I can’t stand it, I know you planned it
When George W. Bush took over, Republicans tried to sell a bunch of urban legends about how Clinton staffers had trashed the joint on the way out, and while false they got traction because it was well-established Hard Media Law that all Republican-generated scandals about the Clintons were presumed true.
As I suspect this won’t be the first Trump peon to demonstrate, projection is a hell of a drug:
A Trump administration appointee is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week, in another sign the incumbent president has not acknowledged Biden’s victory and could disrupt the transfer of power.
The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal buildings, has a little-known role when a new president is elected: to sign paperwork officially turning over millions of dollars, as well as give access to government officials, office space in agencies and equipment authorized for the taxpayer-funded transition teams of the winner.
It amounts to a formal declaration by the federal government, outside of the media, of the winner of the presidential race.
But by Sunday evening, almost 36 hours after media outlets projected Biden as the winner, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy had written no such letter. And the Trump administration, in keeping with the president’s failure to concede the election, has no immediate plans to sign one. This could lead to the first transition delay in modern history, except in 2000, when the Supreme Court decided a recount dispute between Al Gore and George W. Bush in December.
It’s nearly impossible to be a decent person and answer directly to Donald Trump, and Emily Murphy won’t be the last example of this.