:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GKGIAOITXWTI3PI65R6CWPV66E.jpg)
US president-elect Joe Biden will focus on shaping his core White House team on Tuesday as outgoing president Donald Trump presses on with his increasingly tenuous legal fight to reverse his loss in the US election.
One of Mr Trump’s legal challenges will get a hearing on Tuesday in a Pennsylvania federal court, where another legal setback would likely doom his already long-shot prospects.
US district judge Matthew Brann will hear arguments in a Trump campaign lawsuit that seeks to halt the state’s top election official from certifying Mr Biden as the winner.
The Trump campaign, after narrowing the scope of the case, is focusing on a claim that voters were improperly allowed to fix their flawed ballots.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/DRI5LOHDW5V5O3MD6KVETF6SGQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IJBC6BIHKE6CBRAWQ26OUHIC74.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/FQIBJ2KOVS6HMCGELNSBN2AE2Y.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/XPYEU2JIJSMXIF3RU2V7VSNKDE.jpg)
To remain in office, Mr Trump would need to overturn results in at least three of the closely contested states in unprecedented fashion, and has no apparent legal means to do so.
Elsewhere, several of Mr Biden’s senior campaign staff have been discussing their roles in the transition and the new administration that takes over January 20th. Some roles could be announced as soon as Tuesday, according to one source.
Representative Cedric Richmond, who was a national co-chair of Mr Biden’s campaign and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, is expected to join the administration in a senior capacity, as is Steve Ricchetti, who has long been a close adviser to Mr Biden, the person said. Mr Richmond’s move would leave his Louisiana congressional seat open.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, who was brought in early this year as Mr Biden’s campaign manager and is the first woman to lead a winning Democratic presidential bid, is expected to be named a deputy chief of staff, media outlets reported.
Mr Biden, a Democrat, is also set to receive a briefing on national security threats from his own advisers. Trump, who has not conceded the Nov. 3 election, has blocked him from receiving classified intelligence briefings usually provided to the successor in a transition.
In an indication of the national security challenges that Mr Biden will inherit, Reuters reported on Monday that Mr Trump last week asked for options on attacking Iran’s main nuclear site but ultimately decided against taking the step.
Mr Trump has remained angry and defiant on social media even as some prominent Republicans have asserted Mr Biden should be considered the president-elect.
Mr Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said on Monday he would ensure a professional transition in the likely event Mr Biden is deemed the winner.
“If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner, and obviously things look like that now, we’ll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council, there’s no question about it,” Mr O’Brien told the Global Security Forum.
At a news conference on Monday, Mr Biden again called upon Trump to cooperate with the transfer of power, saying that the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic meant lives were in the balance.
“More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” he said.
But Mr Biden also said the president’s refusal to concede was not inhibiting his transition efforts. “I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started,” he said.
No evidence of irregularities
Though a definitive winner from the election did not emerge until four days later, Mr Biden’s victory has become clearer as more votes have been counted.
Though legally meaningless, the Democrat won the symbolically important national popular vote by at least 5.6 million votes, or 3.6 percentage points, with some ballots still being counted.
In the all-important state-by-state Electoral College, Biden surpassed the 270 votes needed to win with 306 to Trump’s 232.
As states work to certify those results before a December 8th deadline, Mr Trump and his supporters have claimed he was cheated by fraud, but so far those baseless allegations have failed to gain traction in court.
Election officials from both parties and at the state and national levels have said there is no evidence of irregularities that could change the outcome.
Trump supporters are clinging to hope that recounts could reverse state results, even though experts have said Mr Biden’s margins appear insurmountable.
Georgia is undertaking a manual recount on its own, but in Wisconsin the Trump campaign would have to pay for a recount in advance. The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Monday estimated such a recount would cost $7.9 million. – Reuters