![]() ![]() Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) congratulated Biden on Monday, calling him the ‘next president.’ A more nuanced statement came from Sen. "Biden’s team has welcomed support from Republican senators willing to break with Trump and bolster the legitimacy of the election via congratulatory statements. … And he turned his attention to the coronavirus, dispatching a key aide to brief Senate Democrats this week and making a strong pitch to Americans of every ideology to follow public health recommendations,” Annie Linskey and Sean Sullivan report. “Biden began taking calls from foreign leaders, speaking Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The team is evaluating its legal options.” Those include State Department-facilitated calls with foreign leaders and access to secure facilities where they can review classified information. ![]() Administrator Emily Murphy, a Trump political appointee … is refusing to sign paperwork … In an indication of growing frustration among Biden transition officials, they organized a call with reporters Monday night to lay out some of the government services that Murphy’s decision is denying them. “The GSA, the government’s real estate arm, remained for a third day the proxy in the battle. “Officials at agencies across the government who had prepared briefing books and carved out office space for the incoming Biden team to use as soon as this week were told instead that the transition would not be recognized until the Democrat’s election was confirmed by the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency that officially starts the transition,” Lisa Rein, Matt Viser, Greg Miller and Dawsey report. While aides talked Trump out of firing Esper that week, the president regularly raised the issue throughout the campaign season, believing the defense chief was trying to embarrass him and damage his reelection prospects … In recent months, Esper has rarely seen the president. ![]() … Two officials … said Esper’s public opposition to using troops in June drew the most fierce response from the president that they had ever seen. Chief among those occurred in June, when Trump demanded that thousands of troops be dispatched on the streets of Washington amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd. “Esper was mostly aligned with his commander in chief on major foreign policy issues but had clashes with Trump over his steps to draw the military into partisan politics. “Esper’s firing plunges the Pentagon into a new period of leadership upheaval as it tries to manage an unusual transition period fraught with political tensions and potential security risks ,” Missy Ryan, Dan Lamothe, Paul Sonne and Dawsey report. “Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications,” Pilger emailed colleagues, “I must regretfully resign from my role." ![]() Those officials were blindsided when Barr’s two-page memo was released on Monday. Sources tell them that Barr first broached a similar idea some weeks ago and that political leadership in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, of which the Election Crimes Branch is a part, pushed back. “ Richard Pilger, head of the Justice Department’s Election Crimes Branch, stepped down from his position in protest over Barr’s directive - though he remains at the agency,” Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett report. The attorney general gave federal prosecutors approval to pursue allegations of “vote tabulation irregularities” in certain cases before results are certified and indicated he had already done so “in specific instances” - a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy that drew widespread internal and external criticism for fueling unfounded claims of massive election fraud pushed by Trump. … Kuperberg directed that office through the release of the fourth edition of the climate assessment, which detailed the potentially dire consequences for Americans should the country take little action to cut emissions.” That report angered the White House because Trump has consistently downplayed the seriousness of the climate threat. “The USGCRP is a program Congress created to help coordinate the climate science programs of 13 federal agencies. He had been expected to stay on through the production of the fifth edition of the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment,” Jason Samenow, Andrew Freedman and Juliet Eilperin report. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) since July 2015, was told Friday evening to return to his previous position as a scientist at the Energy Department. government’s definitive reports on climate change. “Michael Kuperberg, a climate scientist who had been executive director of the U.S. Trump has also removed the official in charge of the federal program that produces the U.S. ![]()
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