government, was concerned about competition moving to the FBI site should it be demolished and that he rejected the plan out of interest. personal.

Murphy appeared to give a vague answer to a lawmaker who asked about conversations with Trump and his team about the FBI headquarters.

The GSA inspector general found that Murphy at a 2018 congressional hearing gave answers that were “incomplete and may have left the misleading impression that he had no discussions with the president or senior White House officials in the seizure process. decisions about the project “.

In a previous stint at the GSA during the George W Bush administration, Murphy took on the GSA administrator, Lurita Doan.

Murphy, who then held the title of chief procurement officer, was one of several political appointments that spoke in 2007 after a deputy to Karl Rove, then Bush’s chief political adviser, gave a briefing to GSA political appointees in the one that identified the Democrats in Congress. whom the Republican Party hoped to overthrow in 2008.

Murphy was one of the attendees who later told a special attorney that Doan had asked how the GSA could be used “to help our candidates.” Murphy left the agency shortly after the episode. Bush forced Doan to resign the following year.

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit organization, said the episode had given her hope that Murphy, upon taking over from the GSA, would be able to resist pressure from Trump.

“She was essentially a whistleblower,” Brian said. “I really thought he had the potential to take on a president. It doesn’t seem to be the case.”

Barram, the GSA administrator from the Bush-Gore era, said he had sympathy for Murphy.

“Republican lawmakers are asking you to be braver than you are,” Barram said.

“Sure, it’s their decision, and they’ll have to make it one of these days. But they could make it easier if five or ten of them come out and say, ‘Biden won. Let’s congratulate our old Senate colleague. ‘”