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Murphy’s choice: Fed official has say on transition launch

FILE - In this June 21, 2019 file photo, General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy speaks during a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Department of Homeland Security's St. Elizabeths Campus Center Building in Washington. The head of the obscure federal government agency that is holding up Joe Biden's presidential transition knew well before Election Day she might have a messy situation on her hands well. Prior to Nov. 3, GSA administrator Emily Murphy held a Zoom call with Dave Barram, 77, a man who was in her shoes 20 years earlier during the contested 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Barram said he gave her some simple advice, "If you do the right thing, then all you have to do is live with the consequences of it.'"(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
FILE - In this June 21, 2019 file photo, General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy speaks during a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Department of Homeland Security's St. Elizabeths Campus Center Building in Washington. The head of the obscure federal government agency that is holding up Joe Biden's presidential transition knew well before Election Day she might have a messy situation on her hands well. Prior to Nov. 3, GSA administrator Emily Murphy held a Zoom call with Dave Barram, 77, a man who was in her shoes 20 years earlier during the contested 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Barram said he gave her some simple advice, "If you do the right thing, then all you have to do is live with the consequences of it.'"(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) FILE - In this June 21, 2019 file photo, General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy speaks during a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Department of Homeland Security's St. Elizabeths Campus Center Building in Washington. The head of the obscure federal government agency that is holding up Joe Biden's presidential transition knew well before Election Day she might have a messy situation on her hands well. Prior to Nov. 3, GSA administrator Emily Murphy held a Zoom call with Dave Barram, 77, a man who was in her shoes 20 years earlier during the contested 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Barram said he gave her some simple advice, "If you do the right thing, then all you have to do is live with the consequences of it.'"(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

By AAMER MADHANI / Associated Press 5 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – The head of an obscure federal agency that is holding up the presidential transition knew well before Election Day that she might soon have a messy situation on her hands.

Before Nov. 3, Emily Murphy, the head of the General Services Administration, held a Zoom call with Dave Barram, the man who was in her shoes 20 years earlier.

The conversation, set up by mutual friends, was a chance for Barram, 77, to tell Murphy a little about his torturous experience with “ascertainment” – the task of determining the expected winner of the presidential election, which launches the official transition process.

Barram led the GSA during the 2000 White House race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, which was decided by a few hundred votes in Florida after the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in more than a month after Election Day.

“I told her, ‘I’m looking at you and I can tell you want to do the right thing,'” recalled Barram, who declined to reveal any details of what Murphy told him. “I’ll tell you what my mother told me: ‘If you do the right thing, then all you have to do is live with the consequences of it.'”