Go for it Donald, Mitch has got yer back, those Georgia senate seats mean nothing compared to your glory!
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We're in for a parade of horrors during Trump's remaining time in power. Change is coming, but along the way, fasten seatbelts for severe turbulence.
www.usatoday.com
Donald Trump has lost to Joe Biden, what's next? The presidential transition from hell.
We're in for a parade of horrors during Trump's remaining time in power. Change is coming, but along the way, fasten seatbelts for severe turbulence.
Our long national nightmare, the Trump presidency, is finally nearing an end. But the brutal reality is this: Get ready for another national nightmare now that Joe Biden is the president-elect.
In some ways, that nightmare was heralded by the reckless, inflammatory, irresponsible and unconscionable circus President Donald Trump put on Thursday night from the White House — declaring that his opponents were "
trying to steal an election" and "trying to rig an election." Most networks cut away when Trump started to lie, but the stain still lingers, especially because he has said that he will not concede and accused Biden of "
rushing to falsely pose as the winner."
It appears that Biden’s
margin of electoral victory will make those despicable suggestions moot. So America can soon feel a sense of relief that we have a clear outcome, and gratitude to all the election workers and officials who kept the election itself on course with very few glitches and no signs of chicanery.
What then? The next nightmare, the transition.
Loser keeps power for months
America is unique among established democracies in many ways, among them the extraordinary length of time from an election to the actual transfer of power. Parliamentary systems that have a change in administration make the change overnight. We take 2 1/2 months. That period leaves the losing president in charge, with all his powers, while the winning president-elect prepares to take office.
In modern times, this is a complicated process, as the winner creates a large series of “landing teams,” groups of experts and former officials for each agency, department and office that interact with the existing government executives, career and appointed, to discuss policy history, take possession of key documents necessary to understand what the agency has done and why, and plan for a new agenda with a new team.
There are laws on presidential transitions that provide some protection for an incoming administration, including providing office space and support, and access to agencies. But the ability to have a smooth and productive transition depends heavily on norms.
Transitions are not always smooth, even if they occur within a party. Outgoing people are often glum and resentful, and they don’t always feel an incentive to take time from the jobs they are still performing to help their successors succeed in undoing what they have done. The best transition in modern times was the one from Republican George W. Bush to Democrat Barack Obama, because Bush and his chief of staff Josh Bolten, to their credit, went to great lengths to make sure that all the Bush people cooperated fully with the Obama transition teams.
Trump? He has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition and has complained about his own, referring over and over to the “witch hunt” involving his designated national security adviser Michael Flynn, among others. His antagonism toward Biden and his petulance are not the only problems.
First, there are the actions he can take as president that will make life for Biden as president more difficult and tumultuous. Expect a slew of executive orders and executive actions. We have already seen this in the weeks leading up to the election. One is designed to
blow up the career civil service; it gives the president the authority to put protected employees into a new category that allows them to be fired at will with no appeals. Another
opens up the full Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging, mining and development. We are likely to get a lot more for drilling, fracking and other actions on public lands and more relaxation of clean air and water rules, just to start.
Of course, executive orders and actions taken by one president can be reversed by the next. But it can be a cumbersome and lengthy process, and sometimes, for instance in the case of logging and mining, damage cannot be undone. In 2017, Trump and his Republican Congress were able to use the Congressional Review Act to
wipe out Obama-era regulations just by passing laws negating them, and they did that with abandon. If there is a Republican Senate, Biden will not have that option.
Firing Fauci and intelligence pros
Second, expect a slew of pardons — for Trump himself, for his family and staff, for his Cabinet and other officials facing possible charges of corruption and malfeasance. This alone will empower them to act in a reckless fashion, with no possibility of legal backlash, through Jan.19. This group could include the people at several federal agencies carrying out Trump's harsh immigration policies. It could also cover people who violate two laws intended to preserve records, the
Federal Records Act and the
Presidential Records Act. The desire to cover their tracks by deep-sixing incriminating or embarrassing documents will be strong, from the White House to the State Department to Homeland Security, Commerce and Education.
Third, under his likely illegal
executive order on the civil service, Trump can fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and many career scientists at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies that he sees as being disloyal because they followed facts and science. Trump could also fire intelligence professionals who were loyal first to the United States and not him personally.
Of course, they can be reinstated after Jan. 20, but the disruption in the meantime will be substantial, some will have to take other jobs to pay the bills, and the process of reinstatement may be cumbersome.
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