30 United States The EconomistNovember 14th 2020
21of Representatives, may with to hold out
for the larger package her party could
achieve if Democrats win two run-off Sen-
ate elections in Georgia, thus flipping con-
trol of the chamber. Mitch McConnell, the
Republican leader in the Senate, may not
want to concede a pre-emptive victory to
the Biden administration.
A virus spreading fast with no compen-
sating stimulus would be a brutal starting
position for a Biden administration. Even
with expedited approval and distribution,
getting a vaccine to every American who
needs it would take months (see Briefing).
Mr Biden has announced plans to take
more serious federal action. He has named
Ron Klain, who co-ordinated Obama White
House’s response to an Ebola outbreak in
2014, as chief-of-staff. Mr Biden would use
his executive authority to create a Roose-
veltian Pandemic Testing Board to compel
companies to produce more tests, labora-
tory materials and personal protective
equipment. He probably lacks the author-
ity to impose a mask mandate nationwide,
but would push states to do so.
Most Republican governors are already
wary about implementing public-health
measures. They might see the chance to
defy Mr Biden’s recommendations as an
additional incentive to stay that course.
Democratic ones seem averse to a Euro-
pean-style response too. The ban an-
nounced by Phil Murphy, the Democratic
governor of New Jersey, on indoor dining
in restaurants between 10pm and 5am,
typifies the urge to do something, but not
too much.
In her vice-presidential debate with
Mike Pence, Kamala Harris expressed some
distrust in the imminent vaccine Mr
Trump had been hyping ahead of the elec-
tion. “If the doctors tell us we should take
it, I’ll be the first in line to take it. Absolute-
ly. But if Donald Trump tells us to take it,
I’m not taking it,” she said. Republican vot-
ers offered a new vaccine by President Bi-
den might be similarly sceptical. Already,
33% of Republicans tell pollsters that they
would not take a coronavirus vaccine when
it becomes available, compared with 18% of
Democrats and 31% of independents.
While campaigning, Mr Trump liked to
talk about covid-19 as though it were al-
most over. “It is disappearing” he said on
October 10th, shortly after contracting it
himself. “We are rounding the corner,” he
argued on October 22nd. The assessment of
Mr Biden’s transition team is more in tune
with reality, which is a good start. “Our
country is facing an unprecedented time
with covid-19 cases accelerating nation-
wide,” says Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale
epidemiologist who is co-chairing Mr Bi-
den’s advisory board. Anyone who hopes
the virus will go away once America in-
stalls a president who follows scientific ad-
vice is likely to be disappointed. 7A
mong republicans’ favourite griev-
ances over the past four years is a claim
that Democrats never accepted the results
of the 2016 election. In fact, nine hours
after the Associated Press called the elec-
tion for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton
took to a much smaller stage than she had
hoped to command to say that she had
“congratulated Donald Trump, and offered
to work with him on behalf of our country.”
Soon afterward, then-President Barack
Obama said he would “make sure that this
is a successful transition...we are now all
rooting for [Mr Trump’s] success in uniting
and leading the country.” Democrats may
not have liked the result, but they did noth-
ing to prevent Mr Trump from taking office.
Things have gone differently this time.
The Associated Press called the election for
Joe Biden on November 7th. Mr Trump has
spent the time since insisting that he won
and tweeting evidence-free conspiracy
theories. His campaign has filed lawsuits
in five states that Mr Biden won, and his ad-
ministration has refused to co-operate
with Mr Biden’s transition team. And al-
though four Republican senators have con-
gratulated Mr Biden and his running-mate,
Kamala Harris, most elected Republicans
have remained quiet or supported Mr
Trump’s effort to challenge the result, an
effort which looks doomed to failure.Typically, the head of the General Ser-
vices Administration (gsa), the federal gov-
ernment’s non-partisan procurement
agency, issues an “ascertainment” letter,
which gives the incoming president’s tran-
sition team access to federal funds and
space, within 24 hours of an election being
called. Emily Murphy, whom Mr Trump ap-
pointed gsahead in 2017, has yet to do so.
White House officials note precedent from
2000, in which a disputed election delayed
the start of a transition until December.
Then the election hinged on just 537
votes in a single state, Florida. Of the five
states where the Trump campaign has filed
post-election lawsuits—Nevada, Arizona,
Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania—Mr
Biden’s smallest margin of victory is over
11,000 votes (in Arizona). His lead in Michi-
gan is nearly 150,000 votes. His campaign
has produced no evidence of fraud or irreg-
ularities large enough to shift tens of thou-
sands of votes in multiple states.
A few prominent Republicans, notably
senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa
Murkowski and Ben Sasse, have acknowl-
edged Mr Biden’s victory. Other senators
have implicitly done so. Roy Blunt noted
that Mr Trump’s legal challenges will prob-
ably fail. Marco Rubio has urged the gsato
begin its transition process.
Most have fallen back on, in the words
of Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority
leader, defending Mr Trump’s “rights to
look into allegations...and weigh his legal
options”. Some Republican senate staffers
explain this reticence by saying that allow-
ing the courts to rule in these cases will
build trust in the result. Larry Hogan,
Maryland’s anti-Trump Republican gover-
nor, calls his party’s response “a train
wreck,” but says that behind the scenes, a
growing number of Republicans have “had
some pretty frank conversations with him,
and he doesn’t seem to be listening.”
So far, Mr Trump’s lawsuits have fared
poorly. But as long as he keeps fighting,
most Republicans see more political risk in
accepting Mr Biden’s victory—and thus in-
viting the wrath of Mr Trump—than in hu-
mouring him. Another goal of his lawsuits
may be to raise just enough doubt about the
outcome in key states to pressure Republi-
can-held state legislatures to put forth
their own sets of electors, substituting
their will for the voters’.
And continuing to fight keeps the pres-
sure on other Republicans. Brad Raffen-
sperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, has ac-
ceded to the Trump campaign’s demand for
a hand recount, to be conducted by all of
Georgia’s 159 counties at taxpayer expense.
Recounts rarely change more than a few
hundred votes, but Georgia’s will be diffi-
cult to complete before the state’s certifica-
tion deadline of November 20th—particu-
larly for the state’s larger and more
Biden-friendly counties. That, in turn,WASHINGTON, DC
Republican elites indulge Donald
Trump’s alternative election fantasyDigesting the electionNothing to see here
A new lost cause