WASHINGTON — It’s been almost a week since the Associated Press projected Joe Biden as the next president. But still President Donald Trump has not conceded the election.
Biden is still moving forward assembling a transition team. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about the presidential transition process this week.
Viewers sent us this tweet from former adviser to President Trump, and conservative commentator, Sebastian Gorka.
In it the tweet Gorka points out the backdrop during a Joe Biden speech that reads: Office of the President-Elect and claims there is no such thing.
Question:
Is there an official Office of the President-Elect?
Answer:
No, it is an informal title used by federal agencies.
Our Sources:
Gary Nordlinger, professor of Political Science at George Washington University and a memo from the General Services Administration.
Our Process:
“As best I can tell it's a very, very nice photo backdrop that Joe Biden came up with in the last week,” Nordlinger said of the picture.
Nordlinger explained there is not an official federal Office of the President-Elect.
However, our researchers did find a memo written this year by the General Services Administration. This is the agency that enables the presidential transition.
The memo informally refers to an ‘Office of the President-Elect’ to simplify the terms for the transition team of the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect.
Our researchers also found this picture from January 11, 2017.
If you look closely, President Trump himself has a similar sign that reads ‘Office of the President-Elect.’
No, there is no official ‘Office of the President-Elect’, but it is an informal title for a transition team, and Joe Biden isn’t first to use the title.