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The pressure increases with each passing day, and many warn of the dire consequences of a delayed transition process.
Emily Murphy is the head of the relatively unknown General Services Administration (GSA) agency. Yet she wields enormous power and can prevent incoming President Joe Biden from accessing a number of funds he desperately needs to build his own presidential administration, before assuming the country’s presidency on January 20.
– She is the head of the General Services Administration, which is actually an administrative body of the Executive Power. This is a position that, in principle, should not be political. But it has gotten very political, because this agency has the authority to sign a so-called “verification,” a document that approves the transition process from an outgoing to an incoming president, Civita adviser Eirik Løkke tells Nettavisen.
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Once the presidential election is decided, the GSA executive agency will sign a document delivering $ 6.3 million to the incoming president, which will be used for the transition process. The document also gives access to, among other things, government documents, computer systems, secure office space, service personnel, and daily security briefings.
– As long as she does not sign this document, the incoming Biden administration will not have access to the resources and money they need to get the job done, says Løkke.
End up in a dilemma
– How common is it for the GSA to refuse to hand over state resources and funds to an incoming presidential administration?
– It’s very unusual. But this has to do with the fact that he is a very unusual president who is involved in a coup attempt, albeit a clown. And then it is really important what the other parts of the state are doing. When there’s been a clear signal from the White House that all government agencies and ministries shouldn’t help the incoming Biden administration, Emily Murphy ends up in a little quandary. The laws aren’t entirely clear on when a purported verification will take place, and then in many ways it’s up to Murphy himself to define this. That’s what makes your position, position, and powers so extremely important, says Løkke.
Løkke is convinced that the pressure is coming from the top down on Murphy himself.
– Definitely. Something else would have surprised me a lot, he says.
– May cause serious injury
Andrew Card held the powerful position of Chief of Staff in the White House under President George W. Bush. It warns that a delayed transition process, as the United States is experiencing, could cause serious damage to the country’s national security. Card also says the delay already tarnishes America’s reputation as the leader of the free world.
He refers to the 2000 presidential election, when the outcome was not clear until December due to a few hundred unsolved votes in Florida. As a result, the transition process was delayed.
“We learned a valuable lesson,” Card told ABC News recently.
– Obviously. In 2001, a year after George W. Bush was elected president, the United States was hit by attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The 9/11 Commission, which had a review of everything that happened up to the attack itself and what it contributed, noted that there should have been more time for the transition process and that more information should have been shared with the incoming president, accordingly. so he could have been groomed, Card said.
Also read: It is sad to see the right wing in the most powerful country in the world reduced to something as shameful as Donald Trump
– Disgusting and scary
Løkke also believes that the delay in the transition process could have important consequences both for the Biden administration and for the country as a whole.
– Under normal circumstances, the consequences will be that a new administration will be biased, that they will not be able to hire enough people on time. In the United States, there is a system whereby a large number of bureaucrats are replaced by a change of president. It is a very steep learning curve for the new administrations. Therefore, it is said that both candidates in a presidential election must be very well prepared to win. It was Hillary Clinton in 2016, but not Donald Trump, says Løkke.
– He’s in a normal situation. But in the situation we have now with a corona pandemic, it is extremely important that the new administration start the transition process as quickly as possible. Especially when you have a president who is not interested in fighting the coronavirus. There are several million who have been infected in the last week and many thousands have died, says Løkke.
– And then, denying an incoming administration access to the necessary resources, so that they have the best possible decision base to launch a strategy to combat the pandemic, is disgusting and frightening. It costs human lives, he says.
– GSA is the biggest obstacle
Biden himself says the GSA administrative body is now the biggest obstacle in efforts to combat the corona pandemic.
“There are a lot of things that we just don’t have access to,” Biden said, according to Reuters.
– If we do not have access soon, we will be behind for several weeks or months, he says.
On Wednesday, the United States exceeded a quarter of a million deaths from corona and has more than 10 million proven cases of infection.
The pressure on Emily Murphy increases with each passing day. Election watchers, the American Medical Association, her predecessor, Democrats and increasingly Republicans are demanding that she step up and recognize Biden as the winner of the election.
A spokesperson for the GSA had the following to say about the situation:
– Adopt a finding when the winner is ready, as established by the constitution.
Also read: I don’t want Trump to be investigated, for a very clear reason
– Just hesitation
Sources from the GSA governing body have told CNN that Emily Murphy is using the 2000 election as a guide for when she will approve the transition process herself, according to The Washington Post.
– They refer to the 2000 elections with Al Gore and George W. Bush fighting for 730 votes in Florida. At that time, the verification wasn’t signed until December 13, right after the Florida survey was completed. In that moment, both parties realized that everything had to be in place before they could choose a final winner. But that’s not the case in 2020. There’s no question that Biden won. The really good comparison is the 2016 election, in which Trump won by smaller margins in crucial states then than Biden now. However, they did not block Trump at the time. Rather, they quickly began a transition process, says Løkke.
– Referring to the 2000 elections is silly. It is not relevant. The relevant ones are compared with the 2016 elections. And then the process was very fast. No one questioned the choice at the time.
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