What Kind Of People Are Being Implanted Into The Defense Establishment By Trump-- Who Benefits And How?

 

Is secretive right-wing operative Ezra Cohen-Watnick actually paid by Russia?

This morning, David Sanger and Eric Schmitt reported for the NY Times that Trump is stuffing the Pentagon and the intel agencies with political hacks loyal to himself. To what end? they asked. "Trump," they wrote, "made the appointments of four top Pentagon officials, including a new acting defense secretary, this week, leaving civilian and military officials to interpret whether this indicated a change in approach in the final two months of his presidency." Ignoring the objections of General Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, Trump also installed Michael Ellis, a crackpot extremist, document leaker and former Devin Nunes aide, as a general counsel.

Officials and former officials interviewed by The Times yesterday "agreed that there was a large element of score-settling and attention-grabbing" by Señor Trumpanzee and his inner circle. The worst of the garbage Trump has put into position are Kashyap Patel [another lunatic Nunes aide], Anthony Tata and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, all "highly ideological Trump foot soldiers. Mr. Patel has a long history of trying to discredit the investigations into Russian interference, Mr. Tata’s nomination was withdrawn over the summer in part because he had called President Barack Obama a 'terrorist leader,' and Mr. Cohen-Watnick [almost surely a Putin spy] was quietly eased out of the National Security Council in 2017 after clashes with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, then the national security adviser."

Related, Politico's Nancy Cook and Gabby Orr wrote early this morning, that "On Monday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gathered senior aides on a call. One of his goals: to plot the conservative policy moves they could push through in their final 10 weeks on immigration, trade, health care, China and school choice... Meadows was asking aides on the call to give him three goals by the end of the week that could be accomplished by Biden’s inauguration, according to two people briefed on the conversation. Since then, staffers have compiled a list of roughly 15 moves they could make through executive orders, executive actions or finalizing agency rules that they plan to pursue in the coming days, according to interviews with three administration officials." Trump is rarin' to go and hopes to start issuing "as soon as possible."

In addition to rolling out executive orders and actions, Trump’s plans for the next several weeks include firing Cabinet officials who have irked him or refused to follow his lead on investigations. He kicked off the axings Monday by tweet-firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper. In the coming weeks, Trump may also fire CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray. Haspel was spotted in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Tuesday afternoon.

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) has threatened Trump that if he doesn't stop the monkey business by tomorrow he will step in. Specifically, he is demanding that President-elect Biden be given the same intel briefings all presidents-elect get: access to presidential daily intelligence briefings.

"There's nothing wrong with Vice President Biden getting the briefings to be able to prepare himself and so that he can be ready-- the President's already getting those," Lankford said, adding that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a Democratic senator from California, also has the appropriate clearances to begin receiving briefings because she serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, also called for Biden to receive the briefings.

"As has been done in every other transition, the President should order that Biden and his team receive the PDB, as has been done in the past, even during the contested election of 2000," Warner said Wednesday. "It's simply irresponsible to withhold this in these uncertain times."

How Much Damage Will Trump Do Between Today And January 20? He Badly Wants To Make A Deal For A Blanket Pardon

 

Who's still left?

Being better than Trump is the lowest imaginable bar but that doesn't mean that Biden isn't going to immediately make things better in a real way-- and for all of us. Reporting for the Washington Post yesterday, Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Valerie Strauss wrote that "Trump tried to bully schools into opening their buildings, a hard-edge pandemic tactic that succeeded in places and backfired elsewhere. President-elect Joe Biden is hoping to pry them open with money for increased coronavirus expenses and clear guidance on how to do so safely, a shift that signals a new era for education policy in America. Under Trump, the Education Department has been led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, who alienated many by casting public schools as failures and promoting alternatives to them. Through executive action and negotiations with Congress, Biden wants to bolster public schools. Biden has promised hundreds of billions of dollars in new education spending, from preschool through college. He has proposed college debt forgiveness.

Many of Biden’s promises require new spending, and that will require support from Congress, a heavy lift, particularly if the Senate remains under Republican control.

Biden has promised to triple spending for the $15 billion Title 1 program, which targets high-poverty schools. He has said he would double the number of psychologists, counselors, nurses and social workers in schools. He has vowed new money for school infrastructure. And he has said he would dramatically increase federal spending for special education.

He also wants to fund universal prekindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-old children; make community college debt-free; and double Pell grants to help low-income students pay for college.

