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(CNN) – US President Donald Trump’s refusal to coordinate with President-elect Joe Biden on the critical COVID-19 vaccine is raising a puzzling possibility: that an outgoing commander-in-chief is actively working to sabotage his successor.
Trump’s rejection of his electoral defeat, his lies about non-existent massive and coordinated electoral fraud, and his strangling of power-transfer rituals between administrations are not just aberrations that damage democracy.
Given the current national emergency, they threaten to wreak practical consequences that could harm Biden’s next White House not just in a political sense. Concern is growing that Trump’s obstruction slows and complicates the administration of a vaccine that offers the tantalizing prospect of a return to normal life amidst startling news of studies showing that doses are effective in stopping more than 90%. of coronavirus infections.
Operation for the vaccine
The deployment operation will be a hugely complex and historic public vaccination effort targeting hundreds of millions of Americans, many millions of whom have resisted following basic safety protocols, such as wearing masks, because Trump encouraged them not to. The inoculation campaign will require a high level of trust from the public and will result in fierce ethical debates among officials over who should get the vaccine first. The whole program could be damaged if it became politicized. But unless something changes, Biden’s team may be faced with the task of addressing these issues as they arrive, in a frenzy to catch up.
It is not just in the vaccine that Trump threatens the success of the next administration. The attacks by the president and his advisers on governors that fill the leadership gap as the pandemic hits all 50 states mean that the situation Biden will inherit will be worse than necessary.
The victims of this neglect will be thousands of Americans who health experts expect to die or fall ill in the absence of a coordinated national response to the winter spate of infections and workers involved in new restrictions imposed on businesses by local leaders seeking to place the virus. under control, as well as the millions of schoolchildren who have already been left behind while the classrooms remain closed.
Biden: “More people can die if we don’t coordinate”
“More people can die if we don’t coordinate,” Biden cautioned bluntly on Monday, escalating his pressure for Trump to acknowledge his defeat in the election and his imminent exit from office.
Unlike Trump, who revels in personal grudge and anger over what he sees as a humiliating defeat, Biden has a sense of urgency and new proposals, and calls for a coordinated national effort to mitigate the heartbreaking impact of the surge. of infections nationwide.
But although he has the moral reputation of an electoral victory, he does not have the power to implement his plans until the day he takes office on January 20.
CNN reported Monday that Trump has no plans to abandon his bogus election attacks to initiate a transition process or accept Biden as the next legitimate president.
Instead, his legal challenges, which have made little progress in court, seem expressly aimed at pushing conspiracy theories among his supporters and preserving his hold on the Republican Party and ultimately calling Biden’s term illegitimate. The fact that many Republican leaders in Washington, who remain hostages to Trump’s political base, do not unequivocally refer to Biden as president-elect or berate Trump for his undemocratic conduct further undermines the next administration.
The tension during the transition is a change from the last few years
Two weeks into the election, it remains surreal and extraordinary that the president refuses to accept Biden’s victory, which equaled the 306 Electoral College votes he himself won in 2016. That he would have done this in the midst of a grave. The national crisis, with 246,000 Americans killed by COVID-19 and millions out of jobs, is an even more revealing look into the mind of a president who has consistently prioritized his goals and rewards over a traditional view of national interest.
It is not uncommon for there to be animosity between the outgoing and incoming administrations, especially when a president has been ousted from office. The transition from President Herbert Hoover to President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in 1932-33, in the midst of another crisis, the Great Depression, was notoriously thorny.
Many White House teams have used their regulatory power to counter the policy-making goals of the opposite party administrations. Trump is already taking another step. Military commanders await orders in the coming days from the commander-in-chief to initiate significant withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan that will be completed on January 15, CNN’s Barbara Starr reported Monday. If there are consequences to such a move, such as a collapse of the Afghan government under the resurgence of the Taliban, it will be up to Biden to deal with the consequences.
Foreign policy
There are also expectations that the president will take foreign policy measures, including tightening tariffs on China or tightening sanctions against Iran, which will further reduce the space for negotiations in the next White House.
The New York Times reported Monday that the president sought options to attack Iran after his “maximum pressure” policy failed to curb its nuclear program. Such an action would make it nearly impossible for Biden to revive the Obama administration’s deal with Tehran and international powers. But the report says advisors have deterred Trump from unleashing attacks that could spark a wider conflict and undermine one of his inherited successes he’s most proud of: preventing further wars in the Middle East.
And in another apparent attempt to complicate the upcoming administration in its quest to reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels, the White House on Monday issued bids for oil and gas extraction at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. .
Another deviation from the rules
In recent years, presidents on both sides have favored a peaceful and effective transfer of power over personal political resentment, recognizing their duty to ensure the health, safety and well-being of the American people.
The warm welcome letters left on the oval office desk, for example, by President George HW Bush to Bill Clinton, have become the norm. George W. Bush’s team showed deference to the incoming president, Barack Obama, during the 2008 financial crisis.
The 44th president then ordered his team to make life as easy as possible for the upcoming Trump White House, a fact Michelle Obama recalled in a harsh Instagram post Monday: “I felt the votes had been counted. and Donald Trump had won … My husband and I instructed our staff to do what George and Laura Bush had done for us: make a smooth and respectful transition of power, one of the hallmarks of American Democracy.
Thus, the behavior of the current president, apparently motivated by the fury at his defeat and the conspiratorial belief that the investigation of the suspects and his team’s multiple ties to the Russians were part of a plot to make his presidency illegitimate, is a clear departure from recent norms.
Trump wants credit for the vaccine
Ironically, Trump’s mood, characterized by wild tweets separated from any factual anchoring, is belittling his own administration’s undeniable achievement in driving rapid vaccine development. The first data released on Monday found that the Moderna vaccine currently being tested is 94.5% effective against the coronavirus. This followed news that Pfizer’s vaccine was over 90% effective. The news brought the prospect of a return to normal life and economic activity in 2021.
One of Trump’s few recent references to the worsening of the pandemic was a tweet on Monday asking historians to acknowledge his role in vaccine advances.
The president has ordered government agencies not to offer traditional cooperation with the incoming administration or to allow the release of millions of dollars in funds, agency office space and government official briefings.
Biden initially reacted cautiously to the move, seemingly eager not to further antagonize Trump as the president accepts his frustrated hopes of winning a second term. But increasingly the president-elect warns of the damage caused by the impasse and emphasizes the vaccine in particular.
“The sooner we have access to the administration’s distribution plan, the sooner this transition is successful,” Biden said Monday in Wilmington, Delaware.
When will the vaccine be distributed?
While the nation’s foremost infectious disease specialist, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the vaccine could begin being given to high-priority patients, such as healthcare professionals and the elderly, in December, it is likely to be for less until April which is available to most Americans. Fauci compared this task to overtaking a witness in a relay race on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, and said it would be helpful if the transition could begin immediately.
Dr. Luciana Borio, a member of Biden’s advisory board, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday evening that the administration’s obstruction of the vaccine could have a serious impact on its eventual distribution. .
“It is very important to know what the deadlines are for the production of the vaccines,” said Borio. “It won’t be easy, it’s a complex task.”
But Democratic Oregon Governor Kate Brown told CNN’s Jake Tapper that on Monday during a call between state leaders and the White House coronavirus task force, Vice President Mike Pence made no mention of the transfer of responsibility for distribution. of the vaccine.
“The vice president has clearly articulated a strategy to distribute the vaccines across the country,” Brown said. “But the conversation has been extremely false when we have a new administration joining in a few weeks. There was no conversation about what the handover would be and how they would ensure that the Biden-Harris administration was fully prepared and willing to accept the handover. “
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