It's been over two weeks since Former VP Joe Biden was officially declared President-Elect Biden and it's been an awkward two weeks in which Trump has failed to concede and agree to a peaceful transition of power.
This is more than something to laugh about. We can talk and act like Trump is just being a spoiled two-year-old who didn't get his way, or we can remember that he's the president and that his failure to transition to Biden is actually costing lives.
This "clear and viable path to victory" has been declared closed by even members of his own party. Unfortunately, not enough of them, but the consensus among state election officials in the disputed states is that Biden emerged victorious, even after numerous recounts.
Trump's failure to acknowledge the results of the fair election are undermining the integrity of the election system that our country is built on as well as the office of the president. Without the access to important briefings and transition materials, Biden is entering the Oval Office unprepared to take on the full responsibilities of the presidency.
Biden is now working to fund his own transition, a call for help unprecedented in U.S. history.
This means he cannot read up on national security to help him draft policy. He can't get information on COVID-19 provided by the country's top doctors. And he can't show the country that despite all of our wounds we can come together to celebrate one of the oldest traditions in our history — the peaceful transfer of power. And in the mean time, this stalemate is preventing Biden from making plans to help thwart COVID-19 and save lives.
According to an article in the Washington Post, the nations founders didn't even prepare for a situation where the president refused to step down. This is an entirely new ballgame.
In the meantime, Biden has been meeting with governors and former top national security officials to try and piece together a transition plan, but this sort of confusion is detrimental. It leaves the leaders of other countries uncertain about where we stand and what our priorities are. As a nation built on certain values, it is really concerning to see Republican officials, who were relatively mainstream thinkers prior to the rise of Trump, fail to coincide with one of the main values our country was built on.
These horrifying refusals of fact draw a stark contrast between the way Hillary Clinton responded to her much closer loss in 2016.
Trump should understand that his page in the history books is tarnished and torn from his four years of autocratic regime. If he desires to mend at least one corner of these pages, it is his duty to concede and move on.
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