CNN’s Chris Cuomo delivered an ice-cold rebuke of Donald Trump on Monday after the president allowed the transition to his successor’s administration to begin, more than two weeks after the race was called for President-elect Joe Biden.
“Lie, defy, deny. That is why he lost,” Cuomo said. “Now get this. He’s worried that this tantrum that has kept us from dealing with a pandemic and our duly elected president-elect ― it may hurt his brand.
“Know this. This is your brand, Mr. Trump. You will forever be remembered as viciously divisive and a demagogue. A man who lied about a pandemic to suit his own interest.”
He also went after Trump’s “cast of fools” ― the Trump legal team and his GOP allies who were silent as he tried to delegitimize a democratic election.
Now that Trump has relaxed his grip on the transition, the nation can get to the real fight for COVID-19 relief, Cuomo said.
But he reminded viewers that while it will be critical to hold the new administration accountable to that fight, it’s also important not to become so focused on that need to move forward that “we forget how we got here.”
“If we don’t expose and hold those who allowed this travesty to happen … to account,” Cuomo said, “they’ll just keep doing what Trump demands.”
“What happened here was ugly and intentional. And the response must be served directly and cold,” he said.
“16 days were stolen. How many of you paid the price of this inaction? Of this cowardice? Of this economic pain that they did nothing about?”
Cuomo urged the media to stop reporting on Trump’s failure to concede his defeat in the election and move on.
“Who cares?” he asked. “It’s not in the law. It’s a tradition that gives a nod to decency and disagreement. He’s never been about that.”
Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, belatedly recognized Biden as the “apparent winner” of the election on Monday after Trump’s efforts to overturn results in several states failed. Trump tweeted shortly afterwards that he had directed Murphy, and his own team, to cooperate with the transition, but vowed to continue his legal challenges.
During the time in limbo, the country has experienced some of its darkest days in the COVID-19 pandemic, with record-setting spikes in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
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