Refusal to Accept 2020 Election Results and Disruption of the Presidential Transition
Tier 3Resolved2020-11-03 to 2021-01-20
Factual Summary
Following his defeat in the November 3, 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump became the first president in American history to refuse to concede and to actively obstruct the transfer of power to his successor. Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes and approximately 81 million popular votes. Trump received 232 electoral votes and approximately 74 million popular votes.
Trump's refusal to concede had immediate operational consequences for the presidential transition. Under the Presidential Transition Act, the General Services Administration (GSA) must formally "ascertain" the apparent winner before federal resources, office space, and classified briefings are released to the incoming administration. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, a Trump appointee, declined to issue that ascertainment for 16 days following election night, until November 23, 2020. During that period, Biden's transition team was denied access to federal agency personnel, classified intelligence briefings, and transition funding.
In seven states where Biden won, Trump allies organized slates of fake electors totaling 84 individuals who falsely certified to Congress that Trump had won those states. The states included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Those false certificates were transmitted to the National Archives and to Congress as part of a scheme to give Vice President Mike Pence a basis to reject or delay certification of Biden's electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Pence refused, concluding he had no constitutional authority to do so.
Trump personally pressured state officials to reverse certified results. Most notably, on January 2, 2021, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and pressured him to "find 11,780 votes." The call was recorded and subsequently made public by Raffensperger's office. Raffensperger refused to comply.
Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021, becoming the first outgoing president to skip his successor's swearing-in ceremony since Andrew Johnson in 1869. Trump left Washington on the morning of January 20 before the ceremony took place. He has never formally conceded the 2020 election.
Primary Sources
1. Presidential Transition Act, 3 U.S.C. § 102 note, governing GSA ascertainment: https://uscode.house.gov/
2. Letter from GSA Administrator Emily Murphy to President-elect Biden announcing ascertainment, November 23, 2020: https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/letter-from-gsa-administrator-to-biden-campaign-11232020
3. Recorded phone call transcript, Trump to Raffensperger, January 2, 2021, released by the Georgia Secretary of State's office: https://www.georgiasecretaryofstate.com/
4. United States v. Trump, Superseding Indictment, D.C. Circuit, August 2023, detailing the fake electors scheme across seven states
Corroborating Sources
1. Washington Post: "Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to 'find' votes in remarkable hourlong phone call," January 3, 2021
2. New York Times: "The 84 Fake Electors and What They Signed," August 2023
3. NPR: "Biden transition team blocked from federal agencies as Trump refuses to concede," November 2020
4. Politico: "Emily Murphy's 16-day delay and its consequences for the Biden transition," November 2020
5. History.com: "Only One Other President Has Skipped His Successor's Inauguration": https://www.history.com/news/presidents-who-skipped-inauguration
Counterarguments and Context
Trump and his allies argued that legal challenges to the election results were pending at the time of the GSA delay and that ascertainment was therefore premature. Emily Murphy stated in her November 23 letter that she had made the ascertainment determination independently and had faced personal threats during the period of delay. Trump has argued that his calls to state officials were within the normal scope of political communication and that he was attempting to ensure accurate vote counts, not to subvert legitimate results. He has continued to argue that widespread fraud altered the 2020 outcome, a claim rejected by 61 of 62 courts, by his own Attorney General, and by the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Skipping the inauguration, while unusual, is not illegal or constitutionally prohibited.
Author's Note
This entry documents conduct that violated longstanding democratic norms governing the peaceful transfer of power, which have been upheld without interruption since 1797. The fake electors scheme and the Raffensperger call are the subjects of criminal proceedings documented under CRIM-003 and CRIM-004. The January 6 Capitol attack, which occurred during this same period, is documented under INCITE-001 and INCITE-002. The sustained false claims underlying these events are documented under FALSE-001.