Biden’s chief of staff says ‘he won’ and there’s nothing Donald Trump can tweet to change it

‘[There] has to be a seamless transition,’ incoming Biden chief of staff says, citing ongoing coronavirus pandemic

President-elect Joe Biden’s chief of staff once again called on the Trump administration to acknowledge the former vice president’s victory in the 2020 presidential election so there can be a smooth transition of power amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Joe Biden is going to become president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing crisis. [There] has to be a seamless transition,” Ronald Klain, the president-elect’s chief of staff, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“We now have the possibility — we need to see if it gets approved — of a vaccine, starting perhaps in December, January. There are people at [the Department of Health and Human Services] making plans to implement that vaccine. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we’re going to have on Jan. 20.”

Mr Klain was Mr Biden’s vice presidential chief of staff from 2009 to 2011 and was later tapped by Barack Obama to be the administration’s White House Ebola Response coordinator in 2014 and 2015.

So far, the Trump campaign and administration have refused to acknowledge Mr Biden’s projected Electoral College victory, which was called two Saturdays ago by every major news network.

Mr Trump and several congressional Republicans have been issuing baseless claims that widespread voter fraud swung the election in Mr Biden’s favour in several key swing states, despite there being no evidence of such a conspiracy. Every lawsuit the Trump campaign has filed has been unsuccessful so far.

Nevertheless, the Trump political appointee who oversees presidential transitions at the General Services Administration (GSA) has also refused to ascertain the election winner, cutting off Mr Biden and his team of advisers from receiving intelligence briefings, access to meetings with career officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and other departments on the frontlines of the pandemic response, and $9.9m in federal funding that helps administrations transfer over.

In his first acknowledgement that Mr Biden may have won the election, Mr Trump tweeted out a host of unsubstantiated claims about the election structure, which he falsely claimed was “rigged” against him.

“He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!” the president tweeted, insinuating — without any evidence — that votes may have been altered to help Mr Biden.

The president then back-tracked in a tweet with even more falsehoods.

“He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!”

Twitter flagged both tweets as containing “disputed” information about voter fraud.

Mr Klain said he accepted Mr Trump’s admission about the electoral outcome as a “further confirmation of the reality that Joe Biden won the election,” but that the Trump administration still ought to be doing a lot more to help the next one succeed.

“Donald Trump's Twitter feed doesn't make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that,” Mr Klain said.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, indicated to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that providing for a smooth transition is essential for helping Americans through the pandemic.

“I’ve been through multiple transitions now, having served six presidents for 36 years, and it’s very clear that transition process that we go through… is really important in a smooth handing-over of the information,” Dr Fauci said.

He added: “Of course it would be better if we could start working with them.”