Fighting Election Results, Trump Employs a New Weapon: The Government
As President Trump and his administration insist he didn’t lose, the rest of the world has increasingly moved to accept Joe Biden’s victory.
President Trump has tried to condition a large segment of the American public not to believe anyone other than him, with evident success.
President Trump has tried to condition a large segment of the American public not to believe anyone other than him, with evident success.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Peter BakerLara Jakes
By Peter Baker and Lara Jakes
Nov. 10, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump, facing the prospect of leaving the White House in defeat in just 70 days, is harnessing the power of the federal government to resist the results of an election that he lost, something that no sitting president has done in American history.
In the latest sign of defiance, the president’s senior cabinet secretary fueled concerns on Tuesday that Mr. Trump would resist handing over power to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. after legal challenges to the vote. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Mr. Trump’s attorney general has at the same time authorized investigations into supposed vote fraud, his general services administrator has refused to give Mr. Biden’s team access to transition offices and resources guaranteed under law and the White House is preparing a budget for next year as if Mr. Trump will be around to present it.
The president has also embarked on a shake-up of his administration, firing Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper as well as the heads of three other agencies while installing loyalists in key positions at the National Security Agency and the Pentagon. Allies expect more to come, including the possible dismissals of the directors of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A.
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But the rest of the world increasingly moved to accept Mr. Biden’s victory and prepared to work with him despite Mr. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the results. Speaking with journalists, Mr. Biden called the president’s actions since Election Day “an embarrassment” that will not serve him well in the long run. “How can I say this tactfully?” Mr. Biden said. “It will not help the president’s legacy.”
The standoff left the United States in the position of the kind of country whose weak democratic processes it often criticizes. Rather than congratulating Mr. Biden and inviting him to the White House, as his predecessors traditionally have done after an election changed party control, Mr. Trump has been marshaling his administration and pressuring his Republican allies into acting as if the outcome were still uncertain, either out of faint hope of actually overturning the results or at least creating a narrative to explain his loss.
ImagePresident-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has begun his transition without Mr. Trump’s concession.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has begun his transition without Mr. Trump’s concession.Credit…Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
The president’s efforts to discredit with false claims both the election results and the incoming Biden administration is in many ways the culmination of four years of stocking the government with pliant appointees while undermining the credibility of other institutions in American life, including intelligence agencies, law enforcement authorities, the news media, technology companies, the federal government more broadly and now election officials in states across four time zones.
Throughout his presidency, Mr. Trump has tried to condition much of the American public not to believe anyone other than him, with evident success. Although the evidence shows there was no widespread conspiracy to steal the election in multiple states that Mr. Trump has invented, at least one poll showed that many supporters accept his claims. Seventy percent of Republicans surveyed by Politico and Morning Consult said they did not believe the election was free and fair.
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“What we have seen in the last week from the president more closely resembles the tactics of the kind of authoritarian leaders we follow,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that tracks democracy around the world. “I never would have imagined seeing something like this in America.”
Mr. Abramowitz doubted there was much danger of Mr. Trump overturning the election. “But by convincing a large part of the population that there was widespread fraud, he is seeding a myth that could endure for years and contribute to an erosion of public confidence in our electoral system,” he said.
Mr. Biden has proceeded without waiting for Mr. Trump’s concession and spoke on Tuesday with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Ireland. Most major world leaders have congratulated him on his victory, including close Trump allies like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, another Trump favorite, joined the chorus on Tuesday. The major holdouts remained Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China.
Mr. Biden said he was not overly concerned with the Trump administration’s refusal to provide transition money, offices and access to agencies, insisting he could assemble a government by his Jan. 20 inauguration. “We are going to be moving along in a consistent manner, putting together our administration, White House,” he said. “Nothing is going to stop us.”
Mr. Biden agreed that it would be helpful to have access to classified information like the presidential daily briefing, something an outgoing administration usually provides an incoming president. But he added, “The fact that they are not willing to acknowledge that we won at this point is not of much consequence to our planning.”
In a testy exchange with journalists at the State Department, Mr. Pompeo insisted that American efforts to prevent voter intimidation and ensure free and fair elections around the world were not diminished by Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede.
“We must count every legal vote,” Mr. Pompeo said, adopting the president’s language. “We must make sure that any vote that wasn’t lawful ought not be counted. That dilutes your vote if it’s done improperly.”
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He snapped when asked if Mr. Trump’s delaying tactics undermined the State Department’s efforts to pressure political leaders abroad to accept losing results. “That’s ridiculous and you know it’s ridiculous, and you asked it because it’s ridiculous,” he said.
Mr. Pompeo can often be sarcastic, particularly when speaking to reporters, but the State Department made no effort to clarify if he was joking. Asked later on Fox News if he was serious, he did not say. “We will have a smooth transition,” he said. “And we will see what the people ultimately decided, when all the votes have been cast.”
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Pompeo Echoes Trump, Insisting ‘Every Legal Vote’ Be Counted
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday with a grin that there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” echoing President Trump’s demands for a delay until “every legal vote” is counted.
Reporter: “Is the State Department currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team? And if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to national security?” “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. All right, we’re ready. The world is watching what’s taking place. We’re going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, they’ll be electors selected. There’s a process — the Constitution lays it out pretty clearly. The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is functional today, successful today and successful with the president who’s in office on Jan. 20, a minute after noon, will also be successful. I went through a transition on the front, and I’ve been on the other side of this. I’m very confident that we will do all the things that are necessary to make sure that the government, the United States goverment, will continue to perform its national security function as we go forward.” Reporter: “Do you believe there’s widespread voter fraud? The reports that we’re getting from Pennsylvania, from Michigan, showing vote totals of massive leads or significant leads with 99 percent reporting are going to be overturned, and that the United States failed to conduct a fraudulent-free election?” “Rich, I’m the secretary of state. I’m getting calls from all across the world. These people are watching our election. They understand that we have a legal process. They understand that this takes time. Right — took us 37-plus days in an election back in 2000. Conducted a successful transition then, I’m very confident that we will count, and we must count, every legal vote. We must make sure that any vote that wasn’t lawful ought not be counted. That dilutes your vote if it’s done improperly. Got to get that right. When we get it right, we’ll get it right — we’re in good shape.”
1:43Pompeo Echoes Trump, Insisting ‘Every Legal Vote’ Be Counted
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday with a grin that there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” echoing President Trump’s demands for a delay until “every legal vote” is counted.CreditCredit…Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
His comments provoked a backlash from career diplomats, including criticism of his glib tone and outright concerns that the Trump administration would try to steal the election. But Mr. Trump congratulated him later on Twitter: “That’s why Mike was number one in his class at West Point!”
The delay in acknowledging the results has left American embassies in limbo. At least some embassy officials have been told to steer clear of any efforts to help Mr. Biden with foreign leaders who want to congratulate him, as they normally would during a transition. Diplomats said they could not even begin enumerating the successes of the Trump administration for fear of describing it in the past tense.
The New York Times