On a press call with reporters, Biden-Harris transition officials indicated that no new personnel announcements will be made over the weekend as Biden will be spending time with his family.
He is currently in Rehoboth Beach and is expected to stay there until Saturday evening.
Transition officials Jen Psaki and Yohannes Abraham led the call.
They discussed Trump’s firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other concerns regarding the ascertainment process.
About ascertainment: All eyes are on Trump-appointed General Services Administration administrator Emily W. Murphy to recognize Biden as the president-elect and release funds to the Biden transition team through a process called ascertainment. You can read more on the process here.
Biden officials noted that they are not interested in a "food fight" with the administrator, but still have not taken any options, including legal action, off the table.
"We're not interested in having a food fight with the GSA administrator or anyone," said Psaki. "We just want to get access to intelligence information, to threat assessments, to the ongoing work on Covid, so that we can prepare to govern."
Psaki called President Trump’s firing of Esper and other changes around the Pentagon a "concern," adding there shouldn’t be politicization of the military. She stressed again that until there’s ascertainment, there won’t be official engagement between personnel – members of the agency review teams – and national security agencies with current officials.
"Of course it's of concern to see the upheaval, it should be of concern to anybody because there shouldn't be a politicization of the military," she said.
The transition pointed to the regular legal contact that they’ve had with nonpartisan transition experts. They argued that each day that goes on without ascertainment is detrimental to national security because Biden is not receiving "real-time" updates.
"We've been in regular contact with federal career officials who are tasked with administering transitions who are nonpartisan career experts on transitions, including GSA," said Abraham. "There have been regular meetings of something called the Agency Transition Directors Council, which many of you are familiar with, that is comprised of representatives from the various federal agencies who are tasked with the nuts and bolts of executing on a transition.”
They announced they will be launching a feature in the upcoming days on the transition website BuildBackBetter.com, that will encourage Americans to apply for roles in the Biden-Harris administration. As Biden made clear throughout his campaign, he hopes to build an administration that "looks like America," and they expressed they will be looking for "diverse experienced talent from across the country."