Trump’s team has regarded the FBI background check process with contempt for months, a product of their deep distrust of the bureau ever since officials turned over transition records to the Russia investigation during the first Trump presidency, the people said.
Investigate me for colluding with a foreign power once, shame on you. Investigate me twice for colluding with a foreign power…
But delaying FBI vetting could also bring ancillary PR benefits for the Trump team if some political appointees run into problems during a background check, which could upend their Senate confirmation process, or if they struggle to obtain security clearances once in the White House.
This is the actual answer, if somewhat buried. After they’re in place, any blowback will be after-the-fact and treated as “oh well” by the media and public.
“The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act. We will update you once a decision is made,” Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement.
Let me guess, the decision is coming in two weeks?
It makes sense for those relatively powerless employees who devoted themselves to the non-doublespeak mandates of these organizations to be “demoralized.”
Come January 20th it’s going to be the Department of Justice which concerns itself with injustice against political enemies, the Department of Health which concerns itself with unhealthy pseudoscience, we’ll have a director of national intelligence which concerns themself with undermining US intelligence, and so on… Orwell couldn’t have been more prescient.