Biden says Trump’s refusal to accept election results is an ’embarrassment’

The president-elect said legal action would not be necessary despite Trump and Republicans refusing to accept election results

Associated Press

Nov 10, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden says President Donald Trump’s failure to recognize his victory is an “embarrassment.”

It marked the sharpest critique yet from the incoming president at the incumbent, as Trump’s team has refused to formally begin preparations for the transition.

Taking questions from reporters Tuesday for the first time since his victory, Biden predicted that “it will not help the president’s legacy.”

Biden says regardless of the Trump administration’s actions, his planning to assume power on Jan. 20 is continuing as scheduled.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Joe Biden says his transition team will not be taking legal action to try to force the Trump administration to officially acknowledge him as the president-elect.

Biden told reporters Tuesday that “I don’t see a need for legal action, quite frankly.”

"We are already beginning the transition," Pres.-elect Joe Biden says as Pres. Trump refuses to concede. "Nothing's going to stop that."

"The fact that they're not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning." https://t.co/D7t03ZfZfd pic.twitter.com/KBl2uB7ean
— ABC News (@ABC) November 10, 2020

Much of the formal transition work doesn’t begin until the administrator of the General Services Administration ascertains the “apparent successful candidate” in the election, and that has not happened yet amid legal challenges by President Donald Trump to election results in some states.

President-elect Joe Biden, joined by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, speaks at The Queen theater, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The GSA’s failure to designate Biden the official winner bars the Democrat and his team from receiving federal funds for his transition and from getting access to the agencies they’ll need to work with to smooth the transition of power.

He also is not receiving a daily classified briefing on security threats typically afforded to the president-elect.

Biden said that the briefing “would be useful, but it’s not necessary,” and that his transition team didn’t need the federal funds to continue their work. He says, “We don’t see anything slowing us down.”

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