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Key Trump administration official clears the way for President-elect Biden's transition to begin
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2020-11-23 at 11:56 PM UTCUSA TODAY
Key Trump administration official clears the way for President-elect Biden's transition to begin
Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – A key Trump administration appointee said Monday she would allow President-elect Joe Biden to begin his official transition – paving the way for his team to get access to briefings, office space, secure computers and other government services needed for the transfer of power.
It marked a formal recognition by the Trump administration that Biden won the Nov. 3 election, even though the president has refused to concede and continues to make false allegations of voter fraud.
Emily Murphy, the Trump appointee who holds the keys to transition funds and tools, had delayed issuing an official determination that Biden won election as the Trump campaign filed a flurry of lawsuits challenging the results that show Biden with a clear electoral college victory.
Murphy said she was not pressured by President Donald Trump, who appointed her to head the GSA in 2017, to hold back the formal ascertainment.
"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts," Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden. "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."
President Donald Trump was still refusing to concede his election loss November 9, 2020, but Democrat Joe Biden plowed ahead anyway with the first meeting of a parallel coronavirus task force, initiating an awkward and potentially volatile transition period.
But Murphy said she 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."
Murphy's written determination undermines Trump's protests that the election was unfair and that Biden's win is not legitimate.
Her formal declaration will release more than $6 million to the Biden transition team, which it can use to hire staff, pay for travel, and cover other expenses.
Perhaps more importantly, Biden's team will now automatically have access to briefings from key federal agencies, including information on the COVID response and the plans for a vaccine rollout.
The General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings and leases, plays a key role in ensuring a smooth transition from one president to the next.
Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232; 270 electoral votes are needed to clinch the presidency.
Trump's assertions about election malfeasance was at odds with a finding from a national coalition of election security officials, which concluded that the Nov. 3 general election was "the most secure in American history."
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," said a statement from the security group, which included the cybersecurity agency within Trump's own Department of Homeland Security, along with the National Association of State Election Directors.
The amount of work involved in a typical hand-over is monumental and will be even greater now, as the country grapples with the COVID pandemic and the economic crisis. Biden and his team need get up to speed on national security threats, prepare a $4-plus trillion budget, and fill more than 4,000 political positions across dozens of federal agencies.
Other key steps that will take place in the coming weeks to pave the way for Biden's incoming presidency:
• The Electoral College is scheduled to meet on Dec. 14, with each delegation meeting separately in their respective states and voting by paper ballot for president and vice president.
• Congress will hold a joint session on Jan. 6, 2021 to count the electoral votes and declare the results.
• Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021, a in a ceremony likely to be held outside the Capitol. The vice president takes the oath first, followed at noon by the new president. -
2020-11-24 at 12:12 AM UTCPATH TO VICTORY TRUMP WILL WIN!!!!!
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2020-11-24 at 12:31 AM UTC
Originally posted by stl1 USA TODAY
Key Trump administration official clears the way for President-elect Biden's transition to begin
Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – A key Trump administration appointee said Monday she would allow President-elect Joe Biden to begin his official transition – paving the way for his team to get access to briefings, office space, secure computers and other government services needed for the transfer of power.
It marked a formal recognition by the Trump administration that Biden won the Nov. 3 election, even though the president has refused to concede and continues to make false allegations of voter fraud.
Emily Murphy, the Trump appointee who holds the keys to transition funds and tools, had delayed issuing an official determination that Biden won election as the Trump campaign filed a flurry of lawsuits challenging the results that show Biden with a clear electoral college victory.
Murphy said she was not pressured by President Donald Trump, who appointed her to head the GSA in 2017, to hold back the formal ascertainment.
"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts," Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden. "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."
President Donald Trump was still refusing to concede his election loss November 9, 2020, but Democrat Joe Biden plowed ahead anyway with the first meeting of a parallel coronavirus task force, initiating an awkward and potentially volatile transition period.
But Murphy said she 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."
Murphy's written determination undermines Trump's protests that the election was unfair and that Biden's win is not legitimate.
Her formal declaration will release more than $6 million to the Biden transition team, which it can use to hire staff, pay for travel, and cover other expenses.
Perhaps more importantly, Biden's team will now automatically have access to briefings from key federal agencies, including information on the COVID response and the plans for a vaccine rollout.
The General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings and leases, plays a key role in ensuring a smooth transition from one president to the next.
Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232; 270 electoral votes are needed to clinch the presidency.
Trump's assertions about election malfeasance was at odds with a finding from a national coalition of election security officials, which concluded that the Nov. 3 general election was "the most secure in American history."
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," said a statement from the security group, which included the cybersecurity agency within Trump's own Department of Homeland Security, along with the National Association of State Election Directors.
The amount of work involved in a typical hand-over is monumental and will be even greater now, as the country grapples with the COVID pandemic and the economic crisis. Biden and his team need get up to speed on national security threats, prepare a $4-plus trillion budget, and fill more than 4,000 political positions across dozens of federal agencies.
