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Trump won’t disappear

November 13, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Tom Claridge

IT TOOK FIVE DAYS, but the vote-counting in the U.S. presidential election finally established that Joe Biden had won the 270 electoral votes needed to replace Donald Trump.

Mr. Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, held a drive-in rally Saturday night after getting congratulations from many world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former president George W. Bush and Republican Senator Mitt Romney, but not Mr. Trump or Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

Despite receiving five million fewer votes than Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump claims that he really won the race and the results in Pennsylvania and other “swing” states were rigged, and on Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr ordered investigation of alleged voting irregularities.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, withheld funding traditionally given to the new administration’s transition team and refused access to the White House.

Although such actions are apparently unprecedented, they are not surprising in view of Mr. Trump’s conduct as president. It seems he will do anything conceivable to hold the reins of office.

One of the peculiarities of the U.S. political system not found in our parliamentary system is that there is no provision for the loser of a presidential election. As a result, candidates like Democrats Al Gore and Hillary Clinton and Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain had no role to play as party leader after their defeat. (The late Mr. McCain was able to continue as a Senator for Arizona.)

In our view, the most likely situation is for Mr. Trump to become the first U.S. “leader of the Opposition”, albeit without a seat in Congress. He will have an ability to seek a second term as president in 2024, and even if he would have to occupy one of his hotels instead of the White House, he would still have his Twitter account for the purpose of commenting on the sins and errors of the Biden administration.

Mr. Biden, meanwhile, will have a challenging four years, particularly if the Republicans win two Senate runoffs in Georgia scheduled for Jan. 5. If they do, they will continue to dominate, and even if the Democrats win both races they will be in a 50-50 tie, with Vice-President Harris the tie-breaker.

The first challenge the Biden team will face is undoubtedly the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken more than 238,000 U.S. lives and infected more than 10 million.

In his speech Saturday night, Mr. Biden said his first action Monday will be announcing formation of an advisory committee of experts with the objective of getting control of the pandemic.

On Monday, there was welcome news that a vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. has given about 90 per cent immunity. Prime Minister Trudeau said the vaccine should be available in the first quarter of 2021. “We see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are hopeful we are getting there because our scientists are working incredibly hard.” But in the interim, Canadians must continue wearing masks, avoiding crowds and washing their hands frequently.

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