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.
What’s more, on November 10, Trump met with Barack Obama and Mike Pence met with Joe Biden.
Obama and Trump met for 90 minutes in the Oval Office, where Obama said, as reported by the New York Times: “I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.”
On November 15, 2016, Trump received the highly classified President's Daily Brief, or PDB, which as CNN reported, was the same brief Obama received as president. According to Reuters, Trump received one presidential intelligence briefing a week and Pence was getting his own PDB “at least six days a week …”
Then, in Trump’s inaugural address in January 2017, he thanked the Obamas for carrying out the “orderly and peaceful transfer of power.” He continued, “and we are grateful to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.”
It’s worth noting that in September 2017, Clinton said she would not “rule out” questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election if Russian interference was “deeper” than she knew at the time. Clinton’s campaign also supported an election recount initiative in Wisconsin and other key states, backed by third party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
This, however, does not change the fact that Trump was indeed allowed an orderly transition of power, as Trump himself acknowledged.
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.
Official White House photograph.
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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.