created on October 15, 2020 shows US President Donald Trump
speaking during a briefing at the White House September 27, 2020,
in Washington, DC and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden
as he speaks outside the Delaware Museum of Natural History in
Wilmington, Delaware, on September 14, 2020. JIM WATSON, Brendan
Smialowski / AFP
A week after losing the US election, President
Donald Trump remained shut up in the White House on
Tuesday, pushing an alternate reality that he is about to win,
while Democrat Joe Biden ignored him and acted like a leader in
waiting by taking a string of calls from foreign
capitals.
Biden is increasingly moving toward the moment in 71 days when
he will take the oath of office.
In his latest exchanges with international leaders, he talked
Tuesday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ireland’s
prime minister, Micheal Martin, and was due to speak with French
President Emmanuel Macron later.
But the formal process of Biden’s transition is being blocked
by Trump while he attempts to overturn the election
results in court on the basis of so far flimsy fraud
allegations.
“WE WILL WIN!” the Republican president tweeted early Tuesday.
“WATCH FOR MASSIVE BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE.”
Trump’s attempt to hold on to power has become all consuming for
the man who often makes a point of publicly mocking rivals as
“losers.”
Emphasizing the atmosphere of intransigence, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo said in a testy news conference that he was preparing
for “a smooth transition to a
second Trump administration.”
Since Election Day on November 3, Trump has made few
public appearances and seems to have all but shelved normal
presidential duties.
His only known activities outside the White House have been to
play golf twice over the weekend, after the results came in.
Normally routine secret presidential intelligence briefings have
been off the daily schedule. He has made no mention of the dramatic
rebound in the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.
And his once near daily press conferences, interviews with Fox
News or impromptu question-and-answer sessions with White House
journalists have dried up.
In place of that, Trump has spent much of his time
tweeting, mostly about what he claims is the s tolen election.
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Trump’s only significant presidential action has been the abrupt
firing of defense secretary Mark Esper on Monday, which he
announced on Twitter.
Transition blocked
Exactly four years ago Tuesday, Trump had just scored
his surprise victory against Hillary Clinton and toured the White
House for the first time as a guest of Barack Obama.
That courtesy to a presidents-elect is an old tradition,
highlighting the nation’s near sacred respect for the peaceful
transfer of power.
Trump has not only failed to invite Biden for a chat in the
Oval Office, he is blocking the Democrat from access to facilities,
funding and expertise that usually come in a ready made package to
help the incoming leader.
pictures created on October 22, 2020 shows US President Donald
Trump (L) and former Democratic Presidential candidate and former
US Vice President Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at
Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020.
JIM WATSON, Morry GASH / AFP
Release of this transition aid is controlled by the General
Services Administration head Emily Murphy, who was appointed
by Trump.
Biden, who won with a record number of votes but acknowledges
that nearly half the electorate nevertheless backed Trump, is
apparently choosing to ignore the chaos.
Rarely even mentioning Trump, Biden has set up a
coronavirus task force and on Tuesday was delivering his latest
policy speech — this time on the fate of the Obamacare health care
plan which Trump wants the Supreme Court to
dismantle.
The latest major foreign leader to reach out with
congratulations, ignoring Trump’s claim that he won last
Tuesday, was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who referred
to Biden’s “election success.”
Republicans back Trump
Washington is buzzing with speculation over who, if anyone,
in Trump’s inner circle will finally persuade him to go.
Former President George W. Bush, the only living Republican
ex-president, congratulated Biden on his victory, but he is an
outlier in a party dominated by the still hugely
popular Trump.
On Monday, the Republican leader in Congress, Senator Mitch
McConnell, said Trump was “100 percent within his rights”
to challenge the election in court.
None of the lawsuits appears to have the potential to change the
result of votes and even a planned recount of Biden’s paper-thin
victory in Georgia, or anywhere else, would be unlikely to change
the fundamental math.
But Trump added a potential new weapon to his crusade
against the results on Monday when his attorney general, Bill Barr,
agreed to authorize probes into “specific allegations” of
fraud.
Barr added a caveat that “specious, speculative, fanciful or
far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal
inquiries.”
However, Barr’s unusual intervention in the dispute prompted
worries that Trump will go even further in his efforts.
The Justice Department’s top election crimes prosecutor, Richard
Pilger, resigned in protest.
Biden’s inauguration is on January 20.
AFP