Was Donald Trump Denied an Orderly Transition?

No.

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In a press conference from November 20, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that President Trump “was never given an orderly transition of power,” and that “his presidency was never accepted.” The clip, which appeared on Hannity and posted to Sean Hannity’s Facebook page has been viewed almost 900,000 times since it was posted on November 21. The caption on Hannity’s post reads: “McEnany claims Trump was not allowed orderly transition in 2016.”

The claim is false.  

The day after Trump won the 2016 election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton conceded to Trump. “Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country,” Clinton said in her concession speech.  

On November 9, 2016, the General Services Administration determined Trump to be the winner of the 2016 election. The GSA’s letter of ascertainment affords transition teams office space, access to federal agencies, and money to facilitate the hiring of staff.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Aylene Wright

    Ok I usually don't comment on FC topics because I'd have little to say other than "great job, keep it up".

    However, I will here because it occurs to me that what's important here isn't the first part of KM's quote but the second, that "his Presidency was never accepted". Because the point isn't really about accusing the Obama Administration of not following standard transition protocols. Anymore than those accusing Trump of trying to steal the election are merely accusing him of filing frivolous lawsuits. The lawsuit don't even allege fraud. Republicans defending Trump by saying that he has the right to go through the legal process are being disingenuous because he's doing a lot more than that.

    I don't even fear Trump's lawsuits, but I DO fear that the ridiculous conspiracy theories being bantered about OUTSIDE a court of law by Team Trump will eventually radicalize supporters into extrajudicial actions. Lin Wood, Gen. Flynn, and others are already calling for a military coup.

    Along the same lines, I can easily imagine pro-Trumpers saying "yeah, Kayleigh has it right, they never accepted Obama spied on Trump and Killary commissioned the Steele Dossier. They called our President a traitor who should be shot. They abused the FISA process. They tried to railroad the great patriot General Flynn by threatening his son. Strzok and his floozy Page were plotting to bring him down too, otherwise why would they talk about an insurance policy. Brennan and other Obama cronies went crying to CNN to spread disgusting lies about Russia, Russia, Russia." And many other grievances that have nothing to do with whether formal transition processes took place.

    And I can also predict their response to the fact that Trump himself praised the Obama Administration for the smooth transition, that he only said that because he was naively assuming good faith on the part of Obama and company, and didn't know about the nefarious anti-Trump plots underway at the time, and that if he *had* known about "how deep the rot in the Deep State went" he would not have said that.

    So, while I do think fact checking is great when checking specific factual claims, that really wasn't what KM was doing, she was giving voice to a generally held MAGA opinion. And fact checking opinion is an oxymoron. I don't think that the "Trump is trying to steal the election" is appropriate for a fact check either.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Not Jonah Goldberg

      I feel all this as well. The fact check is great as always, but many conspiracies rely on “a feeling” more than facts. At the end of the day, many Trump fans “feel” like he wasn’t given a fair transition, and there is no way to refute a feeling. This has always been a frustrating part of conspiracies and this age in particular.

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