Pressuring 74-year-old President Donald Trump to concede and start the official transition to 77-year-old President-elect Joe Biden, the media warns that delaying the transition could hurt U.S. National Security. Some former national security officials think that if the transition happened more smoothly in 2000, the U.S. might have been more prepared of Sept. 11. While that’s pure speculation, the issue of intelligence briefings for the President-elect and 56-year-old Vice President-elect Kamala Harris offers nothing certain about what happens when those intel briefings are delayed. “We learned a valuable lesson,” said former President George W. Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card. “Obviously, the years 2001, after George W. Bush became president included Sept 11, 2001, and the attacks on the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon and that plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pa . . . “ Card recalled.
Card suggest that had “W” had better intel briefings during the transition that they somehow could have prevented Sept. 11. While hindsight’s always 20/20, there was nothing on the radar during the transition that would have tipped off federal law enforcement before the Sept. 11, 2000 attacks by mastermind Osama bin Laden. “The 9/11 Commission, when they reviewed everything that had happened up to that attack and what contributed to it, they actually cited that the transition should have been allowed to have more time and more information shared with the incoming president so that he could be prepared,” Card said. Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans would like Trump to formally concede and engage the incoming Biden administration in an orderly transition, including intel briefings. If the Senate Intelligence Committee had no advance warning about Sept. 11, no one did.
Card’s statement cited by CBS News was supposed pressure Trump into conceding and supplying briefings to Biden and Harris. While it sounds ominous about not having a usual transition, an incoming President-elect can get all NSA briefings he wants from the Senate Intelligence Committee. Since Biden was former President Barack Obam’s VP for eight years, he’s well aware of where to get his intelligence briefings if he can’t get them right now from Trump’s National Security Agency. “It’s critically important, and John Podesta and I agreed, that the government get ready for a transition to make sure the next president is fully prepared to take the baton and deal with the challenge,” Card said. All the talk by the media about dangers of not having a smooth transition is designed to get Trump to cooperate at the earliest possible time, including making plans to leave the White House.
When it comes to Covid-19, Biden’s already appointed his own 12-member team advising him on what to do after the inauguration Jan. 20, 2021. If you listened to Biden and Harris on the campaign trail or even today, you’d believe that they had other pressing plans what to do differently than Trump about Covid-19. Biden and Harris laid out their new strategic plan today with regard to Covid-19 and the economy, amounting to no plan at all just more campaign rhetoric. “It’s unfortunate that they’re seeing a democracy that is having a hard time transitioning,” said Card, exaggerating for the anti-Trump press all the reasons to hold a smooth transition. Citing former Bush-43’s Republican Chief of Staff Card is designed to send the strongest possible message to push Trump into conceding or at the very least starting the formal transition. In reality, the transition has begun with thousands of “deep state” bureaucrats.
Transfer of power is a myth because everyone knows that Trump will be moving out unless he gets a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court to re-run the Nov. 3 presidential election in battleground states. Since that’s not going to happen, Trump will be out by Jan. 20, 2021, whether he agrees to a media-friendly transition or attends Biden’s inauguration. With Trump believing that he was cheated out of the election, don’t expect him to have a smile on his face about the transition or attending Biden’s inauguration. No one, now or in the future, will convince Trump that Biden won the election fair-and-square. Like the Russian hoax that dogged his presidency from Day 1, Trump won’t ever believe that Democrats didn’t cheat their way to the White House. Biden and Harris can easily get briefed by all the “deep state” bureaucrats in the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency, may of whom spied on Trump.
Citing Bush-43’s former Chief of Staff is like citing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.), part of the vast Never Trump Republicans that joined Democrats in the 2020 election to defeat Trump. Without any presumption of fraud, universal mail-in ballots gave Biden a numerical advantage, polling more Democrat and independent registered voters. Whether there was any significant fraud or not hasn’t been proven by Trump or anyone else. Whether Trump holds a smooth transition or not, Biden has access to all the intel he needs for when he’s inaugurated on Day 1. “We do not want our adversaries to take advantage of the disruption that is cause by an uncooperative transition period for a sitting president of the United States, when the next president is ready to be prepared,” Card said, ignoring the fact that Biden has everything he needs without Trump. Card and the media talk about unlikely hypotheticals.
