President-elect Joe Biden's victory is causing global reverberations with US allies showering Biden with congratulatory messages and US adversaries probably recalibrating their next steps.
And, here at home, President Donald Trump is still trying to take a wrecking ball to our democracy. His ongoing allegations of fraud and torrent of seemingly baseless litigation are not unexpected based on his track record these last few years. But, while in the throes of (hopefully) our final Trump tantrums, it is critical that his team meet their statutory obligations when it comes to the transition.
The transition process is key to our national security. Recognizing that, "Any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and well-being of the United States and its people," the US Congress passed the Presidential Transition Act in 1963.
The Act, along with subsequent legislation, outlines a process to promote the orderly transfer of power. Specific steps -- including setting up briefings for members of the President-elect's team, getting them security clearances and vetting the President elect's political nominees -- are required so that there is no disruption in the critical work of running the nation when Biden assumes the presidency on January 20. There are specific requirements for both the pre and post election period.
A lot of transition work has already been underway, and the Trump team has been doing their part. However, with Trump refusing to concede, it is still unclear whether the Trump transition team will meet transition requirements that come into play once there is a President-elect, like the General Services Administration Administrator "ascertaining" the winner - that's required in order to unlock more funding, access to federal agencies and departments and more. Instead, on Saturday, the GSA issued a statement confirming that the Administrator has not yet ascertained the winner, even this has historically been done shortly after a winner is declared.
The White House Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell, who is a key part of running Trump's transition, told others earlier this fall, "Intelligence briefings for Biden's team won't begin until after the election," according to an official with knowledge, per the Washington Post.
With Trump refusing to accept the results of the election and GSA holding off on their ascertainment, we don't know when mission critical intelligence will be provided to the Biden team.
Now this isn't Biden's first rodeo -- he was a part of then President-elect Obama's transition. And, Biden's own team is staffed with experienced professionals, but a massive delay in providing intelligence -- or implementing other transition steps -- is detrimental to their ability to fully perform their responsibilities. It could unnecessarily disrupt a smooth transition and damage our national security.
Even if the transition process runs smoothly, as President, Biden will have more than his day job to do when he becomes President. He will be faced with battling a global pandemic, fractured alliances, diminished US credibility on key issues like democracy, more nuclearized adversaries, withdrawal from key agreements and organizations, and so much more. But in order to effectively address his national security agenda, President-elect Biden will first have to restore our national security apparatus.
The US government isn't there to do any President's personal errands, like digging up dirt on a political rival, or selectively declassifying intelligence to make a politcal point. The foundation of any national security strategy is an experienced, apolitical national security apparatus. A truncated transition will leave President-elect Biden to assume office at a disadvantage. President Trump -- and so many of his political appointees -- grossly polluted national security policymaking by politicizing everything in sight.
The intelligence community and career officials have been particularly hard hit. Trump rarely operated based on information from the intelligence community. Instead, he made decisions on the fly, criticized information that didn't jibe with his personal narratives and consistently ignored Russia-related intelligence.
He pushed out experienced experts in favor of inexperienced political acolytes and sought retribution against officials like Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch who got crosswise with his political errands.
This has to have had an impact on recruitment and retention with one Senate report indicating that Trump "decimated" the State Department.
Career officials had good reason to fear being attacked just for doing their jobs, and those considering serving were undoubtedly turned off from doing so. Our national security apparatus has atrophied under Trump, and Biden's mission-critical task will be -- at the most basic level -- staffing up the national security team with professionals while concurrently sending the internal message that politics will never enter the situation room.
He can do that by hiring actual experts rather than unqualified TV pundits or political surrogates and begin reintegrating intelligence into the President's daily routine - we should never again have to question whether the President is reading his intelligence, or whether certain topics are off limits in the Oval Office because they upset the commander in chief.
Every national security meeting I've ever been in with Biden has started with an intelligence briefing and was chock-full of analysis driven discussion. Resetting the tone of policymaking -- alongside staffing up with qualified apolitical personnel -- will be the most important piece of Biden's national security agenda.
With that track record in tow, the Biden Administration will be better positioned to restore US credibility around the world and to reintroduce the world to the US. Global perceptions of America plummeted under Trump, not only because of the Administration's hypocrisy on key issues like human rights and democratic freedoms.
Our State Department's calls for a free press around the world don't pass the laugh test in light of trump's attacks on the press here at home; US government calls for basic human rights is not credible based on Trump's human rights abuses here at home and use of chemical agents against peaceful protesters.
Plus, our global counterparts had good reason to mistrust the US based on Trump's violation of key agreements and withdrawal from multilateral organizations. Biden reportedly plans to reverse several of those decisions by executive order after coming into office.
Biden will have a lot of work to do just in terms of cleaning up Trump's messes and trying to make up for years of a US President abusing democratic freedoms, human rights, and the very office of the President. A smooth presidential transition process and the restoration of our national security apparatus will help reorient us back in the right direction.
"Opinion" - Google News
November 10, 2020 at 04:59AM
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Trump team needs to accept reality so transition can work - CNN
"Opinion" - Google News
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