By Essence ·November 23, 2020November 23, 2020
The General Services Administration (GSA) has informed President-elect Joe Biden and his team that the Trump administration is ready to begin the transition process, weeks after refusing to acknowledge that Biden won the presidential election the Hill reports.
Biden won the electoral vote (306 to Trump’s 232) and the popular vote (79,896,248 to Trump’s 73,826,134).
Trump claimed on Twitter that he asked GSA Administrator Emily Murphy to begin the transition. Murphy sent a letter to Biden on Monday informing him that he would have “access to federal resources and services to facilitate a presidential transition.”
I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2020
…fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2020
The Biden-Harris campaign recently drew criticism when it asked for helping funding the transition process because Trump wouldn’t concede—which, despited reportedly signaling the GSA to begin the transition, he still has not done.
He said he would “keep up the good fight.”
As ESSENCE previously reported, Black voters in Wayne County, Michigan, home to Detroit are turning the tables on President Donald Trump, filing a lawsuit against him and his campaign claiming that targeted, racialized attempts to overturn election results amounts to one of the “worst abuses in our nation’s history.”
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), filed the complaint on behalf of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and three Detroit residents on Friday.
“Defendants’ tactics repeat the worst abuses in our nation’s history, as Black Americans were denied a voice in American democracy for most of the first two centuries of the Republic,” the lawsuit states. “This is a moment that many of us hoped never to face.”
“No more,” the lawsuit continues. “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 flatly prohibits Defendants’ efforts to disenfranchise Black people and assault our Republic.”
The complaint also accuses Trump and his administration of attempting to “intimidate” and “coerce” state and local officials into replacing electors. Trump invited two Republican state lawmakers from Michigan to the White House last week. He also called two Republican canvass board members from Wayne County to offer his support, CNN reports. The board members in question filed affidavits to rescind their votes to certify the election result.
“Central to this strategy is disenfranchising voters in predominately Black cities, including Detroit, by blocking certification of election results from those cities or counties where they are located. Further, Trump and his campaign have continued to claim “widespread fraud in Detroit and other cities with large Black populations, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Atlanta, in an effort to suggest votes from those cities should not be counted.”
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 03: A person in a costume holds a sign that reads “230,893 Dead, TrumpTo Blame, Trust Fauci!! Vote Biden!!” at the Black Lives Matter plaza on Election Day on November 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. After a record-breaking early voting turnout, Americans head to the polls on the last day to cast their vote for incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. (Photo by Eze Amos/Getty Images) TOPICS: Election 2020
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