First up will be coronavirus-related spending, particularly if Congress has not passed a relief package before Inauguration Day. Some emergency funding for schools was approved in the spring, but the Trump administration has been unable to cut a legislative deal for additional money.

Biden has endorsed at least $88 billion to stabilize state education funding and help pay for protective equipment, ventilation systems, reduced class sizes and other expenses associated with operating school during the pandemic.

...[T]he new administration is likely undo many of the things that DeVos did, and redo some of the Obama administration policies that DeVos undid.

DeVos rescinded Education Department guidance meant to reduce racial disparities in school discipline, for instance, something the incoming administration can reinstate. The administration also spiked Obama-era guidance that offered protections for transgender students, including the right to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity. And it killed guidance on use of affirmative action in college admissions.

Other likely reversals: a Justice Department lawsuit alleging discrimination against White and Asian students at Yale University; a ban on federal grant recipients from holding diversity training, and an investigation into Princeton University, launched after the university’s president spoke of institutional racism on campus.

“It’s a new day around this national conversation about race and equity ... making sure communities are not intentionally or unintentionally left out opportunities will be key,” said Tiffany Jones, senior director of higher-education policy at the nonprofit Education Trust.

...Some observers expect the incoming administration to be even tougher on for-profit colleges than Obama was. Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris was instrumental in bringing down Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit giant, when she was California state attorney general and as a senator supported efforts to hold predatory for-profit colleges to account.

“Policies will be designed to protect students and taxpayers first,” predicted Dan Zibel, who worked at the agency under Obama and is now chief counsel at the National Student Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit he co-founded. He said that would likely include “taking harder stances against schools and companies using financial aid system to scam students.”

And that's one department. Biden's team is going to have to do that in every facet of government-- and start doing it even while we are still living through a disruptive, vengeful lame-duck presidency, a lame duck Congress, an hostile and obstructive Senate and two Senate races (in Georgia) that are "life-or-death" struggles for each very antagonistic "side." Congress is back in DC today, "confronting," as Erica Werner, Paul Kane and Yasmeen Abutaleb reported last night, "a number of major problems but lacking clear signals from President Trump-- even as President-elect Joe Biden and his team are poised to begin engaging with congressional Democrats on their priorities. Congress faces a government shutdown deadline and crucial economic relief negotiations at a moment of extraordinary national uncertainty, with Trump refusing to concede the presidential election and with coronavirus cases spiking nationwide. Even before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, Congress must contend with a Dec. 11 government funding deadline. Failure to reach a deal would result in a government shutdown, and Trump has not signaled whether he would sign a new spending bill. At the same time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have both expressed the desire to pass new economic and health-care relief measures to address the surging coronavirus pandemic-- something Congress has not been able to do since the spring. But it is uncertain whether they will be able to find common ground in the weeks ahead: McConnell is pushing for a narrow and targeted bill, while Pelosi continues to insist on a broader and bolder relief package."

A handful of Trump’s staunchest allies insisted Sunday that the election is far from over. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, claimed in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that there have been suspect voting incidents in Pennsylvania, Michigan and elsewhere.

“And I’m hellbent on looking at it,” Graham said. “Do not accept the media’s declaration of Biden. Fight back.”

Disorganized Crime by Nancy Ohanian

There is no evidence of any widespread fraud in the election. But the divisions among congressional Republicans over whether to acknowledge Biden as the president-elect mean that negotiations over a new spending package or coronavirus relief bill will proceed under something of a cloud.

Yesterday, on Fox, Lindsey Graham hissed that "If Republicans don't challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again. President Trump should not concede. We're down to less-- 10,000 votes in Georgia. He's going to win North Carolina. We have gone from 93,000 votes to less than 20,000 votes in Arizona, where more-- more votes to be counted." Meanwhile, Axios reported last night that apart from a few die-hards, most people close to President Trump know the race is over-- but no one wants to be the sacrificial lamb who tells him to concede, people familiar with their thinking tell me... Top Trump advisers sat the president down at the White House on Saturday and walked him through the 'options for success'... [T]hey made clear to Trump the likely outcome of waging these legal battles, but he was firm that he wants to forge ahead anyway... [E]ven Trump has discussed the possibility of not winning. He has accepted that losing may be an outcome but insists on pursuing what he claims is mass fraud. Several of his close advisers, including social media guru Dan Scavino and personnel director Johnny McEntee, are egging him on. But people one rung out have privately accepted reality. They know the court cases are dead ends, and some are already putting out job feelers."

