[lex24]

Not sure that 2000 is the right standard to use, since back then there was legitimate uncertainty over who the next president would be.  Should Clinton have given transition funds to both Bush and Gore?

The uncertainty in this election is comparable to the uncertainty in 2016.  Biden is on track to win the exact same number of electoral votes as Trump won in 2016.  In order to change the results, Trump would have to flip three of the contested states (which is how many states Hillary would have had to flip to become president).  The margin (as it stands now) in terms of votes is:

Arizona: 11,434
Georgia: 14,150
Wisconsin: 20,546
(note this would bring Biden back to 269 electoral votes, so it would be an EC tie)

The margins are comparable to the closest states in 2016:
Michigan: 10,704
Wisconsin: 22,748
Pennsylvania: 44,292

Trump was given transition funding in 2016 and given presidential briefings.  He was invited to meet with Obama on November 10th, two days after the election.  A short delay this year, while not optimal, was ok, given that Biden hadn't become the projected winner until Saturday.  But Biden won the Presidential election, and pretending like the outcome is still in doubt is, as Biden would put it, malarkey.  The funds should be released and Biden should be briefed.  If Trump wants to continue to challenge the results in court, I think it's unhealthy, but he is within his rights.  But that shouldn't interfere with planning for a smooth transition, which is going to be challenging enough under the current pandemic, and will impair our response.

BC

Gore was in the Admin.

 I said the funds should be released.  And that he should be in the briefings.

Further, I wasn’t commenting on the “challenge”. Which will go nowhere ( even if he may have a decent legal argument in Penn (that won’t involve enough votes to matter)

I just want the media to do its job and provide background.  2000 is the only challenge.  So it’s at least an example.

---

There has been a lot said in this time of Covid about how important it is to release the transition funds. And to have Biden be involved in the daily presidential briefings. What’s been interesting, however, is the general lack of discussion  for the media on the precedent.  That stems from 2000.  I was curious so I began googling for articles. I found one on NPR. It mentioned that the Clinton administration allowed bush to take part of the daily briefings before he was declared the winner – but did not say win in the process that occurred. The other article I read was in market watch. That article indicated that the Clinton administration did not release the transition funds until the day after Bush was declared the winner.

 I was curious so I began googling for articles. I found one on NPR. It mentioned that the Clinton administration allowed Bush to take part of the daily briefings before he was declared the winner but did not say win in the process that occurred. The other article I read was in market watch. That article indicated that the Clinton administration did not release the transition funds until the day after Bush was declared the winner. 

I agree the funds  should be released sooner rather than later and that Biden should be involved immediately in the briefings. Nonetheless I also believe that when discussing this the media has some responsibility to at least point out that the action Trump is taking at this time are not unprecedented. But to expect that from what is largely ( almost exclusively) an agenda driven media is, I guess, too much to ask. And yes this is Covid related because part of this whole issue has to do with Covid

Since you are so concerned that everyone cover this situation with the utmost fairness, perhaps you should also point out that the 2000 election was no 2020 election.  Even the Republican lawyer who lead the legal strategy for Bush in the 2000 FL recount says there's no comparison.  We also have the GOP lawyers saying one thing in court (and having no evidence of widespread fraud), and the GOP saying something entirely different on the social media.  I get tired of people making arguments that Trump just needs more time.  He needed zero time to claim he won and the election is a fraud, despite no reasonable evidence being shown in court.  That's another reason it's different than 2000.  It's not just an Administration saying things aren't decided because it's so close.  It's an Administration saying it was maliciously stolen due to fraud and that's what has to be checked out -- and they're only saying that in the media, because they don't dare say that in court or they'll be tossed out on their butt like has been the case already.

Read my post.  I wasn’t comparing the legitimacy of the challenge to 2000. ( And the media HAS covered that. As they should). 

I just used it as the only example we have in which there was an actual challenge and how it was handled. Further, I never said there was a comparison between the two. If you wanna know my opinion I’ll give it to you straight up - I think the challenges are absurd. I also think Mitt Romney had it right – any president has a legal right to challenge. What he shouldn’t be doing is making dangerous and unfounded comments about fraud etc. 

The challenges will go nowhere the election will be  certified and Biden will be president. Again to be clear - Biden should be given the transition funds now I agree with that. Biden  should be getting the briefings. Now. We agree on that. 

I just want the media to do it’s job. One of the reasons Trump is president is a very strong belief among conservatives of massive media bias. Which is why he was so easily able to argue the “fake news” garbage. And I get that people roll their eyes when the media bias card is raised. But the fact is a large portion of the country believes it. Now you can ignore that fine.  And of course you can point out there’s always Fox. . Which as I’ve said a million times is also biased.  I guess I simply want some thing that we can’t have anymore. That’s an MSM that distinguishes reporting from opinion.  That is not agenda driven.

