Joe Biden’s aides on Sunday demanded that their boss receive intelligence briefings as soon as this week. With President Donald Trump refusing to concede, the Democrat remains frozen out of the White House.
Biden’s transition team complained last week that General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy has not yet broken ranks with Trump and is refusing to sign off on Biden as the winner of this month’s presidential election. Until Murphy ascertains Biden’s apparent victory, the former vice president will not receive intelligence and security briefings.
“What we really want to see this week … is the General Services Administration issue that ascertainment,” Biden’s appointed chief of staff, Ron Klain, told NBC News on Sunday.
Incoming presidents are entitled to receive classified briefings in order to smooth the transition come inauguration day. Trump received these briefings after Hillary Clinton conceded in 2016, albeit less frequently than his predecessors.
Klain added that the Biden team has not been given information necessary to form a plan to combat the coronavirus, telling NBC that “we can’t have any of those kinds of contacts until we get to that stage of ascertainment,” and urging the Trump administration to ensure a “seamless transition.”
Earlier on Sunday, mainstream media outlets claimed one of Trump’s tweets, in which he alleged Biden had “won” the election by fraud, amounted to a concession from the embattled president. However, Trump quashed those rumors shortly afterwards, tweeting “I concede NOTHING!” and that Biden “only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA.”
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