NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks to presidential historian Michael Beschloss about what kind of historical precedent there is, if any, for President Trump's battle to overturn the 2020 election results.
Donald Trump going out with a limp seems like an oxymoron,” a senior adviser to the president told me. In width and in word, in soaring skyscrapers and Brioni suits and arena rallies and various euphemisms for great (yuge, bigly), the man has been defined by and obsessed with largeness. His presidency is ending small.
As President Trump still refuses to accept his election defeat, Travis Goodman finds himself gaming out what kind of "power grab" the outgoing president could stage, from continuing to contest the results to trying to disrupt the Electoral College process.
Not respecting the election results is problematic on its own. But considering the crisis the nation is facing now — a new surge in coronavirus cases — Trump’s actions are particularly dangerous. Now more than ever, an effective transition of power is of the utmost importance.
Not only is Trump blocking his advisers from helping the incoming Biden administration get ready to deal with the pandemic, but the defeated president has largely disengaged from the COVID-19 crisis himself. In terms of managing the virus, America will be functionally without a president for two months.
I think it’s good that it’s good that in a little over a month we will once again have a president who acts like an adult, listens to scientists and the facts. It’s not to say that ideology won’t play a role in the Biden administration or that he should be given a free pass on all issues, but facts matter.