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Official blocking Biden transition breaks silence with bizarre tweet

In now-deleted Twitter post, Emily Murphy broke a two-week silence with a bizarre message

Gino Spocchia
Thursday 19 November 2020 13:29 GMT
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Barack Obama says it will take 'more than one election to reverse US division'

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The federal government official whose department has so far blocked Joe Biden from a full presidential transition, has finally broken her silence, but it’s not what many expected to hear.

Emily Murphy, who serves as the head of the General Services Administration (GSA), sent a bizarre post to Twitter on Wednesday that was almost immediately removed.

The retracted statement, which read “Dcccf Rex zzz. @#@smaan anaNN”, was the first time Ms Murphy had spoken for a fortnight.

Still, many Twitter users tried to decode the meaning behind the message, which was incomprehensible.

Despite mounting pressure to defy Donald Trump and allow her department to acknowledge the Democrat as president-elect, the GSA administrator has remained silent on the transition process currently delayed by both her department and Donald Trump.

The GSA typically issues an apolitical statement acknowledging a presidential election winner, but has not yet done so, while the US president disputes the validity of the result without basis.  

That, in turn, would allow Mr Biden’s team to start the presidential transition process in full, while providing access to federal departments, agencies, personnel, funds, and daily intelligence briefings.

While Mr Biden’s team has called on the president to accept the outcome of the election, the president’s critics have called on Ms Murphy to “do your job” and allow the transition to take place.

On Wednesday, the former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, said a letter from American manufacturers calling on the GSA to declare Mr Biden as president-elect was “huge”.

“This is huge. Even the National Association of Manufacturers has had enough of Emily Murphy damaging America by blocking the transition. Do your job, Emily Murphy!”

His remarks came after The National Association of Manufacturers said “It is highly appropriate that the Trump administration allow key individuals from the Biden team to access critical government personnel and information now”.

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