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General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy is looking at the White House for signs to act when it comes to certifying the presidential election of Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump.
And she fears Trump will fire her if she crosses paths with him, a senior administration official told The Washington Post.
President Trump “does not want a transition,” the official said. He’s made it very clear and we are following orders.
Murphy is in charge of “verification” – the formal recognition of the winner of the election so that the federal government can initiate the transition process. Without your blessing, Biden’s team has no access to federal agencies or the money allocated for the transition process.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany denied Friday that anyone from the White House was pressuring Murphy.
“Absolutely not,” he said during his press conference. ‘GSA will make the verification determination at the appropriate time. There is a constitutional process. ‘
Murphy is telling people that they feel extreme pressure and has suggested that “verification” could take weeks.
“He wants to see what happens to all the states and is looking for clues from the White House,” the official told The Post. “She does not want to be unfair to the administration that hired her.”
The head of the General Services Administration, Emily Murphy, fears that Donald Trump will fire her if he begins the transition process for Joe Biden
President Trump is contesting the election and an official said Trump made clear he does not want a transition
Murphy is said to be considering several options when it comes to “verification,” which would give him political coverage.
Those options include:
- Act after states have certified their election results
- After the Electoral College meets on December 14 – that was the timeline the GSA used in the 2000 election, although Joe Biden has a much wider margin of victory than the 537 Florida votes that determined the 2000 contest
- Or it could wait until Congress counts the electoral votes on January 6.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are preparing to act on Biden’s behalf if the transition process doesn’t start soon.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked at her weekly press conference Friday if the House will have a broader role if Trump continues to derail Biden’s transition.
“Yes,” Pelosi replied. “I’m not one to show my hand, but we’re ready nonetheless.”
“It is totally disconcerting that the GSA is refusing to make the necessary transition statement for it to happen in an orderly manner,” he said.
Two powerful House Democrats, House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and House Appropriations Speaker Nita Lowey, wrote to Murphy Thursday night to demand an in-person briefing on the situation. and they warned that their answers will determine whether or not they will take her to the Capitol. for a public hearing.
“We have been extremely patient, but we cannot wait any longer,” wrote Maloney and Lowey.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won’t show her hand, but House Democrats are ready to act if the transition process doesn’t start soon.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday that the White House is not pressuring GSA
President Trump continues to call himself the winner of 2020.
“I won,” he said Friday during an announcement on prescription drug prices at the White House.
He and his legal team are trying to reverse the election in the states where Biden won, but most of his legal challenges failed. Georgia on Friday afternoon certified its electoral votes for Biden, making him the first Democrat to run the state since 1992.
Trump has praised Murphy for his work with veterans.
Good job Emily! he tweeted Sunday, retweeting Murphy’s 10-day appeal to disabled veterans to apply for federal contracts.
Murphy’s friends and allies told CNN that she never thought she would be in such a situation and that she has been receiving death threats.
They also argued that she is not a hardline trumper, but is loyal to the Republican Party.
‘She absolutely feels like she’s in a difficult place. He is afraid on several levels. It’s a terrible situation, ” a friend and former colleague of Murphy’s told CNN. ‘Emily is a great professional, a deeply moral person, but also a very scrupulous lawyer who is in a very difficult position with a clear law and priority behind her position.
They described her as a policy expert and said that despite being a politically motivated appointee, she was neither an avid Trump supporter nor a loyalist.
‘She is going to be very thoughtful about both the letter of the law, the guidelines, the explicit guidance, any precedence, as well as the general intent. She comes out of contracts, where that’s the whole nature of the job, ‘said a former colleague.
Joe Biden said the delayed transition process is slowing down his ‘war’ on COVID
Meanwhile, Biden said Monday that the delayed transition process is slowing down his ‘war’ against COVID.
Biden, in a virtual conference with frontline health workers, said it is hampering their ability to fight the pandemic, which has killed more than 250,000 Americans.
“This is like going to war,” he said of the fight against the coronavirus.
“I am optimistic, but we should be more advanced” in the transition process, he said.
The president-elect specifically called out the GSA for not allowing the formal transition process to begin, part of a public pressure campaign he and his team are conducting to get Murphy to approve the process.
“ One of the problems we’re having right now is that the administration doesn’t recognize – the law says that the General Services Administration has a person who recognizes who the winner is, ” Biden said, referring to Murphy’s power to put the wheels on. . of change in motion.
‘That’s the only slowdown we have now. We created, I think, a top-notch team that everyone would be proud of. And we are all ready to go and do a great job right now, ” he said.
But, Biden said, the delay means “we haven’t been able to access the kinds of things we need to know,” including stock details.
Emily Murphy was sworn in as GSA Administrator in December 2017
Murphy, who went to law school at the University of Virginia and worked for years as a Republican staff member in Congress and in the Executive, runs one of the most obscure and powerful federal agencies.
‘I’m not here to make 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 .
She became head of the GSA in December 2017 after the Senate confirmed her, taking the lead in the 12,000-person agency that manages the government’s real estate and its shopping list – the GSA manages all federal buildings and purchases supplies. for the executive branch.
His task ranges from cleaning the west wing of the White House to managing the federal government’s 215,000-vehicle engine fleet and negotiating multi-million dollar contracts.
