A battle is brewing over the presidential transition as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-M.A., accuses President-elect Donald Trump of “breaking the law” — and promises to “fight back” and “confront” the next administration, despite a clear voter mandate.
Trump’s team has dismissed the Warren hysterics as nothing more than bureaucratic theatrics.
The dispute centers on the Presidential Transition Act that would give Trump’s team access to classified briefings and government resources. Just a week after the election, Warren is claiming that Trump and his transition team are acting illegally because the president hasn’t signed yet been able to sign the pledge.
“Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted Monday. “Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement.”
Trump’s team is specifically working on provisions that could affect his family’s business interests and how to work that into the transition.
Warren, along with CNN, was quick to blast his team over the small delay.
“Hundreds of Trump officials involved in the transition will need background checks to receive classified briefings,” Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition, told CNN.
These briefings typically happen in the months after the election to ensure the incoming administration is prepared for day-one challenges.
But Trump’s allies say Warren is making something out of nothing. Trump is still in the process of selecting his cabinet — and his team already has extensive federal experience from his first term.
“The days of the press making hay by quoting ‘ethics groups’ crying that Trump’s business enterprise continues to make money are over,” wrote one conservative outlet, arguing voters rejected such concerns when they elected Trump.
“Voters went to the polls last Tuesday and handed Democrats a sweeping defeat because they are sick of the nation’s elites obsessing over things that don’t matter while normal people can’t afford groceries.”
Warren said she will head up efforts by Democratic to constrain Trump’s incoming administration at all costs. In a detailed Time magazine op-ed, she outlined plans to use Democrats’ lame duck Senate majority in the coming weeks to rush as many judges and regulators into office as possible.
Max Stier, who leads the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, warns the transition is a “point of maximum vulnerability” for U.S. security.
With 72 days until inauguration, the dispute highlights a fundamental tension: Democrats insist they’re trying to protect democracy, while Trump’s team argues there is clear a voter mandate for change.
Prepare for yet another four years of anti-Trump hysteria.