With Donald Trump refusing to accept he lost the election, the General Services Administration, which facilitates presidential transitions, has refused to co-operate with the Biden team. Photo / AP
With Donald Trump refusing to accept he lost the election, the General Services Administration, which facilitates presidential transitions, has refused to co-operate with the Biden team. Photo / AP
Having already raised US$365 million ($527.4m) to win the White House, US President-elect Joe Biden has been forced to turn to crowdfunding to help pay for his transition team.
Biden, who had already put aside an estimated US$10m for the transition, has been forced to put out the begging bowl because of the Trump administration's refusal to follow convention and release cash, allowing the handover to take place smoothly under a process known as "ascertainment".
With Donald Trump refusing to accept he lost the election, the General Services Administration, a normally obscure arm of government, has refused to co-operate with the incoming Biden team.
The stance by Trump-appointed administrator Emily Murphy has meant that Biden has been denied office space, briefings and an estimated US$8m of federal money.
The stance by Trump-appointed GSA administrator Emily Murphy has meant that Biden has been denied office space, briefings and an estimated US$8m of federal money. Photo / AP
This has left the Biden team having to pay for salaries and expenses for the transition itself.
The cost of transition has soared. In 2008 the pricetag for Barack Obama's transition was US$9.3m.
"Here's the deal," Biden tweeted on Friday. "Because President Trump refuses to concede and is delaying the transition, we have to fund it ourselves and need your help. If you're able, chip in to help fund the Biden-Harris transition."
Here's the deal: Because President Trump refuses to concede and is delaying the transition, we have to fund it ourselves and need your help.
Although it is not uncommon for incoming presidents to raise some transition cash from private sources, this is normally in addition to the money from the GSA.
Democrats are growing impatient at the stance taken by Murphy, a Republican.
Carolyn Maloney and Nita Lowey, the chairs of the House Oversight and Appropriations committees, have threatened to summon Murphy and her senior staff to a public grilling before Congress.
Four former secretaries of Homeland Security - drawn from both Republican and Democratic administrations - issued a statement pleading with her to ease the transition.
"Our country is in the middle of twin crises: a global pandemic and a severe economic downturn. The pandemic will make any transition more complicated," they wrote.
"At this period of heightened risk for our nation, we do not have a single day to spare to begin the transition. For the good of the nation, we must start now."
Joe Biden's team has hinted that it is ready to go to court over the hold-up if necessary. Photo / AP
The Biden team has hinted that it was ready to go to court if necessary although Jen Psaki, the incoming administration's senior transition adviser, told CNN on Sunday that legal action was not the preferred route.
Apart from the transition, Biden's team also has the challenge of organising his inauguration on January 20 against the backdrop of the pandemic.
An estimated one million people attended Obama's second inauguration in 2013 and somewhere between 700,000 and 900,000 saw Trump take the oath of office in 2017.
Ron Klain, Biden's chief of staff, said January's event will be scaled down because of the need for social distancing.
"They are going to try to have an inauguration that honours the importance and the symbolic meaning of the moment but also does not result in the spread of the disease. That's our goal," he said on ABC's This Week on Sunday.
"We know people want to celebrate. There is something here to celebrate. We just want to try to find a way to do it as safely as possible."
Normally the outgoing president attends the inauguration but given his conviction that the election was "rigged", Trump is not expected to observe the convention in which he and Biden drive together to the Capitol in Washington DC.
Trump would be following in the footsteps of three other outgoing presidents who boycotted their successors' inauguration.
John Adams declined to turn up to see Thomas Jefferson being sworn into office in March 1801. His son, John Quincy Adams, followed suit in 1829, deciding not to attend the inauguration of Andrew Jackson.
In 1869 Andrew Johnson, who became president following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, boycotted the inauguration of Ulysses S Grant.
The pandemic will also put a damper on the traditional parties which accompany the event and Biden, who has yet to establish an inaugural committee, is unlikely to match the US$107m raised by Trump.
