Emily Murphy, the head of the Government Services Administration (GSA), is facing mounting pressure to “ascertain” that President-elect Joe Biden won the presidential election, thus allowing the transition process to begin.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) penned lengthy a letter to Murphy to urge her to “fulfill your legal obligation to ‘ascertain’ that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden is the ‘apparent successful candidate’ of the 2020 presidential election and to allow the transition process to begin.”
“Your refusal thus far to make this simple, but critical, determination that Mr. Biden is the ‘apparent successful candidate’ has potentially far-reaching consequences for the nation across the full range of governmental endeavors,” he said.
He added, “As you are the individual charged with making this determination, you bear enormous responsibility for the harmful effects that will flow from your inaction.”
“Every day, tens of thousands of professionals work to produce crucial insights for our nation’s leaders, and many of their most important findings are restricted to the President and a handful of other top national security officials. A crucial element of the transition process is to ensure that this intelligence, often obtained at great cost and risk to American personnel, is shared with the incoming President to ensure that there is no security ‘gap’ as a result of the change in administration.”
Read the letter below:
Dear @GSAEmily,
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) November 23, 2020
Your refusal to recognize Biden’s win will do serious long-term harm.
To national security, our fight against COVID, and more.
Trump’s frivolous lawsuits and baseless conspiracies to overturn the people’s mandate will not succeed.
Do your duty. Right now. pic.twitter.com/jQ3RRQMVq7
He went on to note that the 9/11 Commission determined that former President George W. Bush’s “truncated transition in 20000 ‘hampered’ the administration’s ability to fill key national security positions.'”
“The threats our nation faces today are more urgent and complex than in 2000,” he added.
He continued to say President Donald Trump’s “efforts to overturn” the results of the election consist of “frivolous lawsuits and outrageous and baseless conspiracy theories.”
Finally, he said, “It is past time for you to put the interests of the American people above gratifying his vanity or appeasing his desire to overturn the election. I should not need to remind you that your oath is only to the Constitution of the United States, and not to any President or party.”
Schiff is not the only Democratic lawmaker to urge Murphy to allow the transition to begin. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) warned that the delay in the transition “poses serious risk to Native American families across the country.”
And on Sunday, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said, “It’s past time to start a transition, to at least cooperate with a transition. I’d rather have a president who has more than one day to prepare, should Joe Biden end up winning this.”
