President-elect Joe Biden may be publicly shrugging off suggestions a federal agency blocking transition is causing problems, but his aides are quietly signaling their concerns.
President Trump hasn’t conceded after last week’s election as his campaign challenges the results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. And a General Services Administration Trump appointee has refused to sign off on a transfer of power as the president awaits the outcomes of those lawsuits.
Biden, the two-term vice president, has projected calm, insisting the GSA’s inaction hasn’t hindered the process. But his staffers are starting to increase pressure in their public statements.
“We’re not interested in having a food fight with the GSA administrator or anyone,” Biden transition official Jen Psaki told reporters Friday. “We just want to get access to intelligence information, to threat assessments, to the ongoing work on COVID, so that we can prepare to govern.”
Most Biden allies have highlighted the national security implications. Yet incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain made a pandemic-based argument during his first TV interview since being named to the post.
“Right now there are officials inside the Department of Health and Human Services who for busy planning a vaccination campaign for the months of February and March when Joe Biden will be president,” he told MSNBC Thursday.
Klain added, “And so the sooner we can get our transition experts into meetings with the folks who are planning the vaccination campaign, the more seamless the transition from a Biden presidency to a Trump presidency can be.”
Psaki and Klain’s comments differ from what Biden told reporters during his first press conference as president-elect earlier this week.
“We can get through without the funding. We’re in a position that we feel very good about,” he said, before turning to the presidential daily intelligence briefing. “Obviously the PDB would be useful, but it’s not necessary. And so we don’t see anything that’s slowing us down, quite frankly.”
Biden transition officials have hinted they may lean on lawyers if the GSA doesn’t acknowledge or “ascertain” him as the 46th president.
Without the GSA’s help, Biden can’t access $6.3 million in federal funding or secure office space and equipment for transition before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. He also can’t access key government personnel or certain pieces of classified information, nor coordinate foreign leader conversations with the State Department.
