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I keep seeing this image on the internet, of President-elect Biden standing at a lectern that looks a bit like the president's.

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I saw this picture of President-elect Biden in the USA Today, and the caption said: President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 9, 2020. I do notice that he has a second American flag to fill the space of the absent flag of the presidency, and a gold seal in lieu of the presidential seal.

It strikes me as a new development that before taking office he should have constructed an office in the theaters that he visits, from which to address the press. When we say "the Office of the President” I suppose that we mean not a room containing office furniture but rather the role of the president, the collection of powers and responsibilities of the president as defined in the Constitution, by comparison to which there isn't really an "Office of the President-elect."

Has any previous politician done this?

JJJ
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Chaim
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    Related question: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/14411/what-is-this-symbol-doing-on-donald-trumps-podium – Golden Cuy Jan 01 '21 at 12:21
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    Voted to close because of partisan language in the question text. – Nobody Jan 01 '21 at 17:19
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    A political office is a collection of people, not a collection of powers. An office (prople) is all the people that work in an office (place). The president elect's office is presumably the same collection of people that will form their office after inauguration. – Vaelus Jan 02 '21 at 14:58
  • @JJJ I appreciate the relatively light, but somehow crucial, changes. But I notice that you've changed "Mr. Biden" to "President-Elect Biden," while nobody changed the several "Trump"'s to "Mr.", let alone "President." I wonder why. – Chaim Jan 03 '21 at 04:15
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    @Chaim I merely removed some unnecessary capitalization in the suggested edit (the one before mine). While president-elect is the official title, I don't think Mr. is out of place (e.g. to avoid having the official title in the question title twice). – JJJ Jan 03 '21 at 04:20
  • @JJJ So who changed the title, Darren? – Chaim Jan 03 '21 at 04:23
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    @Chaim that's right, you can see all the edits here. – JJJ Jan 03 '21 at 04:25
  • @JJJ Yeah, I saw that but could not understand it. It said that post was re-opened by Andrew Grimm; Tweeted 22 hours ago; and changes approved by Darren. It sounded to me like someone between Andrew and Darren made changes which somehow required Darren's approval. – Chaim Jan 03 '21 at 04:28
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    No, Darren suggested the edit. I approved it with the subsequent change of reverting some of the unneeded capitalization. As for the title change, I don't think it was necessary, but it's not a harmful change. If you (as the post owner) prefer the old title then it's fine if you edit it back to the old title, though some seem to oppose the use of mister when a specific honorific is available. – JJJ Jan 03 '21 at 04:35
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    @Chaim I also edited the question to remove the more questionable language, which has been done by others but you rolled back. The reason I was less bothered about adding President Trump’s official title in the answers is because no one is disputing he is (currently) the President. I think it is important that we don’t do anything to propagate the ridiculous notion that Biden lost the election and that he is not legitimately the soon-to-be president. Your actions and wording suggest to me that your intentions may be the opposite. – Darren Jan 03 '21 at 09:20
  • @Darren I don't mean to rock the boat at this point. But the only changes that I now notice, between my original wording and the wording you permit, are the omissions of the words "weird" and "make-believe." Ted had removed much more, and with a level of charm apparently typical of him. I don't know what you mean when you say that my intentions are "the opposite." I was only commenting on the weirdness of Mr. Biden's behavior. I see the improbability of candor from the dutiful people here, but I would love to know if anyone really doubts that his behavior is weird and a kind of make-believe. – Chaim Jan 04 '21 at 23:26

4 Answers4

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According to Wikipedia:

Office of the President-Elect logos first began to be used by the Obama transition team in 2008

And Trump apparently also used one (same source):

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N.B. while that logo lacks the words "office of", there's a photo of Trump in front of a larger thingy that has the words too:

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And (to answer a comment), the same source has a similar photo for Obama

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the gods from engineering
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As others have pointed out, the last two presidents — Obama and Trump — used signage for the Office of the President-Elect, so that is not Biden's invention. More to the point, however, the President-Elect has held a de facto government office for a long time: certainly since the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and informally for decades before that through the allocation of office-space, funding, and other transition essentials. The President-Elect literally has a government office to work out of; on that ground alone the signage is accurate and appropriate.

We can put the creation and use of this signage down to the attacks on the legitimacy of the electoral process that began with Obama's first term and have escalated to the current quagmire we find ourselves in. I imagine Obama began using the signage to offset the persistent attacks on his legitimacy as president: e.g., birtherism, Tea Party slogans, etc. Trump followed suit to offset left-wing assertions that he was dispositionally and cognitively unsuited to the office, and now Biden needs to reaffirm the fact that he is in fact President-Elect in the face of stubborn refusals to acknowledge his victory. It's a sign of our deteriorating institutions that Presidents-Elect now need to constantly remind people of their status as the incoming administration

