For the time being, the most notable consequence of Trump’s refusal to concede the election appears to be that Biden is not receiving daily security briefings or federal assistance with getting his new administration set up. At what point does this stop being a problem? Will Biden begin receiving these things once all 50 states certify their popular election results? Once the electoral college casts their votes? Once Biden takes the oath on January 20?
There have been claims that the late settlement of the Y2K general election (with the late commencement of security briefings to Bush) may have led to us being ill-prepared for 9/11 (which seems hard to believe, since that only erased one potential month of prep time for an event that occurred ten months after the general election). Prior to that election, was prompt concession by a sitting President who loses a popular election (e.g. Ford, Carter, Bush Sr.) seen as just a nice tradition of good sportsmanship, or was it always understood to be a critically important aspect of continuity of operations planning?
Seems unlikely. And Gore was the current Vice President during the uncertainty, so it’s not like he didn’t have access to government resources to plan for future presidential duties if the recount had gone his way.
To answer the OP: No, he’s not required to concede by any law. It remains to be seen how much concession is just good sportsmanship or a major normative foundation of a functional democracy that is not actually legally required.
She acknowledged her loss and dropped any legal challenges. Do you believe that if she were the incumbent she would not have begun the transition process to Kemp?
Trump has been instrumental in error path testing of the American system of government, including all norms, checks & balances. We really have him to thank as it remains to be seen whether America gets a D- or an F as a viable democracy/republic.
He does not have to concede, it is irrelevant of he does or not – he stops being President on the appointed date if the EVs hold as projected.
Again, as in many other cases, we find a process in the management of the republic that happens for no other reason than “but that’s the right thing to do”. How does a country last 230 years doing things that way is more surprising than it not happening now.
I suppose that even after the EVs are counted in January, under our lovely “unitary executive” model, it will still be Trump and Barr’s position that they command that no federal official or staffer do a damn thing contrary to their will until Biden says “so help me God”, else be fired for cause of insubordination.
This is true. But it’s not irrelevant whether Biden’s transition team gets access to key information. I don’t care whether Trump goes on TV and says, “Good job, Joe, I congratulate you on winning the presidency”. I DO care whether he continues to obstruct the transition.
Can you imagine what a concession from Trump would look like. Concessions are expected to be gracious, wishing his successor the best and then off into the sunset. Trump doesn’t do gracious, won’t wish Biden the best and will again claim that the election was rigged, the vote was miscounted, and he had the worst luck to be there when the virus hit. He might be right about that last. But Jacinda Ardern was PM when the virus hit and it didn’t hurt her reelection.
I think I am just as happy that Trump won’t concede. But the failure to do a transition is going to cause a lot of damage to the American people. Trump probably feels they deserve because they didn’t reelect him.
But if he had done a spectacular job getting this virus under control, if the things he promised had actually come to fruition, it may have earned him the re-election instead. He had the chance to use the virus to his political advantage, but he bet on the wrong side and lost. Them’s the breaks.
There is no requirement for Trump to concede, nor does his concession make a difference. If he blocks Biden’s transition, Biden will just have to get the transition done anyway, albeit a bit harder.
There is, however, a law about this. It isn’t just “tradition.”
Post-Election (if there is a change in administration)
On the day following the election, GSA begins to provide office space and support services to the president-elect and Vice President-elect, with support continuing up to 60 days after inauguration
A classified summary regarding national security is given to the president-elect as soon as possible after the election
30 days before the expiration of the term, GSA begins support to outgoing president and vice president, with support continuing for 7 months total
IANAL and even lawyers don’t have any precedence to go by. Most likely Biden could go to court and get a summary judgement and writ of mandamus once all the states have certified their election results. That happens on Dec 6, IIRC. Before that, he probably could win as well, but perhaps not quite a slam dunk.
I’m fairly sure Biden does not what to do this, and expects to get the transition services without it. Personally, I don’t expect that. Based on Trump’s history, losing a lawsuit is probably the only way he’ll give in.
Based on Trump’s history, losing a lawsuit means he will appeal and hope to bankrupt his opponent with counter lawsuits and mounting legal costs until he gives up or accepts a bad settlement. Never mind that this has no chance of succeeding in this case: he has always done it that way and he cannot change tack. He has the best lawyers, you know. Giuliani! Stone! SCOTUS!
If he had done a mildly competent job of getting this virus under control, or just STFU and let people who know WTF they’re doing do it, he would have won re-election. Instead, he continued to be a moron. No news there, alas.
That would be part of doing a good job with the pandemic. IIRC, he was explicitly warned that these things happen regularly and he needs to be prepared for it. A well equipped president that did a decent job could have spun this into a re-election, he…didn’t.
Every time he took questions that were anything along the lines of how many people will get sick, when will a vaccine be out, how severe is this or anything else even remotely medical and we’d watch him lie through his teeth trying to downplay it, all I could think is what Obama would have done. I kept picturing Obama answer those questions with “I’m not sure, but in just a minute I’m going hand things over to Dr Fauci and he’ll be able to answer those questions for you”.
Not only is there nothing, even a little bit, wrong with saying “I dunno, ask that guy, he’s the expert” but that’s what leaders should be doing. Take the advice of the people that are experts and turn it into policies. Not just make shit up as you go, when the professionals are 10 feet away from you.
And it’s not just Trump, I’ve seen very similar things play out in state and local governments as well.
