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(CNN) – President Donald Trump’s refusal to coordinate with President-elect Joe Biden on the critical COVID-19 vaccine is bringing a staggering possibility into clearer view: that an outgoing American commander-in-chief is actively working to sabotage his successor.
Trump’s denial of his electoral defeat, his lies about non-existent massive coordinated electoral fraud and his strangulation of the rituals of transfer of power between administrations are not just aberrations that damage democracy.
Given the current national emergency, they threaten to cause practical consequences that could damage Biden’s incoming White House not just in a political sense. There is growing concern that Trump’s obstruction will slow down and complicate delivery of the vaccine that offers the tantalizing prospect of a return to normal life amid surprising news of trials showing that the doses are effective in stopping more than 90% of coronavirus infections.
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The distribution operation will be a massively complex and historic public vaccination effort targeting hundreds of millions of Americans, many millions of whom have resisted following basic security protocols, such as wearing masks, because Trump has encouraged them not to. The vaccination campaign will require a high level of public trust and will involve strong ethical debates among officials about who should get the vaccine first. The entire program could be damaged if it becomes politicized. But unless something changes, Biden’s team may be faced with the task of tackling those issues again, in a frenzied recovery operation.
It is not only in the vaccine that Trump threatens the success of the next administration. Attacks by the president and aides on governors entering their leadership vacuum as the pandemic hits all 50 states mean that the situation Biden will inherit will be worse than necessary.
The victims of this neglect will be thousands of Americans whom health experts hope will die or become ill in the absence of a coordinated national response to the winter surge in infections and workers caught up in new restrictions imposed on businesses by local leaders trying get the virus under control, as well as the millions of school children who are already falling behind while classrooms remain closed.
“More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” Biden warned bluntly Monday, intensifying his pressure for Trump to acknowledge his defeat in the election and his impending departure from office.
Unlike Trump, who is wallowing in his sense of personal injury and anger at what he sees as a humiliating loss, Biden has a sense of urgency and new proposals, and is calling for a coordinated national effort to mitigate the heartbreaking impact of the nationwide increase in infections.
But although he has the moral reputation of an electoral victory, he does not have the power to implement his plans until the day of inauguration on January 20.
CNN reported Monday that Trump does not intend to abandon his bogus attacks on the election to start an orderly transition process or accept that Biden is the next legitimate president.
Instead, his legal challenges, which have made little progress in court, appear expressly aimed at pushing conspiracy theories among his supporters and preserving his grip on the Republican Party and ultimately deeming Biden’s tenure illegitimate. The fact that many Republican leaders in Washington, who remain hostages to Trump’s political base, are not unequivocally referring to Biden as president-elect or berating Trump for his undemocratic conduct is only further undermining the next administration.
Two weeks after the election, it remains surreal and extraordinary that the president refuses to accept Biden’s victory, which equaled the 306 Electoral College votes he himself amassed in 2016. That he would act that way in the middle of a grave. The national crisis, with 246,000 Americans already killed by Covid-19 and millions out of work, is an even more revealing look into the mind of a president who has always prioritized his own goals and gratification over a traditional view of the national interest.
The transition tension is a change compared to recent years
It is not unusual for there to be animosity between outgoing and incoming administrations, especially when a president has been ousted from office. The transition from President Herbert Hoover to President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in 1932-33, amid another crisis, the Great Depression, was notoriously thorny.
Many White House teams have used their regulatory power to thwart the policy-making goals of opposing party administrations. Trump is already taking another step. Military commanders await orders in the coming days from the commander-in-chief to begin significant reductions in Iraq and Afghanistan to be completed on January 15, CNN’s Barbara Starr reported Monday. If there are consequences to such a move, such as a collapse of the Afghan government under a resurgence of the Taliban, it will be up to Biden to deal with the consequences.
There are also expectations that the president will take action on foreign policy, including tightening tariffs on China or strengthening sanctions on Iran, which will further cut the negotiating room of the next White House.
The New York Times reported Monday that the president sought options to attack Iran after his “maximum pressure” policy failed to curb his nuclear program. Such an action would make it almost impossible for Biden to revive the Obama administration’s agreement with Tehran and the international powers. But the report said advisers had deterred Trump from unleashing attacks that could spark a broader conflict and undermine one of his inherited achievements he prides himself on most: preventing further wars in the Middle East.
And in another apparent attempt to complicate the next administration’s quest to lessen America’s dependence on fossil fuels, the White House on Monday called for tenders for oil and gas drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Another deviation from the rules
In recent years, the presidents of both parties have prioritized a peaceful and effective transfer of power over personal political resentment, recognizing their duty to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.
The warm welcome letters left on the desk in the Oval Office, for example, from President George HW Bush to Bill Clinton, have become the norm. George W. Bush’s team showed deference to the incoming president, Barack Obama, during the 2008 financial crisis.
The 44th President then ordered his team to make life as easy as possible for the incoming Trump White House, a fact that Michelle Obama recalled in a poorly worded Instagram post Monday: “I was hurt and disappointed, but the votes had been tallied and Donald Trump had won … My husband and I instructed our staff to do what George and Laura Bush had done for us: carry out a smooth and respectful transition of power, one of the Characteristics of American Democracy “.
Thus, the current president’s behavior, apparently motivated by fury over his defeat and a conspiratorial belief that the investigation into the suspects and his team’s multiple ties to the Russians was part of a plot to make his presidency illegitimate, it is a clear departure from recent norms.
Trump wants credit for the vaccine
Ironically, Trump’s state of mind, characterized by wild tweets divorced from any factual anchor, is detracting from his own administration’s undeniable accomplishment in guiding rapid vaccine development. The first data released Monday found that the Moderna vaccine currently under test is 94.5% effective against the coronavirus. This followed the news that Pfizer’s vaccine was more than 90% effective. The news brought the prospect of a return to normal life and economic activity in 2021.
One of Trump’s few recent references to the worsening pandemic was a tweet on Monday demanding that historians acknowledge his role in vaccine advancements.
The president ordered government agencies not to offer traditional cooperation with the incoming administration or to allow the release of millions of dollars in funding, agency office space and briefings of government officials.
Biden initially reacted circumspectly to the move, seemingly eager not to further antagonize Trump as the president accepts his frustrated hopes of winning a second term. But increasingly, the president-elect is warning of the damage caused by the impasse and is highlighting the vaccine in particular.
“The sooner we have access to the administration’s distribution plan, the sooner this transition will go smoothly,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday.
While the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said the vaccine could begin to be administered to high-priority patients such as healthcare workers and the elderly in December, it is likely to be at least April. until it is available to most Americans. Fauci compared this task to passing a witness in a relay race on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, and said it would be helpful if the transition could begin immediately.
Dr. Luciana Borio, a member of Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday night that obstruction of the vaccine’s administration could have a serious impact on its eventual distribution.
“It is very important to know what are the deadlines for the manufacture of vaccines,” said Borio. “This is not going to be easy, it is a complex task.”
But Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown told CNN’s Jake Tapper that during a call between state leaders and the White House coronavirus task force on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence did not mention the transfer of the responsibility for vaccine distribution.
“The vice president clearly articulated a strategy to distribute the vaccines across the country,” Brown said. “But the conversation was extremely bogus when we have a new administration coming in in a matter of weeks. There was no conversation about what the handover was going to be and how they were going to ensure that the Biden-Harris administration would be fully prepared and willing to take over.” .
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Trump’s transition sabotage threatens vaccine launch.”
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