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By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi |
November 21, 2020 2:13:43 pm
Despite Trump’s unrelenting efforts to reverse the election results, the Biden campaign is still attempting to forge ahead with the presidential transition. (AP photo)More than two weeks have passed since former Vice-President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the United States’ general election, but President Donald Trump is yet to admit defeat. Despite Trump’s unrelenting efforts to reverse the election results, the Biden campaign is still attempting to forge ahead with the presidential transition.
In a series of recent press conferences, Biden has called the Trump administration’s refusal to concede and cooperate with the transition process “embarrassing”, insisting that his team has the resources they need to press forward even without the president’s support.
Biden has said that his transition team has also been denied access to key federal agencies, which as a result has affected their ability to draw out a plan to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and facilitate vaccine distribution.
Meanwhile, President Trump continues to claim that the election was “rigged”, accusing the Democrats of carrying out widespread voter fraud and illegal voting. His team of lawyers have filed a host of election-related lawsuits, several of which have already been rejected by judges in multiple states.
Here is what Biden has said about Trump since the election results were announced
Trump’s refusal to concede is ‘an embarrassment’
At a press conference to discuss his administration’s economic policy earlier this month, President-elect Joe Biden stated that Trump’s continual denial and his refusal to concede was an “embarrassment”, but dismissed the standoff as inconsequential.
“I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly,” he said at a press conference in his home state of Delaware. “How can I say this tactfully? I think it will not help the president’s legacy.”
Q: “What do you say to the Americans that are anxious over the fact that President Trump has yet to concede…?
President-elect Biden: “I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly…it will not help the president’s legacy.”
Full video here: https://t.co/FD5VR4VALj pic.twitter.com/VoLfQy880X
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 10, 2020
“The fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning,” he said, adding that he did not see a need for legal action.
Transition can proceed without Trump’s cooperation
Even if the Trump administration continues to challenge the election result and the General Service Administration (GSA) fails to recognise him as president-elect, Biden has said that his transition team has all the resources they need to carry out the presidential transition.
The GSA administrator is yet to ascertain Biden’s win, which is a necessary first step before the president-elect can begin receiving resources for the transition process. But Biden has insisted that his team will continue to press on with the transition, with or without the GSA’s support.
“Well, first of all, we are already beginning the transition. We’re well under way,” Biden said. “And the ability for the administration in any way by failure to recognise our win does not change the dynamic at all and what we’re able to do.”
President-elect Biden: “We are already beginning the transition. We’re well under way.”
Full video here: https://t.co/FD5VR4VALj pic.twitter.com/RyBdg0UXfV
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 10, 2020
Trump Administration hampering plans for Covid vaccine roll-out
Biden has said that the Trump administration’s refusal to give his team access to key federal agencies was affecting their ability to draw out a plan to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and facilitate vaccine distribution across the country.
Since they do not have all the information they need from various agencies, his transition team is struggling to “deal with everything from testing to guidance to the all-important issue of vaccine distribution,” he told reporters on Friday.
President-elect Joe Biden said the GSA’s refusal to share key data on COVID-19 with his transition team was the biggest impediment to new efforts to fight the outbreak, and warned that 400,000 Americans could die by the time he is sworn in https://t.co/8eCnvM1tkp pic.twitter.com/yWESkWlmY8
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 19, 2020
While he has already launched his own working group to formulate a plan to rein in the pandemic, Biden has said that the lack of access to the current planning being carried out by the federal government will make it very difficult for him when he formally takes office in January.
Trump will ‘go down in history as being one of the most irresponsible presidents’
Reacting to Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of the election, Biden said that the US President “will go down in history as being one of the most irresponsible presidents”.
At a press conference held after a meeting with Republican and Democratic governors, Biden said that Americans are “witnessing incredible irresponsibility”, adding that an “incredibly damaging message is being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.”
“It’s hard to fathom how this man thinks. It’s hard to fathom,” Biden said. “It’s just outrageous, what he’s doing.”
US president-elect Joe Biden said Trump was ‘the most irresponsible president in history’ during a press conference.
Latest news from the US here: https://t.co/HSrAJZPhwV pic.twitter.com/XlOGJcyv23
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) November 20, 2020