The General Services Administration, the federal agency that deals with the formal transition process for transfers of power, has informed President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump Administration is ready to begin the process after weeks of stalling. KVCR’s Benjamin Purper spoke with inland Democratic Representative Mark Takano of Riverside.
Takano says he’s relieved the transition is now happening, but he feels that GSA Administrator Emily Murphy acted inappropriately in waiting so long to do it.
“It was wholly inappropriate for the administrator to play the politics that she did, and this cannot be normalized. And it certainly is an embarrassment for such a distinguished democracy that the United States has historically been,” Takano says.
That the transition is now underway means President-elect Biden now has access to federal agencies and millions in government funding.
“And certainly as Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, we can’t afford to see the welfare of our nation’s veterans during a pandemic be jeopardized because of discontinuities in governance.”
KVCR also reached out to several other Inland Empire congressmen, including Republicans Ken Calvert and Paul Cook, and did not receive a response.
Some top Republicans have acknowledged Biden as the President-elect, but others echo President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud and have refused to acknowledge Biden won the election.
President Trump himself has not conceded to Biden.
