Business Leaders, Citing Damage to Country, Urge Trump
to Begin Transition
At the
urging of New York’s attorney general, business leaders in New York push for
the Trump administration to begin a transfer of power.
By Kate
Kelly and Danny
Hakim
- Nov. 23, 2020, 6:00 a.m. ET
Concerned that President Trump’s
refusal to accept the election results is hurting the country, more than 100
chief executives plan to ask the administration on Monday to immediately
acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner and begin the transition to a new
administration.
As a way of gaining leverage over the
G.O.P., some of the executives have also discussed withholding campaign
donations from the two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia unless party
leaders agree to push for a presidential transition, according to four people
who participated in a conference call Friday in which the notion was discussed.
The two runoff elections in Georgia, which will take place in early January,
will determine the balance of power in the United States Senate.
In a letter they plan to send Monday,
business leaders will demand that Emily W. Murphy, head of the General Services
Administration, issue a letter of ascertainment affirming that Mr. Biden and
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have won the election. Ms. Murphy has so far
resisted calls to begin the normal transition planning, which includes providing
resources and money to an incoming administration as it prepares to take
control.
“Every day that an
orderly presidential transition process is delayed, our democracy grows weaker
in the eyes of our own citizens and the nation’s stature on the global stage is
diminished,” the executives write in the letter, a draft of which was reviewed
by The New York Times. “Withholding resources and vital information from an
incoming administration puts the public and economic health and security of
America at risk.”
Among the business leaders who plan to
sign the letter are George H. Walker, the chief executive of the money manager
Neuberger Berman and a second cousin to President George W. Bush, and Jon Gray,
president of the private-equity firm Blackstone.
The initiative comes as Mr. Trump has
refused to acknowledge Mr. Biden as the winner, subverted the nation’s
electoral process with unfounded claims of fraud, and put pressure on state
Republicans to try to impede certification of the results.
The Friday evening executive call,
which included a group of about a dozen business leaders, was preceded by a
meeting of Democratic state attorneys general that took place on Thursday
evening, in which participants discussed what they could do to ensure an
orderly transition. In the wake of that, New York’s attorney general, Letitia
James, was asked to approach business leaders in her jurisdiction about the
possibility of pushing the stalled transition into motion.
“She said they asked her to reach out
to the New York business community,” Kathryn Wylde, the chief executive of the
Partnership for New York City, said of Ms. James. Ms. Wylde took part in a call
the next evening with Ms. James and the executives, who were donors to both
political parties.
Ms. Wylde said Ms.
James told the group that the attorneys general “thought that the New York
business community” would “have influence in convincing Republicans around the
country that this should be over, that the transition should be acknowledged,
and that it was a frightening proposition that this would remain unresolved.”
Ms. James, in a statement Sunday night,
said, “This isn’t about partisan politics, but about protecting our democracy.”
“Without the rule of law and an orderly
transfer of power, everything from commerce to health care delivery to national
security is in peril, and our business leaders can see that as clearly as the
rest of us,” she added.
Among the topics that came up on the
call, according to participants, was the idea of withholding support from
Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both Republicans, who are running for
re-election in Georgia, until the presidential transition is underway.
At least one participant, Rob Speyer,
the chief executive of Tishman Speyer, suggested that some wealthy donors had
already been considering withholding support, according to four people with
knowledge of his comments.
(Mr. Speyer, a registered independent,
is largely a Democratic donor, while his father, Jerry Speyer, is largely a
Republican donor.)
One prominent member of the partnership
who didn’t sign the letter is Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of
Blackstone, who is a stalwart Trump supporter. However, Mr. Schwarzman said in
a statement that “the outcome is very certain today and the country should move
on.”
“I supported
President Trump and the strong economic path he built,” he added. “Like many in
the business community, I am now ready to help President-elect Biden and his
team as they confront the significant challenges of rebuilding our post-COVID
economy.”
Business leaders, along with a number
of other Americans, are increasingly worried that delays in the typical
transition planning will exacerbate the pandemic and slow plans to roll out vaccines.
The Partnership for New York City,
which focuses on economic growth in the metropolitan area, has spent much of
the year helping its members navigate the health and economic challenges of the
pandemic.
“We urge respect for
the democratic process and unified support for our duly elected leadership,”
the group said in its letter. “There is not a moment to waste in the battle
against the pandemic and for the recovery and healing of our nation to begin.”