[lex24]

Not sure that 2000 is the right standard to use, since back then there was legitimate uncertainty over who the next president would be.  Should Clinton have given transition funds to both Bush and Gore?

The uncertainty in this election is comparable to the uncertainty in 2016.  Biden is on track to win the exact same number of electoral votes as Trump won in 2016.  In order to change the results, Trump would have to flip three of the contested states (which is how many states Hillary would have had to flip to become president).  The margin (as it stands now) in terms of votes is:

Arizona: 11,434
Georgia: 14,150
Wisconsin: 20,546
(note this would bring Biden back to 269 electoral votes, so it would be an EC tie)

The margins are comparable to the closest states in 2016:
Michigan: 10,704
Wisconsin: 22,748
Pennsylvania: 44,292

Trump was given transition funding in 2016 and given presidential briefings.  He was invited to meet with Obama on November 10th, two days after the election.  A short delay this year, while not optimal, was ok, given that Biden hadn't become the projected winner until Saturday.  But Biden won the Presidential election, and pretending like the outcome is still in doubt is, as Biden would put it, malarkey.  The funds should be released and Biden should be briefed.  If Trump wants to continue to challenge the results in court, I think it's unhealthy, but he is within his rights.  But that shouldn't interfere with planning for a smooth transition, which is going to be challenging enough under the current pandemic, and will impair our response.

BC

Gore was in the Admin.

 I said the funds should be released.  And that he should be in the briefings.

Further, I wasn’t commenting on the “challenge”. Which will go nowhere ( even if he may have a decent legal argument in Penn (that won’t involve enough votes to matter)

I just want the media to do its job and provide background.  2000 is the only challenge.  So it’s at least an example.

---

There has been a lot said in this time of Covid about how important it is to release the transition funds. And to have Biden be involved in the daily presidential briefings. What’s been interesting, however, is the general lack of discussion  for the media on the precedent.  That stems from 2000.  I was curious so I began googling for articles. I found one on NPR. It mentioned that the Clinton administration allowed bush to take part of the daily briefings before he was declared the winner – but did not say win in the process that occurred. The other article I read was in market watch. That article indicated that the Clinton administration did not release the transition funds until the day after Bush was declared the winner.

 I was curious so I began googling for articles. I found one on NPR. It mentioned that the Clinton administration allowed Bush to take part of the daily briefings before he was declared the winner but did not say win in the process that occurred. The other article I read was in market watch. That article indicated that the Clinton administration did not release the transition funds until the day after Bush was declared the winner. 

I agree the funds  should be released sooner rather than later and that Biden should be involved immediately in the briefings. Nonetheless I also believe that when discussing this the media has some responsibility to at least point out that the action Trump is taking at this time are not unprecedented. But to expect that from what is largely ( almost exclusively) an agenda driven media is, I guess, too much to ask. And yes this is Covid related because part of this whole issue has to do with Covid

Since you are so concerned that everyone cover this situation with the utmost fairness, perhaps you should also point out that the 2000 election was no 2020 election.  Even the Republican lawyer who lead the legal strategy for Bush in the 2000 FL recount says there's no comparison.  We also have the GOP lawyers saying one thing in court (and having no evidence of widespread fraud), and the GOP saying something entirely different on the social media.  I get tired of people making arguments that Trump just needs more time.  He needed zero time to claim he won and the election is a fraud, despite no reasonable evidence being shown in court.  That's another reason it's different than 2000.  It's not just an Administration saying things aren't decided because it's so close.  It's an Administration saying it was maliciously stolen due to fraud and that's what has to be checked out -- and they're only saying that in the media, because they don't dare say that in court or they'll be tossed out on their butt like has been the case already.

Read my post.  I wasn’t comparing the legitimacy of the challenge to 2000. ( And the media HAS covered that. As they should). 

I just used it as the only example we have in which there was an actual challenge and how it was handled. Further, I never said there was a comparison between the two. If you wanna know my opinion I’ll give it to you straight up - I think the challenges are absurd. I also think Mitt Romney had it right – any president has a legal right to challenge. What he shouldn’t be doing is making dangerous and unfounded comments about fraud etc. 

The challenges will go nowhere the election will be  certified and Biden will be president. Again to be clear - Biden should be given the transition funds now I agree with that. Biden  should be getting the briefings. Now. We agree on that. 

I just want the media to do it’s job. One of the reasons Trump is president is a very strong belief among conservatives of massive media bias. Which is why he was so easily able to argue the “fake news” garbage. And I get that people roll their eyes when the media bias card is raised. But the fact is a large portion of the country believes it. Now you can ignore that fine.  And of course you can point out there’s always Fox. . Which as I’ve said a million times is also biased.  I guess I simply want some thing that we can’t have anymore. That’s an MSM that distinguishes reporting from opinion.  That is not agenda driven.