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The State Department had not provided diplomats with guidance on how to discuss the election results as of Monday night, five US diplomats told CNN.
Two US diplomats said they waited to hear Pompeo speak in the hope that he would give them an idea of how to discuss the election results. But Pompeo’s comments instead sparked outrage and confusion from US diplomats who argue that they further undermine America’s credibility.
“I am sick,” said an American diplomat abroad. “How dare you undermine our work?”
“How can you be serious?” said another American diplomat. “This is really incredibly scary.”
Traditionally, the secretary of state congratulates the president-elect and sends notes to the entire department committing him to a constructive transfer of power.
Without the guidance of the department, American diplomats do not know the proper way to describe Biden’s victory and Trump’s fraud allegations, which are not based on any evidence.
“It’s a totally strange place where we are now. We don’t know if we can call Joe Biden the president-elect,” said a third US diplomat abroad before Pompeo’s press conference. “We also cannot answer the questions of any foreign journalists or foreign counterparts in a way that assumes there is a transition.”
Some diplomats have used private conversations with foreign counterparts to signal that the system is working: Americans voted and Trump’s legal tactic must go through the judicial process. Others are haunted by the stain this leaves on American democracy and how it could affect their work in the future.
Trump’s rejection of the results and his efforts to question the process are precisely what American diplomats have warned their counterparts in foreign countries not to do.
“It puts the positions in a terrible position: everyone recognizes that there are no substantial legal challenges, and the president’s refusal to budge, and the Republicans’ unwillingness to confront him, has to do with his political future and that of them, “said the former race. American diplomat Lewis Lukens. “The legitimacy of the US elections is not seriously in question. So all these diplomats around the world are forced to ‘pretend’ that we are going through normal electoral processes when, in fact, we are not.”
Another American diplomat said that “it is Trump’s behavior that endangers democracies.”
“This is what we have spent a tremendous amount of time lecturing other countries against doing: undermining a legitimate democratic process. I wonder why they would take us seriously now,” this person said.
If Trump’s refusal to compromise “goes on for weeks, it becomes increasingly difficult to explain / defend,” said another US diplomat.
Yet on Tuesday, Pompeo scoffed at a question about whether Trump’s refusal to concede undermines US efforts to ensure free and fair elections abroad, repeatedly calling it “ridiculous.”
“We often come across situations where it is unclear about a particular choice. We work to discover facts, we work to make discoveries, to find out whether, in fact, the outcome, the decision that was made, reflected the will of people”. Pompeo said. “We want each of those votes to be counted in the same way that we have every expectation that all votes here in the United States will also be counted. It is totally appropriate. The United States has an electoral system that is deeply in our Constitution and we’ll make sure we get it right. “
This story has been updated with additional developments on Tuesday.
