narvikk/iStockBy LIBBY CATHEY, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with transition plans, capping a tumultuous and tension-filled campaign during a historic pandemic against President Donald Trump, who still refuses to concede the election more than one week after Biden was projected as the winner.
Trump has largely hunkered down inside the White House since the election, but Biden is pressing forward and stepping into the presidential spotlight, delivering remarks on economic recovery Monday and continuing to meet with his own transition advisers despite the Trump administration refusing to grant him access to federal resources allocated for the transition of power.
It comes as a growing number of Republican senators are calling on the administration to start giving Biden classified intelligence briefings, a sign that support for Trump’s refusal to concede the election may be waning among his allies on Capitol Hill.
Though Trump has alleged widespread voter fraud, he and his campaign haven’t been able to provide the evidence to substantiate their claims with several of their lawsuits already being thrown out in court.
Here is how the transition is unfolding. All times Eastern:
Nov 16, 9:19 am
Overview: Biden to speak on economy, Trump behind closed doors
Though Trump still refuses to concede the election which took place nearly two weeks ago, he has largely ceded the presidential spotlight since to the man he once mocked for “hiding.”
President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are out front Monday, slated to deliver afternoon remarks from Wilmington, Delaware, on their plans for a COVID-19 economic recovery and long-term growth. It will be the pair’s first extended remarks of the economy since they were projected to win the election.
Biden has spoken about the need for additional COVID-19 relief to help struggling Americans and conferred with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a call last week about the stalled efforts to pass a bill on Capitol Hill. But Biden hasn’t yet spoken with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, his team says, whose cooperation would be necessary to pass such a bill during a lame-duck session in Congress.
Trump, meanwhile, has no public events for Monday and only a lunch with Vice President Mike Pence on his schedule. Over the weekend, he appeared to acknowledge for the first time that Biden won in a tweet, but it didn’t take long for Trump to walk back the tweet and push in a series of tweets since that he’s not conceding.
During remarks in the Rose Garden Friday, Trump, in an effort to contrast himself with Biden on COVID-19 lockdowns, nearly acknowledged the reality that he lost before saying “time will tell” which administration will lead in the future.
As his legal team concedes on more fronts, with only two favorable rulings out of at least 18 cases in battleground states, Trump has put Rudy Giuliani in charge of his uphill legal efforts.
It all comes as the Trump administration and the Biden transition team are still in a standoff over whether the GSA should recognize Biden as the president-elect, allowing his team access to federally-allocated resources to help with the transition of power, including vaccine distribution plans.
This week, Biden is also expected to meet with Democrats and Republicans from Washington, D.C. and around the country and with national security experts, according to his campaign.
Nov 16, 9:24 am
Toll of Trump’s defiance comes into view
Trump has come close to conceding defeat a few times in recent days — if only incidentally or inadvertently.
But the focus on Trump’s tweets misses the point. The president’s refusal to acknowledge that he lost the election has now extended into a second full week, and now come warnings of more significant consequences.
The political fallout is almost predictable, but no less severe for that. Protesters’ clashes in Washington over the weekend gave dramatic and even dangerous evidence about what it means when virtually an entire political party and many millions of its followers defy the basic facts of what happened in an election.
As for policy, warnings are coming into view along with new grim realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci wants to be able to coordinate with the incoming Biden administration team, and Biden wants to be able to be in touch with career officials; those contacts can’t take place until the Trump administration allows it.
“I want to be as transparent as possible with everybody — this is not a political issue,” White House coronavirus task force member Adm. Brett Giroir said on ABC’s This Week.
The post-election period, though, has been dominated by political considerations. The question of when Republicans on Capitol Hill will lose patience with far-flung Trump legal efforts is relevant, though still not determinative.
This week will almost certainly bring more legal clarity, if not finality, to the results of the election. The bigger questions, though, will come around governance — with challenges for the incoming administration only growing with any delays.
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