PRESIDENT Donald Trump has promised to file what he describes as a big law suit that will back his widespread vote rigging claims despite being forced by the weight of public opinion to authorise the General Services Administration (GSA) to initiate transition proceedings.
On November 3, Americans went to the polls and in a keen presidential race between President Trump of the Republican Party and former vice president Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, the contest looked deadlocked. In about five states, the contest was too close to call but after about a week, Mr Biden was declared the winner after sweeping several battleground states.
Mr Biden’s victories in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, gave him a total of 306 electoral college votes to President Trump’s 232. In the popular vote too, Mr Biden secured 78.76 votes to President Trump’s 73.1m votes given him a 51.9% share of the vote to the incumbent’s 48.1%.
Despite this clear victory, President Trump has refused to concede defeat, claiming the polls were marred by electoral fraud. He has filed numerous lawsuits challenging the validity of the elections and in some states like Georgia, the Republican party has asked for a recount because the vote was close.
However, yesterday, President Trump was forced by a combination of the weight of public opinion and a successive loss of lawsuits to allow the GSA to initiate a transition programme. He authorised the GSA administrator Emily Murphy to release funds to the Biden transition team and to begin sharing information on security.
Ms Murphy subsequently sent a letter to Mr Biden allowing the transition to officially begin, permitting current administration agency officials to coordinate with the incoming Biden team and providing millions in government funding for the transition. She, however, refused to address him as president-elect and President Trump himself said he is not conceding defeat in the elections.
Ms Murphy’s letter read: “Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any executive branch official, including those who work at the White House or GSA with regards to the substance or timing of my decision.”
However, the Biden team has not waited for the formal transition process to begin preparing for the presidency, as it announced several cabinet picks yesterday. With the GSA decision, the Biden team will now have access to additional office space inside the agencies and the ability to use federal resources for background checks on appointments and cabinet nominations.
In a tweet this morning, however, President Trump claims he will soon present evidence of widespread ballot fraud and other wrongdoing in great detail in a big lawsuit. His tweet announcing the plan did not explain why he had not already presented that evidence in the many lawsuits his team has advanced in recent weeks.
