56 days until Inauguration - What happens now? 

December 12, 2020 The Bardvark

By: Luca Katzen ‘22

With school closures and COVID-19 cases on the rise, the next presidency is either the only thing on your mind or the one thing you can put to rest. In order to help clear up some misconceptions, here are some facts and important dates to keep in mind as the end of Donald Trump’s presidency looms.

First, Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be the next president of the United States as of January 20th, 2021, not Donald J. Trump. Regardless of what Donald Trump says or tweets, Joe Biden has won both the popular vote and technically the electoral college. Due to Trump’s comments refusing to concede the presidency and accept a peaceful transfer of power, many of the Republican electors (party officials who are appointed by their state senators and have to cast their vote based on their district’s popular vote in order for a presidential candidate to win the electoral college) have held back and not cast their vote yet. However, this doesn’t hinder Joe Biden’s win because he still has the majority of the popular votes and the electoral votes.

Second, the United States Military can not take sides in the outcome of a presidential election and has to remain on the side of the elected president. Because there is no actual evidence that there was any voter fraud or issues in the 2020 election (according to every major news source including FOX, all democratic senators and representatives and many republican senators and representatives) the military will end its allegiance with President Trump on January 20th. Unless there is a coup (which is highly unlikely), Joe Biden will take office on January 20th with the support of the military.

Third, a commonly asked question about the future of Donald Trump is: will Trump be immune to prosecution once he leaves office? Unless President Trump pardons himself before leaving office he will not be immune to prosecution for his numerous suspected crimes ranging from tax fraud to using the office of the president to better his hotel enterprise (and many, many other things). Joe Biden has also said he will not prevent courts from trying President Trump after he is elected. It should be noted that very few presidents have been prosecuted against (besides in impeachment proceedings) and no president has ever gone to jail. Therefore, if Trump is found guilty of any crimes we would be in unprecedented territory (no pun intended).

Finally, by preventing President-elect Biden from being included in national security briefings and attending other presidential hearings, Donald Trump is putting the future of the country in a difficult and even dangerous position. Without the information which every president has provided for the next president-elect between the election and inauguration day, Trump is intentionally wasting the several weeks of Biden’s presidency that it will take for him to catch up. Therefore, by preventing Biden from starting his agenda on day one, we can expect to see future President Biden to have a slower first month in office than his predecessor, Donald Trump.

My personal words of advice for those concerned with what might happen between now and January 20th are: the American people have elected Joe Biden and he will take office on January 20th. Donald Trump, like any American can say whatever he wants, but we have to learn to filter out the truth from the fiction. And finally, we hear a lot about Trump supporters getting angry and forming militias not because there are a lot of them or that they are powerful, but really because that is their goal, to scare us. In order to stay sane and focus on other things, our best plan of action is to take a deep breath and turn off our phones. Happy Holidays!

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