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November 16, 2020

Biden Transition Team Shut Out of Key Funding and Access as Trump Refuses to Concede
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Over one week after all major networks projected Joe Biden won the
presidential election, his team remains shut out of key funding and
access normally granted to incoming administrations. On Friday, the two
remaining states to project a winner were called, with North Carolina
going to Trump and Biden taking the win in Georgia, although that race
is now undergoing a hand recount. Biden has won 306 electoral votes to
Trump's 232, and Biden has amassed over 5.5 million more votes in the
popular count. In 2016, when Trump won the election with 306 electoral
votes, he declared his victory a landslide. But he has yet to concede
the race, delaying the transition for Biden's team and further inflaming
Trump's base of supporters who believe his lies that the election was
rigged against him. A Sunday morning tweet by Trump appeared to show he
acknowledged Biden's win, by saying, "He won because the Election was
Rigged," though Trump quickly walked it back by tweeting less than two
hours later, "I concede NOTHING!"

Trump's many legal challenges to alter the outcome of the election
continue to falter. On Friday, a judge declined to block the
certification of election results in Detroit, Michigan, and
Pennsylvania's Secretary of State said she will not order a recount of
votes since Biden's lead is too wide. On Sunday, the Trump campaign
scrapped major parts of its case in Pennsylvania. Several law firms
representing the Trump campaign have either withdrawn from lawsuits or
said they would not get involved in additional litigation.

Meanwhile, as the fate of the Senate hangs on the two runoffs in Georgia
in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc Connell is pushing to pack
the courts with more right-wing judges before Trump leaves office: 12
judicial nominations are currently awaiting a Senate vote, and 23 are
awaiting committee hearings.


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