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
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.
Read More: Trump admin orders federal agencies to resist Biden transition team
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.
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.”
Read More: Biden defends health care law as high court mulls its fate
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.
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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