Jared Smith
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Ted Wrigley
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    The second paragraph is (like many other answers on current-event questions here) completely unsourced, and most likely reflects nothing but the opinion of the poster. – Chris Loonam Jan 01 '21 at 14:01
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    @ChrisLoonam: I'm sure that if I struck two rocks together to make a fire, you'd say the fire was just my 'opinion' because the rocks have nothing to do with each other. But facts have consequences, whether or not one believes in them. – Ted Wrigley Jan 01 '21 at 16:11
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    quite a difference between two rocks making fire, and you drawing large conclusions about motivations of politicians and their teams based on no evidence. Maybe Obama/Trump/Biden just liked the way the “Office of the President-elect” stuff looked, and it had absolutely nothing to do with legitimacy. What’s great about that explanation is it has as much supporting evidence as yours right now, which is to say none. – Chris Loonam Jan 01 '21 at 16:14
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    As I remember it, there wasn't that much of "persistent attacks on his legitimacy as president" during Obama's transition period. Most of that seems to have come at a later time in his presidency, but at that time he had no use of an "Office of the President-Elect". The Tea Party movement only started in early 2009 when Obama was already inaugurated, and I think it was with that movement that the attacks on his legitimacy really became mainstream within the GOP. At the start of his term, Obama also had very high approval ratings, indicating he was generally seen as legitimate. – jkej Jan 01 '21 at 16:29
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    @jkej: you remember incorrectly. Birtherism has roots all the way back to 2004, and was leveled against Obama heavily even in the 2008 primaries, increasing through the general election. And the official Tea Party organization grew out of the grass-roots Tea Party Movement that coalesced around Sarah Palin during the 2008 election cycle. GO back and read news articles from the period. – Ted Wrigley Jan 01 '21 at 16:46
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    @Chaim unfortunately this is a topic that’s probably sparsely covered in media, which makes a valid attribution difficult to find. As such, in my opinion at least, I think it’s best to avoid speculation on such things in answers, since they’re difficult/impossible to prove either way. – Chris Loonam Jan 01 '21 at 17:11
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    @TedWrigley Well, I didn't say there wasn't anything like that before he became president. I just mean that it didn't seem to be very effective at creating a mass movement against him at that time. And since McCain specifically chose to not use that line of attack during the general election campaign, I think that narrative was generally seen as peripheral during the time of the transition. – jkej Jan 01 '21 at 17:21
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    @jkej: But you're aware that those racist, nationalist undertones were there from early in his candidacy (and before, as a senator). It seems natural to me that someone subject to those pressures would take steps (consciously or unconsciously) to reassert his legitimacy. The alternate argument is that Obama was completely oblivious to the efforts to undercut his legitimacy, and decided (independently, as a matter of self-conceit) to promote his status as PE. Should we prefer to believe the latter? – Ted Wrigley Jan 01 '21 at 17:55
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    @jkej: You may not realize it, but the process here is tantamount to a bully taunting some kid by calling him stupid over and over and over; then when the kid turns and says "I am not stupid" the bully taunts him again for being egotistical. I'm not fond of bully tactics or the people who use them. – Ted Wrigley Jan 01 '21 at 18:00
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    Do you intend to explain how these tasteless and amateur theatrics reduce the appearance of illegitimacy rather than enhance it? – hobbs Jan 02 '21 at 02:46
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    @hobbs: Repetition and reinforcement are fairly standard ways of legitimizing ideas, no matter how tasteless or amateurish the act may be. 'Tasteless' and 'amateurish' applies more to Trump's use of the technique (e.g., mindless chantings of 'China virus', 'election fraud', 'sleepy Joe',etc., all of which are efforts to legitimize dumb insults and outright lies). The OPE signage might be presumptuous, but it has basis in fact, and is comparatively understated. – Ted Wrigley Jan 02 '21 at 03:20
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No, Biden is not the first to do it.

While the Office of the President-elect is not a real governmental office, the role of the President-elect is stated in the Presidential Transition Act of 1963.

Recent presidential transitions have all set up offices named the "Office of the President-elect".

Presidential transition of Barack Obama (2008)

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from change.gov, retrieved from the Wayback Machine

Planned presidential transition of Mitt Romney (2012, did not take place)

While Mitt Romney ultimately did not win the election, his transition website was accidentally made public.

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from CBS News

Presidential transition of Donald Trump (2016)

While Donald Trump's transition did not use the term "Office of the President-elect" in their website logo, mentions of the office can be found on his transition website.

This is the website for the Office of the President Elect and of the Vice President Elect. This site provides public information about the Presidential transition and offers opportunities to participate in this important public endeavor. Please check back often for updates on news, events, and programs related to the incoming Trump Administration.

(emphasis mine)

from greatagain.gov, retrieved from the Wayback Machine

Panda
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    Just to add some (older) references for "office of the president-elect", it seems that Reagan's administration used the term: https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/nominations-cabinet-members https://media.defense.gov/2016/Mar/11/2001479132/-1/-1/0/AFD-160311-418-007.PDF https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg76342/html/CHRG-107shrg76342.htm as well as Nixon https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/1996-01-01.pdf and also Bush (I think this is who it is) https://www2.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/All%20Advisories/8125151B50ED2EE585257E96005FBD95/$FILE/DO-00-048.pdf?open – IllustriousMagenta Jan 02 '21 at 10:13
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Just to add a few more historical examples. George W. Bush used a similar setup (titled "Bush Cheney Transition"):

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MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, USA: Vice President-elect Dick Cheney speaks to the media after receiving the card key to the official Transition office from Thurmand Davis, (right) Deputy Adminsitrator of the General Services Adminsitration, at the temporary Bush-Cheney Transition office in McLean, Virginia on December 14, 2000. The GSA also released funding federal funding for the transition effort.

Clinton likewise had a "Clinton/Gore transition team", although they didn't seem to have a special logo (the one in the video is from the inaugural ball):

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Communications Director for the Clinton/Gore transition team, George Stephanopoulos, briefed reporters on issues remaining in the Clinton presidential transition in the final briefing before the next day’s inauguration. He discussed the president-elect’s preinaugural schedule and the Clinton administration’s stance on Iraq.

Bush Senior had a team called "Bush Transition team" that didn't seem to have its own logo:

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Craig Fuller, Co-Director of the Bush Transition Office, discussed the transition process following the Presidential election.

I can't seem to find any videos from the Reagan transition, but a news search reveals "office of the President Elect" was already used back then:

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I can't seem to find anything for Carter, Ford and older Presidents, but feel free to edit this answer if you do.

JonathanReez
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