Jordan Fabian reported for Bloomberg that Trump's legal advisers say his legal challenges are futile

Zany Rudy Giuliani Conveniently Tucked In His Shirt Before The Botched Trump Press Conference

 

Earlier today, former President George Bush gave an unsolicited lesson to soon-to-be former President Donald Duck. "I just talked to the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden," he wrote. "I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night. I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency. Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country. The President-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans. I offered him the same thing I offered Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success, and my pledge to help in any way I can... The challenges that face our country will demand the best of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris-- and the best of us all.  We must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its future. There is no problem that will not yield to the gathered will of a free people. Laura and I pray for our leaders and their families. We ask for God's continued blessings on our country. And we urge all Americans to join us in wishing our next President and Vice President well as they prepare to take up their important duties."

Today, as the U.S. reported another six-figure death toll from COVID, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran the most perfect denouement for the whole of America's tragic Trump Anamoly. Hilarious reporters Jeremy Roebuck, Maddie Hanna and Oona Goodin-Smith wrote that "What began five years ago with the made-for-TV announcement of Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions from the escalator of his ritzy Manhattan high-rise, ended Saturday with his aging lawyer shouting conspiracy theories and vowing lawsuits in a Northeast Philadelphia parking lot, near a sex shop and a crematorium. In hindsight, the hastily arranged news conference featuring Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, just minutes after Joe Biden had been declared the victor of the 2020 race, delivered a fitting end to a campaign that had been at times characterized by its slapdash techniques. But the story of how a landscaping company in Holmesburg became the backdrop for what could have been one of the Trump team’s last public gasps in its bid to reverse the results quickly captured the public’s imagination."

It started Saturday morning, with a presidential tweet that, as has often happened during the last four years, Trump’s advisers quickly scrambled to correct.

Trump announced: “Lawyers News Conference Four Seasons, Philadelphia, 11 a.m.,” only to delete his post minutes later and replace it with one changing the venue from the upscale Center City hotel to a similarly named business: Four Seasons Total Landscaping on industrial State Road, next to Fantasy Island Adult Books and Novelties and across the street from the Delaware Valley Cremation Center.

“To clarify, President Trump’s news conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia,” the hotel’s management tweeted out minutes later. “It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping-- no relation with the hotel.”

But by then, many on social media were already delighting in a booking they assumed must have been a mistake.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Giuliani and Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski had always intended the news conference to take place in a section of Philadelphia where they might receive a more welcomed reception than at the raucous celebrations of Joe Biden’s victory going on in Center City. It was the president, the paper reported, who had misunderstood.

As for why Four Seasons Total Landscaping? Giuliani offered no explanation Saturday and made no mention of the company or its owner, Marie Siravo, during his remarks. Tom Matkowski, GOP ward leader for the neighborhood, said the news conference hadn’t been coordinated with the local Republican Party and that he didn’t believe the Siravo family was active in local party politics.

The phone at Four Seasons went unanswered throughout the day, and Siravo did not return calls for comment.

Her social media posts indicate she and some of her family members were vocal, but not necessarily unshakable, Trump supporters.

“We don’t need to invite him for dinner,” Siravo posted in August, in response to a “Conservative Hangout” Facebook page that listed Trump’s accomplishments in office. “We just need him to fix our country & all the democratic mess.” She added that she had been “raised a Democrat.”

In a Facebook post, the Four Seasons team described itself as a “family-owned small business run by lifelong Philadelphians” that would have “proudly hosted any presidential candidate’s campaign.”

“We strongly believe in America and in democracy,” the message read. It promised it would have merchandise ready to sell by next week.

While Giuliani spoke Saturday outside the business against a backdrop of “Trump-Pence” signs, he drew a local crowd of supporters, waving flags and booing reporters as campaign staff called on them to identify what news outlets they were representing. But as news of Biden’s victory spread, the group’s noise was rivaled by the honking horns of cars with “Biden-Harris” signs zipping down the nearby road.

Meanwhile, online, jokes about the locale proliferated. T-shirts popped up for sale featuring Gritty riding a tractor under the slogan “Not the Four Seasons Hotel” and the company’s online reviews took a turn for the zany.

By afternoon, Yelp slapped the business' page with an “unusual activity alert” and temporarily disabled comments so it could investigate that incoming reviews "reflect actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events.”

