Did Biden Honor His Promise for a Smooth Transition?

Back on November 13th, a week after Donald Trump had won a stunning electoral victory, President Biden and President-Elect Trump met at the White House to discuss the transition of presidential power on January 20th.

Meeting in the White House’s Oval Office, Biden said he was “looking forward to having… a smooth transition” and told Mr. Trump that his team would “do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated”.

Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Biden and said: “I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth it’ll be as smooth as it can get”.

But just how “smooth” (or how rough) did Biden made it? The record shows that the Biden Administration did nearly everything possible to stymie the incoming Trump Administration. Among Democrats, the Biden Administration’s post-election activities are known as “Trump-Proofing.” Here are a few examples, and we’re keeping this short and to-the-point:

Hiring more civil servants. Biden, in the final weeks of his Administration, hired many thousands of new federal employees, assigned them to agencies that Trump would like to cut, and gave them (even though many appeared to be political appointments) civil service status.

Pushing through judge confirmations. Hundreds of judges were confirmed by the then Democrat-controlled Senate in the weeks between the election and the seating of the new Republican-controlled Senate.

Goading Russia toward war. As found elsewhere on this list, billions more for Ukraine, more armaments for Ukraine, sanctions and additional sanctions on Russia, and the use of nasty terms to describe Russian President Vladimir Putin, continued almost daily. Some say we’d already be in a direct war with Russia if Putin were not “cooling his heels” waiting for Trump to calm the situation. On Jan. 10th, practically on his way out the door, Biden expanded the sanctions on Russia’s energy sector by adding two major Russian oil producers, dozens of oilfield service providers, 183 vessels moving seaborne Russian oil, and co-called “opaque” traders of Russian oil globally.

Money for Ukraine, Ukraine promised NATO membership. The U.S. has given to Ukraine (or spent on Ukraine) over $175 billion during Biden’s presidency, and in his final days, he continued to allocate millions more to Ukraine. In December, he promised another $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. This, of course, is because of Trump’s promise to end the spending on this war. The war, in large measure was caused by Biden’s repeated goading of Russia by promising that the U.S. would place missiles on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Biden’s Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, had repeatedly promised Ukraine that it will get NATO membership. Putin has stated that in any talks with Trump, Russia will insist on future Ukrainian neutrality.

Awards to Soros, Cheney, Hillary Clinton. With only days left in his presidency, Biden awarded George Soros, Liz Chaney, and Hillary Clinton with very high civilian honors. Readers of this site are undoubtedly familiar with, and likely detest, these three individuals.

Pardons for Hunter and Death-row inmates. Biden started by pardoning his son Hunter, but in mid-December he granted pardons to 39 people and commuted the sentences of another 1,499. It was the largest grant of clemency in modern history. A few days later he commuted the sentences of 37 murderers, all of them death-row inmates, to life-imprisonment. Many of these inmates had committed horrific murders. Biden promised more pardons would be coming in his final days. Perhaps we’ll learn about some of them only after he’s left office. He was also actively said to be considering what are called “pre-emptive pardons” for political operatives like Liz Chaney and the much loathed Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Student Debt Cancellation. Biden continued to cancel debts owed by students for their educations. Just days before he left office he has announced yet another $600 million in student-loan forgiveness, providing student loan relief for more than 150,000 borrowers. All totaled, Biden forgave a total of $183.6 billion in student-loan debt during his presidency. Without even asking whether the cancellation of debts that were willingly incurred by individuals to fund their education (but not cancellation of car debt, or mortgages, or personal business debt, or home-equity debt, or any of the other debts that are arguably just as worthy for cancellation), the questions occurs: Just where did Biden get the authority to cancel debt owed to the United States? Surely, Congress could pass a law cancelling debt, but without that, where does the President get such authority? It’s not his money, is it? In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down his student loan forgiveness program, so his Administration made some changes to the program and continued more debt forgiveness. While some say the changes address the areas considered illegal by the Supreme Court, others claim the entire program remains illegal. But meanwhile, the student debts appear to be forgiven, and the Supreme Court’s ruling, perhaps having been ignored, will be forgotten.

Border remained open. Biden’s Administration purposefully kept the U.S. borders open, allowing the continued unimpeded arrival of many hundreds of thousands, those being in addition to the millions of people who had entered in violation of U.S. law. These folks, of course, don’t consider anything that they have done to enter and remain in the U.S. to be illegal, because they feel that they were invited to enter and stay by the Biden Administration.

Continuing to arrest and try Jan 6th participants. Around 1,600 people have been charged by federal prosecutors in connection with the events at the U.S. Capitol four years ago on January 6, 2021. Some 1,100 of them have been convicted and sentenced. Although Mr. Trump stated that he will pardon most of them on his first day, the Biden DOJ announced in early January that it was currently considering charging up to 200 more people for their involvement with the event.

Banning New Oil and Gas Drilling. On Jan. 6th Biden banned new offshore oil and natural gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters. His order covers some 625 million acres of federal waters (including the U.S. East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Coast along California, Oregon, and Washington, and more portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska).

Flags at half staff. Flags were brought down to half-staff for the death of former President Jimmy Carter. Biden has announced they will remain at half-staff during Trump’s inauguration.

Mr. Trump said recently that Mr. Biden is “doing everything possible to make the transition as difficult as possible.”

“Biden is doing everything possible to make the transition as difficult as as possible, from Lawfare such as has never been seen before, to costly and ridiculous Executive Orders on the Green New Scam and other money wasting Hoaxes,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Newsweek in an email: “It’s despicable what Joe Biden is doing, and he is going against the will of the people who gave President Trump a historic mandate to Make America Great Again.”

Speaking on the Dan Bongino show on Thursday, Mr. Trump told us what he really thought about how the transition is going:

“It’s a disgrace what’s happening. … We’re going to be redoing these things as soon as I get in. And literally on the day that I get it, we’re going to be having Executive Orders that reverses most of it, and whatever I can’t reverse, we’re going to court. We’re going to win them all in court, very easily, quickly.

He’s making the transition absolutely difficult. He’s making everything so difficult. He’s been a terrible President. … He’s the worst president in the history of the country.

He’s always talking about a smooth transition and then he goes out and wipes our 635 million acres [banned new offshore oil and natural gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters]. …

“They’re very bad people. They’re very evil people.”