Other key steps that will take place in the coming weeks to pave the way for Biden's incoming presidency:
• The Electoral College is scheduled to meet on Dec. 14, with each delegation meeting separately in their respective states and voting by paper ballot for president and vice president.
• Congress will hold a joint session on Jan. 6, 2021 to count the electoral votes and declare the results.
• Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021, a in a ceremony likely to be held outside the Capitol. The vice president takes the oath first, followed at noon by the new president.
"Murphy said she 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.'"
That's really all you need to read, right there. -
2020-11-24 at 12:47 AM UTC2016: RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION, RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE!!! COLLUSION!!!! HE CHEATED!!! HE STOLE THE ELECTION WITH THE HELP OF RUSSIA!!!!
2020: YOU CAN'T HACK VOTING MACHINES THATS IMPOSSIBLE!!! OUR ELECTION IS THE MOST SECURE!! YOU ARE JUST SAD yoU LoSt!!!! THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY YOU ARE ALL CRAZY!!! THE ELECTION WAS 100% FAIR IN EVERY STATE!!
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2020-11-24 at 12:54 AM UTChttps://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/2020-election-most-secure-history-dhs/
YOU CAN'T HACK AN ELECTION THATS IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
Originally posted by Technologist Yesterday the senate intelligence committee, a bipartisan committee, led by a republican, came out with a report of Russian interference in our elections.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-panel-releases-first-chapter-of-bipartisan-report-into-russian-meddling/2019/07/25/63bce4f4-af0c-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html
They hit all 50 states. The even got deep enough into Illinois’s electoral system, that they had access to change voters information. -
2020-11-24 at 12:56 AM UTC
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2020-11-24 at 1:08 AM UTC
Originally posted by Ghost https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/2020-election-most-secure-history-dhs/
YOU CAN'T HACK AN ELECTION THATS IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
I never said that elections couldn’t be hacked. Let ‘em count and recount till the cows come home, trump is out.
Our intelligence agencies said this was the safest and secure election in history, and I believe them. -
2020-11-24 at 1:17 AM UTC
Originally posted by Technologist Our intelligence agencies said this was the safest and secure election in history, and I believe them.
it was attributed to DHS, but it wasn't actually DHS that made the statement
it was a 'working group' assigned to the DHS comprised of reps from companies that run the election infrastructure, including DOMINION, DIEBOLD and others -
2020-11-24 at 1:19 AM UTCNo, it was from Kris Krebs from CISA.
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2020-11-24 at 1:27 AM UTC
Originally posted by Technologist I never said that elections couldn’t be hacked. Let ‘em count and recount till the cows come home, trump is out.
Our intelligence agencies said this was the safest and secure election in history, and I believe them.
They are counting fake ballot, not like you care if they are fake or not. -
2020-11-24 at 1:32 AM UTC
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2020-11-24 at 1:41 AM UTCIt's a real shame your election has been hacked and interfered with twice now.
First Russia got Trump elected by hacking voting machines and now Democrats are doing the same thing. -
2020-11-24 at 1:41 AM UTC
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2020-11-24 at 1:45 AM UTC
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2020-11-24 at 1:53 AM UTC
Originally posted by aldra it was attributed to DHS, but it wasn't actually DHS that made the statement
it was a 'working group' assigned to the DHS comprised of reps from companies that run the election infrastructure, including DOMINION, DIEBOLD and others
Easy to see how the corruption is assembled. -
2020-11-24 at 1:54 AM UTC
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2020-11-24 at 1:55 AM UTC"it's a big club, and you aren't in it"
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2020-11-24 at 1:57 AM UTCVoter fraud is impossible... Unless a Republican wins!! those dang Russians!!!
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2020-11-24 at 2:16 AM UTC
Some cybersecurity experts have concluded that "Guccifer 2.0" is likely a creation of the Russian state-sponsored hacking groups thought to have executed the attack, invented to cover up Russian responsibility.
The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which was hired by the DNC to analyze the data breach, "posits that Guccifer 2.0 could be 'part of a Russian Intelligence disinformation campaign'", i.e. a creation to deflect blame for the theft. Russia has made use of the invention of "a lone hacker or an hacktivist to deflect blame" in the past, deploying this strategy in previous cyberattacks on the German government and the French network TV5Monde. Thomas Rid of King's College London, a cybersecurity expert, says it is "'more likely than not' that the whole operation, including the Guccifer 2.0 part, was orchestrated by Russian spies." The hackers responsible for the DNC email leak (a group called Fancy Bear by CrowdStrike) seem to have not been working on the DNC's servers on April 15 which in Russia is a holiday in honor of the Russian military's electronic warfare services.
Yes a secret russian hacker group called Fancy Bear was responsible for election hacking and also took a day off on a russian military anniversary and flipped the voting machines, spread disinfo on facebook and mind controlled Donald Trump into making foreign policy decisions that benefit the Kremlin.
But there is no way some angry black women from detroit threw out Trump votes, that's impossible. -
2020-11-24 at 2:53 AM UTCPresident Donald Trump regularly shares a hot bath, and a sauna afterward, with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.