On Google, one five-star reviewer posted: “When I was losing an election back in 2004, I knew exactly where to turn for a desperate, last minute news conference. Four Seasons Total Landscaping has the best combination of gardening and Pennsylvania electoral law litigation services. I didn’t win the election, but I sure had a great news conference.”

Even Lewandowski joined in the fun, tweeting: “All great Americans in PA use Four Seasons Total Landscaping. They love this country and are American Patriots.”

Back on State Road, by Sunday afternoon even tourists had flocked to the company’s barbed-wire gates, taking selfies with the signage and livestreaming the construction equipment and gravel parking lot.

“World’s greatest landmark!” said Katheryn Wlodarcyzk, who’d driven from Wayne with her dog, Emmett, just to see the building for herself. “No place more beautiful.”

The Four Seasons staff remained perplexed by their moment in the national spotlight. Kevin Moran, a foreman at the firm, simply shrugged when approached while opening the gate to the parking lot on Sunday. He said his boss got the call from Trump campaign staffers Saturday morning and thought they must have found the business on Google and been interested because it was a “secure location” set off from the street by a security fence.

As for the confusion with the hotel, Moran said, “everybody gets mixed up. There’s multiple Four Seasons. Four Seasons Hotel, there’s two Four Seasons Landscaping. We’re ‘Total;’ the other one, I think it’s just landscaping.” (There’s a Four Seasons Diner, off Cottman Avenue, too. They weren’t involved, either, the hostess there said.)

Changing it's name to Rudy's Adult Books & Viewing Booths

 

But not all in the neighborhood were so amused. The 78-year-old employee manning the counter at the Fantasy Island sex shop, who declined to give his name, said the phone had been ringing off the hook since Saturday with callers asking: “Is Rudy Giuliani there?”

And despite the stream of new interest in the neighborhood, it hadn’t led to an uptick in business. The Trump train had taken all his parking spots, the worker complained. Then, the day after, normally the store’s busiest day of the week, more people than ever were gawking outside but none were stopping in to sample his wares.

“It is a circus," he said. "But to be honest with you, it doesn’t surprise me. That’s Trump.”

Who's More Likely To Grant Biden A Honeymoon-- The Republicans Or The Progressives?

 

In her powerful Washington Post OpEd-- Working People Delivered Biden His Victory; Now He Needs To Deliver For Them-- early this morning, former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner noted that is was Black, brown and white families making under $100,000, along with the vast majority of young people who delivered Biden his victory. "These voters," she wrote, "are the heart and the future of a massive progressive movement inside and outside of the Democratic Party, and it is to them that Joe Biden and Kamala D. Harris must answer."

And in a letter to his supporters this afternoon, Bernie had a very similar message: while everyone claims credit for Biden's victory, it "multi-racial, multi-generational progressive grassroots organizations all across this country played an extraordinary role in helping to make this victory possible. We made phone calls, we texted, we registered voters, we did virtual rallies, we distributed literature and we knocked on doors when possible. Knowing the importance of this election we did everything that we could, and more. Together, we built widespread support for Biden among young people, people of color and the working class. In my view, Biden's success would not have been possible without those extraordinary efforts... [O]ver 53% of young people ages 18 to 29 voted, which not only eclipses 2016's turnout rate, but would be the highest youth turnout rate in American history. And those young people voted overwhelmingly for Biden and other Democrats... Further, the strong economic agenda that the progressive movement fought for helped bring out low-income working people to vote for Biden. National exit polls show that voters with an annual family income under $50,000 voted against Trump by a 15-point margin... [W]e're going to have to do everything possible to make sure that Congress and the new president move rapidly and aggressively to address the enormous crises facing our country."

On Thursday, Paul Krugman was already urging Biden to "claim that he has been given a strong mandate to govern the nation" (even though most of his votes were anti-Trump votes more than pro-Biden votes. Krugman warned that "there are real questions about whether he will, in fact, be able to govern. At the moment, it seems likely that the Senate-- which is wildly unrepresentative of the American people-- will remain in the hands of an extremist party that will sabotage Biden in every way it can." He then explained why divided government is such a problem and points to GOP obstruction during the Obama years.

Republicans used hardball tactics, including threats to cause a default on the national debt, to force a premature withdrawal of fiscal support that slowed the pace of economic recovery. I’ve estimated that without this de facto sabotage, the unemployment rate in 2014 might have been about two percentage points lower than it actually was.

