It would be easy to start this column by stating that the President is this or that for not accepting the result of the election and to concede, but the conversation has little room for frivolity and name calling. Infections from Covid-19 reached a single day record on Friday with over 176,000 positive cases and 49 states seeing sharp spikes in infection rates and hospitalizations.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) said that he expects Joe Biden to be president on January 20th, 2021 and that he was pleased that President Trump had tweeted out in part that he's acknowledging that Mr. Biden won. The first sentence of that tweet: He won because the Election was Rigged.
We can not speculate on what Mr. Trump is thinking, but if he is still thinking he won that he'll have a second term (in opposition of fact), then he needs to do the work of a president. Infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm said that we are entering the most dangerous public health crisis since 1918 and that the "future is in our hands" in terms of fighting it. But, frankly, it's not in our hands. While the president is sequestered in the White House, he is not pushing Congress for a second relief bill that states desperately need. The hands-off approach that the Trump Administration is taking right now could lead to another 150,000 deaths before January 20th.
This refusal to honor the result of the election or at the very least, the possibility of a transition, a national strategy will be delayed even further. Chuck Todd asked the incoming Biden Administration Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, is the transition team has had an informal conversations with government doctors and disease experts, to which he answered no because the General Services Administration hasn't released the funds necessary that by law start would start the transition. Until then, the incoming Biden Administration can not speak to anyone. This column has never even given a thought to the GSA before but now we know that a Trump appointee named Emily Murphy is refusing to accept the results of the election. Ms. Murphy is single handedly blocking government from functioning and is subverting the democratic process.
This may all seem like just politics for Mr. Trump, but a quarter of a million Americans are dead and as Dr. Osterholm explained, our healthcare system is breaking.
Governor Hutchinson said that it was important that the president recognized the legitimacy of the election and judging by his tone given the severe challenges his state is facing due to the pandemic, he wants it to start happening sooner rather than later. Arkansas, like many other states, need help and rightfully, the governor can wait any longer.
Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) along with other Republican Senators are still advocating for the president NOT to concede the election so that the party can fund raise for the Georgia Senate run-offs. It's an obvious political strategy that obviously pays not an ounce of consideration to the crises - health and economic - that this country faces. Long-time Republican strategist Al Cardenas explained that despite the political maneuvering during the transition the governing part has to be smooth, but he concluded by saying we're in a meltdown in that capacity right now.
Finally, just a soon as we heard Governor Hutchinson say that he was glad that the president is coming around, by the end of the program NBC's Carol Lee reported that Mr. Trump tweeted that he "concedes nothing."
That's just great. If this is the case, he has to either govern or concede; and if he's not going to concede then he needs to take responsibility. The president can't have it both ways. If anyone else in this country were doing what he's doing, a person would be justified in saying what every American understands, "Shit, or get off the pot."
Panel: Carol Lee, NBC News; Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist
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