#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

Federal government tells Biden it is ready to begin transition (nationthailand.com)

Federal government tells Biden it is ready to begin transition

InternationalNov 24. 2020President-elect Joe Biden 

By The Washington Post · Felicia Sonmez, Lisa Rein · NATIONAL, POLITICS

WASHINGTON – Emily Murphy, the embattled Trump appointee who held off declaring a winner in the presidential race for 20 days while her boss tried to subvert the election results, declared Joe Biden the victor of the election Monday.

In a one-page letter to Biden, the head of the General Services Administration addressed head-on the controversy that engulfed the country over her decision to not release more than $6 million in taxpayer-funded transition funding and to deny crucial access to federal agencies. She used unusually personal language to describe the predicament she faced as Trump has not conceded the election and declared fraud in the results in battleground states, writing that she has “always strived to do what is right.”

“Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts,” she wrote. “I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official – including those who work at the White House or GSA – with regard to the substance or timing of my decision.”

Murphy said she did not receive “any direction to delay my determination” – but did receive threats online, by phone, and by mail directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely.”

“Even in the face of thousands of threats, I always remained committed to upholding the law,” the letter said.

News of the letter was soon followed by tweets in which Trump thanked Murphy and said he had recommended initial protocols for the transition.

“I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country,” Trump tweeted Monday night. “She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA.”

He added: “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.”

Biden’s transition team welcomed the GSA’s move as “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,” Yohannes Abraham, executive director of the Biden-Harris transition team, said in a statement. “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, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration efforts to hollow out government agencies.”

A Republican appointed by Trump in 2017, Murphy lamented vagueness in a law called the President Transition Act of 1963, which was to guide her to making a declaration of the winner.

“Unfortunately, the statute provides no procedures or standards for this process, so I looked to precedent from prior elections involving legal challenges and incomplete counts,” Murphy wrote. “GSA does not dictate the outcome of legal disputes and recounts, nor does it determine whether such proceedings are reasonable or justified.”

And she said bluntly that she regretted that “an agency charged with improving federal procurement and property management should place itself above the constitutionally-based election process. I strongly urge Congress to consider amendments to the Act.”