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Commentary
By Anh Lê
The results of the 2020 Presidential Election were decisive. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners.
Joe Biden is President Elect Biden. Kamala Harris is Vice President Elect Harris.
President Elect Biden got 79,854,148 popular votes. He won 306 of the Electoral College votes. He became President Elect Biden when he surpassed the required 270 Electoral College votes benchmark. The American people have spoken.
The incumbent, Donald Trump, got 73,801,348 popular votes. He obtained 232 Electoral College votes.
Prior to the Election, I had predicted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris might win this election by a landslide.
I had also predicted that the election outcome might boil down to a number of crucial "swing states," among them Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.
The landslide never occurred.
The crucial swing states did play a large part in determining the election outcome.
What is most striking is that President Elect Biden received 51.1% of the votes, while the incumbent received 47.2% of the votes.
It was uplifting and inspiring to listen to Vice President Harris give her post-election address to the nation on November 7. In her eloquent speech, she called on us to embrace the idealism of the democratic values of our beloved nation and to work together for a bright future. Vice President Elect Harris also reflects and represents the rich and diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic spectrum that makes up the people of the U.S.
In his powerful speech, President Elect Biden thanked the American people and promised us that he will work for all the American people, not just those who voted for him. He thanked the American people for the mandate given to him to lead our nation.
Since Election Day, the incumbent has not given any concession speech.
Instead, he has condemned this election as "rigged," "fraudulent," "stolen" from him, and a "conspiracy" against him.
He has demanded recounts of the ballots cast in numerous states, and has filed lawsuits against them.
A couple of those lawsuits, in southeastern Michigan and in the urban center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were in areas where most of the voters are African Americans. He demanded that millions of their votes be thrown out. His lawsuits were efforts to disenfranchise Black voters.
The same situation occurred with his lawsuits in Georgia and his demands for several recounts in the Atlanta area, where African Americans make up most of the population.
The attempts to disenfranchise Black voters and to suppress their votes go hand-in-hand with racism.
Judges have thrown out the incumbent's lawsuits and ruled against them. They have ruled them as meritless, and filed without a single shred of evidence.
The Senate Republicans have gone along with the incumbent president, and have remained silent.
The incumbent's appointed head of the General Services Administration (GSA), Emily Murphy, had refused to release access to the resources of the Presidential Transition Office to President Elect Biden, thus not allowing him the daily intelligence briefings that he was entitled to. Delays and obstructionist efforts by the incumbent and the GSA head posed serious risks and grave dangers to our nation's national security.
Ms. Murphy had received a letter from two Congressmen and a Congresswoman on November 9 asking her to explain why she was blocking the release of access to President Elect Biden.
On November 23, Ms. Murphy received another letter, signed by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; Rep. Nita M. Lowley, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations; Rep. Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations; and Rep. Mike Quigley, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Services: and four other Congresspersons.
In their letter, they requested her, her deputy, her chief of staff, and her general counsel to testify at a public hearing of their Congressional Committee.
In their letter, they cited the Presidential Transition Congressional Act of 1963 which authorized for the smooth transition of the President Elect, and the millions of dollars appropriated by Congress on October 1, 2020 to fund the Presidential Transition Office.
There has also been an outcry from Americans all across the U.S. protesting the incumbent's and Ms. Murphy's denial of access to President Elect Biden.
Late on November 23, Ms. Murphy finally sent President Elect Biden a letter letting him know she was relinquishing her hold. In her letter, she addressed President Elect Biden simply as "Mr. Biden," and made no specific mention that he had been elected as President.
Ms. Murphy's and the incumbent's delaying schemes, condoned by the Republican Senators' complicity in their silence, only hurt and harm the American people and our beloved nation. History will not judge them well.
Our nation is confronted with many serious challenges and problems. The foremost one is the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the United States, there have been over 12 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. Over 257,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. The numbers of new infections and deaths keep climbing. There has been a lack of leadership - - an absence of leadership - - from the White House and the current administration to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Millions of Americans are unemployed and suffering from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When action is urgently needed to help these Americans and their families, the response from the White House and the Senate Republicans has been one of neglect. They regard our fellow Americans who are suffering as expendable collateral damage.
Is this how we want our fellow Americans and their families to be treated?
Is this how We The American People want to be treated and to treat each other?
Do we not care about the words we recite in our Pledge of Allegiance, "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All"?
The United States of America, our beloved nation, is so much better than this.
Let us, We The People, embrace the ideals, dreams, and aspirations that make up the United States of America.
Our children, our grandchildren, and future generations of Americans will thank us for it.
This is our Prayer and Hope this Thanksgiving.
Anh Lê is an independent journalist.
Copyright @ Anh Lê, November 23, 2020