Emily Murphy: Inside a government bureaucrat's pressure-filled decision to delay the transition

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Washington (CNN)As the only obstacle between President-elect Joe Biden and the formal start of the presidential transition, General Services Administrator Emily Murphy is struggling with the weight of the presidential election being dropped on her shoulders, feeling like she's been put in a no-win situation, according to people who have spoken to her recently.

This was never a position that Murphy thought she would find herself in, the people said. But as the government official in charge of signing off on the election result, President Donald Trump's refusal to concede the election has thrown Murphy into the middle of a political firestorm.

Facing mounting pressure from both sides, and even death threats, the sources say Murphy is working to interpret vague agency guidelines and follow what she sees as precedent to wait to sign off on the election result, a process known as "ascertainment" that would allow the official presidential transition to begin.

Still, Murphy's stalled sign-off is one of the more confounding decisions made since the election, since it's clear Biden won and Trump's legal challenges won't change the outcome. Biden's team has warned the delay has real-world consequences to national security and their Covid-19 response.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/biden-transition-trump-delay/index.html

Well quit if it's too much work.

[madaboutharry]

1. If she was a principled person she would ignore the madness

coming from Trump and sign the papers.

She has demonstrated she is a weak and foolish woman.

[SomedayKindaLove]

2. If she quits then there will no one to sign

Followed by someone who won’t ever sign

Someone give her a job for a signature

[vlyons]

3. She's a coward

So what if Trump fires her? She'll be laid off in 60 days anyway. Does she actually think that anyone in the Biden admin will name her to her next Fed job? When pigs fly.

[gratuitous]

4. Oooh, a pressure-filled decision!

Those darned "vague agency guidelines"! Nobody's had a problem with them before, but suddenly poor Emily just can't make hide nor hair of what the obligations of her position require her to do. It's like when Louis de Joy got appointed Postmaster General, and suddenly the postal service couldn't deliver the mail anymore, something they'd been doing a pretty good job at for more than 200 years.

[Cousin Dupree]

5. I don't understand what her problem is. Joe won. What's so hard about that?

[bbernardini]

6. She knows she'll get fired the second she does the right thing...

...so she's trying to make sure she has a new job to go to before she does.

[WyattKansas]

8. The fool probably thinks tRUMP will giver her a job or gig in the future to be a star.

Too bad she doesn't realize when she looks in the mirror, tRUMP would never let her near him, his properties, or his scams in the future.

[Mike 03]

7. I'm siding with the people calling her a coward and saying she should quit. But there's

something else, from November 10. There's another person involved in this unholy alliance whose role needs to be ascertained:

White House attorney dispatched to agency blocking Biden transition

WASHINGTON — Five days before the presidential election, the Trump administration dispatched attorney Trent Benishek of the White House general counsel’s office to the General Services Administration.

The agency, which oversees government leases among other administrative tasks, is little known to the general public. Nor is Benishek’s name among those that have become a staple of Trumpworld reporting.

Accordingly, the move attracted no notice as the nation, and the world, focused on the Nov. 3 presidential election, perhaps the most consequential in modern American history.

GSA put out a press release, which said that as the new general counsel of the GSA, as well as its top ethics official, Benishek would “advise in the formulation and promulgation of GSA policies and regulations, oversee the agency’s litigation, and provide overall direction.”

https://news.yahoo.com/white-house-attorney-dispatched-to-agency-blocking-biden-transition-173301811.html

[crickets]

9. Wow. Good find.

But one top official who was involved in the Obama transition in 2008 speculated that the young attorney was put there “to keep tabs on Murphy.” The former transition member, who would discuss the matter only on the condition of anonymity, went further, speculating that Benishek “was installed there so the [White House] could fire the administrator and chief of staff, then have [Benishek] take over the agency to stop the ascertainment,” a reference to the process the GSA undertakes during a presidential transition.

Though Murphy is a Republican, she is not a White House insider, meaning that she may not be fully trusted to do the president’s bidding.

So even if Murphy did the right thing, trump is ready to fire her, with a loyal crony waiting in the wings. *sigh*

[Vinca]

10. I would think her choice is simple: mindlessly obey the orange king or prevent people from dying.

Every day she stops progress for the Biden transition is more lives lost. I couldn't live with that - I don't know how anyone could.

[lindysalsagal]

11. BS piece. She needs a frump pardon.

It was on wapo.

[VA_Jill]

12. Oh, spare me!

I don't want to hear one more word about this Karen't handwringing, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. She's just like all the rest of them, nothing but a clod in the churn, as the late Tennessee Ernie Ford would have put it.

[WyattKansas]

13. She needs to be hounded now and for the rest of her life for willfully disobeying the law.

The law does NOT say it is her prerogative to dismiss reality. The only ones pressuring her are those pushing 'alternative facts' (lies) about who the American People overwhelmingly chose as President in the Electoral Vote and Popular Vote in the real world.

Investigative journalists should be looking into her past for anything damaging and outstanding she wants kept secret, if she wants to play pathetic games to destroy the American People and damage America for her 'Bigly Daddy' Donald's sick pleasure.

[demtenjeep]

14. do your job

toadie