Politics

There’s already a snag in Trump’s transition with the Biden administration

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

There’s already a snag in Trump’s transition with the Biden administration

Donald Trump’s team has reportedly been dragging its feet on important paperwork for transition planning in coordination with the Biden administration, potentially impeding a smooth beginning for Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump’s team has not yet signed agreements to begin the formal transition process with the Biden White House, which were due Oct. 1, according to The Associated Press. It also has not signed an agreement with the General Services Administration, originally due Sept. 1, which provides logistical services and funds for the transition.

As NPR reported:

The agreements come with ethics requirements, including safeguards against conflicts of interest and fundraising limits.

Trump’s team has blown past the deadline to sign the agreements, saying they are still negotiating the terms.

Under the Presidential Transition Act, both major-party nominees are expected to sign the agreements prior to the election in order to support a speedy transition of power. The legislation was enacted in 2022 in an effort to prevent a repeat of 2020, when Trump delayed the transition process as part of his election denial.

Trump can still be inaugurated as president in January 2025 regardless of whether his team signs those agreements. But his administration won’t be prepared to assume governance “in a way that is safe for us,” Max Stier, the executive director of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that has supported past transitions, told NPR.

“The consequences are severe,” Stier also told The New York Times. “It would not be possible to be ready to govern on day one.”

In late October, just days before the election, Rep. Jamie Raskin urged the Trump campaign to sign the agreements, saying in a letter that without those contracts in place, “federal agencies are unlikely to be able to securely and effectively communicate with your staff, which will endanger ‘the orderly transfer of the executive power’ and threaten our national security.”

Trump’s transition team, which is led by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Trump’s former head of the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon, said in October that they expected to sign those agreements but still have yet to do so. Lutnick told CNN last week that the contracts are a “low-grade issue.”

The White House said on Saturday that President Joe Biden and Trump are scheduled to meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning. It will be the first time the two men come face-to-face since the presidential debate in June that tanked Biden’s re-election bid.

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Politics

Trump-backed Jay Feely wins GOP primary in Arizona’s battleground 1st District

Published

1 hour ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely cruised to victory in Arizona’s 1st District on Tuesday, one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.

Feely, a close ally of President Donald Trump, leveraged Trump’s endorsement to topple former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik.

He’ll face a steep challenge defeating the Democratic nominee in November: The 1st District, which spans the affluent suburbs north of Phoenix, is one of House Democrats’ top targets after Trump won it by just three points in 2024. Feely is looking to keep the seat under GOP control amid a midterm year that presents major headwinds for the party.

Politics

Rep. Andy Biggs wins GOP primary for Arizona governor

Published

1 hour ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Biggs has won the GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November, setting up a marquee governor’s race in one of America’s most competitive states.

Biggs, a former chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and a close ally of President Donald Trump, easily dealt with his only serious challenger, Rep. David Schweikert, on Tuesday. Before the primary results were official, he had already begun pivoting to the general election against Hobbs, who is seen as one of the most vulnerable Democratic governors this fall.

Republicans feel bullish about their odds of flipping the governorship, after Trump carried the state by five points in 2024. But even though Trump won last time, the state has gradually shifted to pure tossup territory over the past few years, electing Democrats to both Senate seats, as well as the attorney general and secretary of state’s offices.

Hobbs had already shifted her focus to Biggs as well. Her campaign has amassed a significant warchest for the race and has already started running ads. Biggs, given his lack of a significant primary challenge, has been able to hold onto more cash than his GOP rivals, but is still behind Hobbs.

The race will test whether Republicans, who are starting down a potentially bruising midterm cycle, can reclaim the top office of a state that has long been a place of success for the party.

During the Republican primary debate, Biggs spent more time talking about his working relationship with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly than he did flexing his endorsement from Trump or highlighting his House record, including his time atop the Freedom Caucus. Instead, he tried to refocus on his bipartisanship in Congress and his leadership in the state legislature.

“I know how to reach across the aisle,” Biggs said during the debate.

But he will still have to contend with many of his past stances, including his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

And Hobbs is already working to ensure voters know where Biggs stands on key issues as a longtime member of the House, including his anti-abortion positions and his role in 2020. Her campaign has repeatedly attacked him as “too extreme” for the state and has dubbed him “basement Biggs” for keeping a relatively low profile throughout the GOP primary.

Politics

Trump-backed Mark Lamb wins Arizona House primary despite sex scandals

Published

1 hour ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A scandal-plagued House candidate powered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement won a messy primary Tuesday.

Mark Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, overcame a late push from self-funding candidate Daniel Keenan in Arizona’s 5th District. Lamb will enter November as the heavy frontrunner in the deep-red Phoenix-area district to replace Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is running for governor.

Keenan had poured nearly $2 million of his own cash into the campaign and attempted to make Lamb’s alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of power central to the race. Lamb has denied the allegations.

But Lamb — bolstered by Trump and Arizona-based Turning Point USA — managed to ward off the attacks.

The race’s outcome reveals the strength of Trump’s endorsement, and it’s the latest example of how willing GOP primary voters have been to accept scandal-ridden candidates favored by the president.

Lamb, who served as sheriff until 2024, earned national notoriety as a gun-toting critic of the Biden administration’s immigration and border policy. He secured Trump’s backing for the 5th District contest last year.

Then in May, the Arizona Republic launched a multi-part investigation alleging that Lamb engaged in a yearslong pattern of sending sexual images and instigating intimate encounters between him, his wife and others. One woman involved, Jillian Stannard, accused Lamb of encouraging her husband to have sex with other women, including Lamb’s wife. She also alleged that Lamb threatened her, saying there would be consequences, when Stannard raised concerns to religious leaders.

Screenshots the Republic obtained of messages with another woman, Tammy Peacock, suggest Lamb — then a sitting county sheriff — threatened to leverage Arizona’s revenge porn law against her.

In a statement last week, Lamb spokesperson Ed Morabito told Blue Light News that “these allegations are false and come from long-discredited political opponents.”

Lamb did not lose any significant endorsements in the wake of the scandals — Trump reinforced his endorsement in mid-July — even as Keenan made the allegations central to his campaign.