The letter enabling Biden's transition goes to extreme lengths to avoid saying he beat Trump and won the election
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Mia Jankowicz
Nov 24, 2020, 22:26 IST
This screenshot of the GSA presidential transition letter is marked up by Insider to show President-elect Biden addressed as 'Mr Biden'GSA/Insider
The letter that the General Services Administration's administrator, Emily Murphy, sent to President-elect Joe Biden on Monday authorizing his transition does not say he won the election.
It's different from her predecessor's letter to President-elect Barack Obama, which was straightforward and called him "President-elect."
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The letter to authorize President-elect Joe Biden's transition arrived late Monday — but it is an unusual document that strained to avoid acknowledging his victory.
The General Services Administration's administrator, Emily Murphy, wrote to Biden on Monday, 16 tumultuous days after most US news organizations acknowledged him as the winner. (Insider and Decision Desk HQ called the election one day before, on November 6.)
Later Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he was "recommending" that the transition go ahead — though Murphy said she came to her decision independently.
Murphy's letter did the same thing as other GSA authorizations — it unlocked funding for Biden and was the required signal for other parts of the federal government to cooperate with his team.
But Murphy's letter departed from form by refusing to address Biden as "President-elect" or by making an explicit judgment about the election's outcome.
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Murphy's letter instead complained about the criticism she had received and feigned unawareness of who is expected to become the next US president.
In 2008, then-GSA Acting Administrator James A. Williams straightforwardly addressed his letter to "President-elect Obama." Murphy downgraded Biden to "Mr. Biden."
Murphy did not say she had made an "ascertainment" — the formal process of the GSA identifying the new president. This was despite an internal email from the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, seen by The Wall Street Journal saying that Murphy had indeed made the ascertainment. The 2008 letter was clear that Obama had been "ascertained" the victor.
While in 2008, the letter authorized $6.3 million for the transition without laying out the conditions, Murphy reminded Biden that his allotted $7.3 million "imposes reporting requirements on you."
Williams, the old GSA head, provided his phone number and another contact for assistance. Murphy referred Biden to a coordinator.
Murphy's letter ran to two pages and highlighted the "thousands of threats" she had received and complained about the position she had been in. Williams' letter was one page long.
Williams' 2008 letter used boilerplate wording to name Obama president-elect "for the purposes of the Act" — i.e., to authorize the transition and no more. Murphy was at pains to make that distinction sharper and wrote that her ascertainment was different from determining the "actual winner."
In elections, the GSA administrator "ascertains the apparent successful candidate once a winner is clear," as the GSA website puts it. This releases resources to help the president-elect's transition into office, but it doesn't decide the presidency.
Biden's win in the 2020 election is clear and has been accepted by all major news networks, the Federal Election Commission, and a growing number of Republicans.
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