President elect Joe Biden has picked Ron Klain to be his Chief of Staff as he moves to prepare for transition to the White House. The Washington Post described Mr. Klain as, “a longtime Washington operative,” who, “has been a senior adviser to Democratic presidents, vice presidents, candidates and senators.” In a statement Biden indicated that Klain’s, “deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again.” Biden is still not receiving any cooperation from out-going President Donald Trump in his transition but there are reports that the former Vice President’s many decades of contacts in Washington with extensive experience are being tapped to help him work around Trump’s obstructiveness. 

Although the majority of Republican lawmakers remain staunchly behind Trump’s attempt to overturn the election result and the nation’s democratic process, on Thursday GOP-affiliated individuals began speaking up. Among them former Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who was chairman of the House intelligence committee said, “Joe Biden should receive the President’s Daily Brief starting today. He needs to know what the latest threats are and begin to plan accordingly. This isn’t about politics; this is about national security.” Notably Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said that if Trump’s White House does not allow Biden’s team access to daily briefings by Friday, he intends to intervene. Lankford sits on the Senate Oversight Committee. Some Republicans are also admitting publicly that Trump will be unable to challenge the election results including Arizona’s Attorney General Mark Brnovich who said on Fox Business news, “If indeed there was some great conspiracy, it apparently didn’t work…The county election official, who’s a Democrat, lost, and other Republicans won.” Just the fact that Biden won the White House but Democrats lost seats in the House and didn’t gain enough in the Senate ought to signal that there is no widespread voter fraud on behalf of Democrats that Trump and his allies continue to claim. Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said, “Joe Biden is the president-elect,” and top Republican operative Karl Rove wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal throwing cold water on the Trump campaign’s demand to recount votes in order to change the election result.  

Trump’s claims about voter fraud continue to fall flat. In Michigan he has asserted that ballots were cast on behalf of dead voters but State officials have been able to prove this is just a case of people having common names, not a vast conspiracy to steal the election for Biden. In