2 more GOP governors push Trump to start the formal presidential transition process with Biden

• GOP Govs. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas are both pushing the administration of President Donald Trump to begin the transition process with President-elect Joe Biden.
• Both men said that it was important for Biden to be up to speed with pertinent issues that would not compromise governmental functions.
• Trump has repeatedly refused to formally concede the presidential race to Biden.

President Donald Trump enjoys the support of most GOP leaders in challenging President-elect Joe Biden's victory, but two GOP governors on Sunday pushed the Trump administration to begin the presidential transition process.

Governors Mike DeWine of Ohio and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas both said that it was important for Biden to be up to speed with pertinent issues that would not compromise governmental functions.

"It's clear, that certainly based on what we know now, that Joe Biden is the president-elect and that transition for the country's sake, it's important for a normal transition to start through," DeWine said on CNN's "State of the Union. "The president could go on his other track, his legal track, we should respect that, but we also need to begin that process."

Despite DeWine's position, he also said that Trump had a right to let his election-related litigation play out in court.

"I'd say this to both sides of this, and I was certainly a supporter of and remain a supporter of the president, but the president has every right to go into court, every right to bring any kind of evidence that he has and no one should begrudge him that or say that there's anything irregular about that," he said.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Hutchinson said that the president-elect won the election.

"I expect Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States," he said. "It is very important that [he] has access to the intelligence briefings to make sure that he is prepared. During times of transition, our enemies have an opportunity to take advantage of us, and we want to make sure that there is a smooth transition, particularly when it comes to the vaccine distribution [so that] everybody understands what we're doing there and what the plan is for the future."

Hutchinson added: "It was good actually to see President Trump tweet out that 'he [Biden] won.' I think that's a start of an acknowledgment.

While most Republican governors have supported Trump's legal efforts or remained mum about the situation, Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire both said last week that Biden was the winner of the election.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that Biden "won" the election due to a "rigged process," another debunked claim, and then quickly followed up by writing that he was not conceding.

Since Biden was declared president-elect more than a week ago, Trump has refused to concede the election. Trump's campaign team has issued a litany of lawsuits in a range of swing states to back up debunked claims of voter fraud, most of which have been thrown out in court.

Last week, it was reported that the General Services Administration (GSA) would not sign off on commencing the presidential transition process with Biden's team, despite a few GOP senators including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and James Lankford of Oklahoma who requested that Biden begin receiving intelligence briefings.