And the need for more spending is even more acute now than it was in 2011, when Republicans took control of the House... We desperately need a new round of federal spending on health care, aid to the unemployed and businesses, and support for strapped state and local governments. Reasonable estimates suggest that we should spend $200 billion or more each month until a vaccine brings the pandemic to an end. I’d be shocked if a Senate still controlled by Mitch McConnell would agree to anything like this.

Even after the pandemic is over, we’re likely to face both persistent economic weakness and a desperate need for more public investment. But McConnell effectively blocked infrastructure spending even with Donald Trump in the White House. Why would he become more amenable with Biden in office?

Krugman is not without influence but it is Mohamed El-Erian, president of Cambridge's Queens' College, who is probably the single most respected voice in the world in the circle of serious investors and, like Krugman, he warns that A divided electorate spells trouble for the US economy. "The 2020 election," he wrote, "has confirmed that the US remains a deeply divided country facing mounting challenges that threaten both this and future generations. Despite a collective wake-up call in the form of a severe health and economic crisis, the country seems both unwilling and unable to embark on the decisive measures needed. The unwillingness comes from fundamental differences of views on how best to pursue economic and financial reforms while urgently dealing with the threats from COVID-19. The inability is due to a probably divided Congress, where the damage of the past few years to the most basic of cross-party working relationships has been accentuated by the past month's rush to approve a new Supreme Court justice."

What is at risk here is not just the longer-term oriented reforms seeking to limit another move down in productivity, yet more household economic insecurity, and a worsening in inequality. Also at risk is the short-term health and economic effort to help the nation recover from the considerable damage that the first COVID-19 wave left in its wake.

...[T]he Federal Reserve will be pushed yet again to do more with increasingly ineffective and inevitably distortionary policy tools. The traditional monetary policy mindset will continue to give even more ground as the Fed faces pressure to insure risks that are difficult to price, let alone underwrite properly.

This venturing into even bigger experimental unconventional monetary policies will do little to genuinely stimulate the economy. Instead, it is likely to create further distortions in financial markets, increase incentives for irresponsible risk-taking and lead to the misallocation of resources throughout the economy. This will heighten the threat of financial instability. In the process, the already large disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street will widen, adding political and social challenges.

...[This] translates into a more difficult outlook for both the short and longer term. It means less dynamic supply and less buoyant demand. The growth in the economic pie will not just be less than what's needed. It will also fall short of what the two sides of the political divide believe is possible under their different approaches, fuelling a messy blame game that will further undermine the social fabric.

The US plight is also problematic for a global economic recovery that is now more likely to become more uneven and more uncertain. America's internal divisions will preclude the early resumption of its traditional role in informing, influencing and sometimes imposing outcomes in multilateral economic co-ordination forums. They will also increase the risk of deglobalisation and the further weaponisation of economic and investment tools.

Ultimately, the combination of another health emergency, a weakening economy and increased financial instability will force the US government into decisive action-- but not before considerable damage to the lives, livelihoods and mental wellbeing of this generation, and perhaps future ones as well.

Not very cheerful-- and quite ominous, considering the source. Matt Viser, Seung Min Kim and Annie Linskey reported for the Washington Post over the weekend that Biden plans immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies. He'll start on January 20 by having the country rejoin the Paris climate accords, reversing Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, repealing the ban on Muslims, and reinstateing the DREAMER program. "Biden’s top advisers have spent months quietly working on how best to implement his agenda, with hundreds of transition officials preparing to get to work inside various federal agencies. They have assembled a book filled with his campaign commitments to help guide their early decisions." That's good-- since his campaign commitments are much better than his instincts. It's good that his team recognizes that pushing major legislation through Congress is pretty much off the table with McConnell running the Senate. [Reminder: this.]

Biden is planning to set up a coronavirus task force on Monday, in recognition that the global pandemic will be the primary issue that he must confront. The task force, which could begin meeting within days, will be co-chaired by former surgeon general Vivek H. Murthy and David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

...“The policy team, the transition policy teams, are focusing now very much on executive power,” said a Biden ally who has been in touch with his team who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “I expect that to be freely used in a Biden administration at this point, if the Senate becomes a roadblock.”

A Republican-held Senate-- or even one with a narrow Democratic majority-- probably will affect Biden’s Cabinet picks given the Senate’s power to confirm nominees.

One option being discussed is appointing Cabinet members in an acting capacity, a tactic that Trump also used.

“Just by virtue of the calendar and how many positions are filled, that’s always a possibility,” the person said. “Because the Senate moves so slowly now, so much more slowly than it used to.”

