Over 100 Republican national-security experts implore Trump to concede the presidential election to Biden and start the transition process

• Over 100 Republican national-security experts on Monday called on GOP congressional leaders to push President Donald Trump to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, The Washington Post reported.
• In a signed letter, the experts urged GOP officeholders and Trump to prioritize the country's national-security interests above politics.
• "President Trump's refusal to permit the presidential transition also poses significant risks to our national security, at a time when the US confronts a global pandemic and faces serious threats from global adversaries, terrorist groups, and other forces," the letter said.
• Trump is continuing to block the General Services Administration from signing off on declaring Biden the president-elect.

More than 100 top Republican national-security experts on Monday called on GOP congressional leaders to push President Donald Trump to concede the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden and begin the formal transition process with the new administration, The Washington Post reported.

In a signed letter, Republican luminaries including William Webster, the director of the FBI and the CIA during the Reagan administration, and Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and first secretary of homeland security, urged GOP leaders and Trump to put the country's national-security interests first.

Other high-profile signatories include Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence, and Chuck Hagel, a former US senator and secretary of defense.

"President Trump's refusal to permit the presidential transition also poses significant risks to our national security, at a time when the US confronts a global pandemic and faces serious threats from global adversaries, terrorist groups, and other forces," the letter read.

"The delay in allowing transition teams to meet and confer with officials on the Coronavirus Task Force and at the National Security Council, the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, and the other departments and agencies critical to US national security means that the incoming Biden Administration will be less prepared to defend America's security when it assumes power."

The letter asked elected GOP lawmakers "to publicly demand that President Trump cease his anti-democratic assault on the integrity of the presidential election."

"Although some Republican leaders have supported President Trump's right to challenge aspects of the voting in various states, for the good of the country, they should now strongly oppose his dangerous and extra-legal efforts to intimidate state election officials and distort the Electoral College process," the letter said.

Trump has refused to begin the transition process with Biden's team, blocking the General Services Administration from signing off on declaring Biden the president-elect. This is a necessary step for government coordination and one that would open up millions of dollars for the transition.

Biden received 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 votes. But Trump has filed a litany of lawsuits alleging widespread voter fraud and irregularities, despite not providing any concrete evidence of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Biden has forged ahead on his national-security appointments, naming Antony Blinken as his pick for secretary of state and Jake Sullivan as his choice for national-security advisor. On Monday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Obama administration, was also named as Biden's choice for the US's ambassador to the United Nations.