General Services Administration says Biden can begin transition into White House

The General Services Administration has finally informed President-elect Joe Biden to begin transition into the White House despite President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Long after victory in the November 3 election, Biden could now have access to federal resources and services, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy told him in a letter on Monday.

“I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA,” the outgoing president said on Twitter. “Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”

Murphy said she was “never directly or indirectly pressured by any executive branch official — including those who work at the White House or the GSA.”

“I do not think that an agency charged with improving federal procurement and property management should place itself above the constitutionally-based election process,” she wrote in a letter to Mr. Biden’s transition.

Trump had filed several lawsuits in battleground states to overturn the election results but to no avail.

Murphy said she made the decision because of “recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results.”

Resisting pressure from Trump, Michigan’s statewide electoral board approved its presidential vote tally earlier in the day.

Yohannes Abraham, executive director of Biden's transition, said the start of the transition was a "needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track."

"This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies," Abraham said. "In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration's efforts to hollow out government agencies.

The transition process has been stalled for weeks as Trump refuses to acknowledge Biden as the president-elec.

MG