...If Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stays as majority leader, he would be trying to manage a conference torn between two factions with different interests, but neither necessarily eager to help Biden-- one with senators running for reelection in swing states in 2022 [Note: Lisa Murkowski, Rubio, Chuck Grassley seat, Richard Burr seat, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey seat, and Ron Johnson] and another with those seeking the national spotlight as they vie for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination [Note: Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz].

“In the old days, the mandate meant that the other side would be more amenable, or feeling they had an impetus to work,” said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-PA). “I’m not sure that applies any longer.”

It is unclear whether Biden has communicated with McConnell yet directly; aides have not commented on any conversation.

A closely divided Congress could hamper Biden’s efforts to do sweeping legislative actions on immigration changes. He has also said he would send a bill to Congress repealing liability protections for gun manufacturers, and close background-check loopholes. He has pledged to repeal the Republican-passed tax cuts from 2017, an effort that could be stymied if Republicans hold the Senate majority.

Without congressional cooperation, however, Biden has said that he plans to immediately reverse Trump’s rollback of 100 public health and environmental rules that the Obama administration had in place.

He would also institute new ethics guidelines at the White House, and he has pledged to sign an executive order the first day in office saying that no member of his administration could influence any Justice Department investigations.

...Much of Biden’s early agenda-- including which pieces of legislation to prioritize-- will be determined in the coming weeks as his transition team begins taking on a far more prominent role.

Biden’s transition effort is being overseen by Ted Kaufman, one of his closest advisers. Kaufman, who was appointed to replace Biden in the Senate when Biden became vice president in 2009, also helped co-write an update to the law governing the transition process, which was passed in 2015 and signed by President Barack Obama.

Biden’s transition team has been given government-issued computers and iPhones for conducting secure communications, and 10,000 square feet of office space in the Herbert C. Hoover Building in Washington, although most of the work is being done virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. His advisers have been granted temporary security clearances and undergone FBI background checks to fast-track the processing of personnel who can receive briefings on intelligence.

But one important next step is for the head of the General Services Administration to rule that the election results are final, enabling Biden’s transition team to expand its work and gain access to government funds. Biden officials are prepared for legal action if that administrator-- Emily W. Murphy, a Trump political appointee-- delays that decision, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Trump has so far not conceded defeat, falsely claiming Saturday that he won the election.

Pamela Pennington, a GSA spokeswoman, said that Murphy would ascertain “the apparent successful candidate once a winner is clear based on the process laid out in the Constitution.” Until that decision is made, she said, the Biden transition team would continue to receive limited access to government resources.

The transition from Trump to Biden would have few historic parallels, rivaled perhaps only by 1860-1861, when southern states seceded before Abraham Lincoln took office, and 1932-1933, when Herbert Hoover sought to undermine Franklin D. Roosevelt and prevent him from implementing his New Deal policies.

The last time there was a prolonged delay in a transfer of power was in 2000, when uncertainty over the results in the contest between then-Vice President Al Gore (D) and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) stretched out until the Supreme Court ended a Florida recount that gave Bush the victory on Dec. 12.

The Bush administration’s sluggish start and lack of qualified personnel in place was cited by the 9/11 Commission Report as a critical vulnerability to U.S. national security for the attacks that occurred less than eight months after the inauguration. That prompted changes to the law and the granting of access at an earlier date following the political conventions.

“When George W. Bush left he made clear to his Cabinet that this is going to be the best transition of power that’s ever occurred. Because we weren’t treated very well when we came into power,” said Michael Leavitt, who at the time was the outgoing secretary of Health and Human Services. “Barack Obama to his credit said the same thing. There was a spirit of cooperation that went on and needs to continue. Whether it will or not I don’t know. But we’re better prepared.”

Chris Lu, the executive director of the Obama-Biden transition in 2008, said that within two hours of the election being called in 2008 he had a formal letter beginning the transition process.

“We literally at 9 a.m. the next morning walked into a transition office and had access to it,” he said. “It was the model for the smoothest transition of power.”

Making a clear break from the Trump administration's adversarial posture toward the civil service is also a top priority for the Biden transition team.

The Trump administration's suspicion of career officials and early calls for them to “get with the program” or “go” created tensions with incoming political appointees that never dissipated. Biden officials are hoping to create a positive atmosphere by avoiding some of the terminology and labels they think contributed to the mistrust.