Over one week after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, there is still controversy stemming from Donald Trump’s campaign team and Trump administration officials who refuse to acknowledge the defeat and are moving forward as if Trump will be serving a second term in January. 

Biden has still yet to receive a presidential intelligence briefing, as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not interacted with the Biden campaign. The General Services Administration, overseen by Emily Murphy, has blocked federal funding access and declined to acknowledge Biden as president-elect.

A Fox news reporter questioned Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on whether the State Department is preparing for a smooth transfer of power, whether they are preparing to work with the Biden transition team, and whether a delay could become a national security risk. Pompeo said, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” 

Other senior Trump administration officials echoed Pompeo’s rhetoric, facetiously denying that there will need to be a transition at all. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in an interview with Fox News, dodged a comment from Fox Business host Stuart Varney who commented it “would look pretty bad” if Trump did not attend Biden’s nomination. In response she said, “I think [President Trump] will attend his own inauguration…He would have to be there, in fact.”

A historical election cycle during a pandemic concluded with Biden prevailing over Trump, winning both the popular vote and winning the electoral college vote, narrowly clinching key battleground states, like Arizona and Wisconsin. 

Biden leads with more than 5 million votes in the form of the popular vote and currently has 290 electoral votes, comfortably passing the 270 needed to win the presidency, with another 16 slated to be added to his total after a recount assures he won Georgia. 

Robert McNamara, a professor at Sonoma State University, shared his concerns about the lack of concession coming from Trump. He said, “The presidential transition is politics at its worst. Donald Trump lost the presidential election, and his refusal to concede to president-elect Joe Biden, who won 306 electoral college votes, only goes to show how Trump lives in a parallel universe where his ‘reality’ is all that matters.”

McNamara had no doubt that Biden would be the 46th president of the United States, but questioned the long term cost of Trump’s actions. In an email he said, “Ultimately, Joe Biden will be assuming the office of the presidency. The question remains…how much collateral damage will the nation suffer as Donald Trump and his Republican supplicants continue to erode our democratic principles. Meanwhile, the United States continues to set new daily records with the pandemic (181,194 new COVID cases on November 13), with no leadership from the White House.”

Although Trump campaign officials and members of both his administration and inner circle are contesting the results of the election, according to the New York Times, 

 “A group of federal, state, and local officials working with a Department of Homeland Security agency declared flatly that the election was the most secure in the nation’s history.”

Lily Adams, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said, “It has always been clear that this election was free, fair, and secure, and now even Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security has fact checked his lies.”

World leaders had accepted the official election results and moved to congratulate president-elect Biden this last week. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, did not mention Trump but said he was excited to “…Advance peace and inclusion, economic prosperity, and climate action around the world.”

Former President George W. Bush, in a letter, said, “Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country. The President-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans. I offered him the same thing I offered Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success, and my pledge to help in any way I can.”

French President, Emmanuel Macron, said on Twitter, “The Americans have chosen their President. Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris! We have a lot to do to overcome today’s challenges. Let’s work together!”  

President-elect Biden received the most amount of votes of any election–over 78 million votes. Trump won the second highest number of votes, at 72 million. These record breaking numbers can partially be attributed to a high number of absentee voting done in an effort to avoid in-person voting, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

Because of COVID-19, mail-in ballot votes accounted for over 65 million votes that have been officially recorded, thus far. In the state of California, a trend towards absentee voting has already been on the rise in the last 12 election cycles, mail-in ballots accounting for 72% of the total vote this year. 

Trump often spreads baseless conspiracy theories, warning his base to avoid mail in ballots in the months leading up to the election. He said that “…ballots are out of control” and a scam, when asked if he would accept election results. He also said if states got rid of ballots, there would be a “very peaceful continuation” of power, insinuating he was already planning on serving a second term, regardless of the results. 

In response to Trump’s rhetoric, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “the steady drumbeat of misinformation…will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in the validity of their vote.”

In a project from the Brennan Center for Justice titled, “The Myth of Voter Fraud”, they found that Americans were more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud.

Trump finally admitted that Biden did in fact win the election. He tweeted early Sunday and said, “He won because the Election was Rigged.” At odds with the President, top elections officials have declared that this election was “the most secure in American history,” and that, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”