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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has predicted that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” on a day when US allies congratulated President-elect Joe Biden.
Pompeo made his comments to reporters at the state department on Tuesday and smiled slightly after referring to a “second Trump administration,” without making it clear if he was joking.
He did not address the fact that Biden has been projected as the winner, and so far had a 4.7 million nationwide lead in the vote count, while leading all four critical states on the battlefield.
Instead, Pompeo focused on the various legal challenges pursued by the Trump administration, none of which so far have been found to have any merit.
“We are ready,” Pompeo continued. “The world is watching what is happening. We will count all the votes. When the process is complete, there will be selected voters. There is a process: the constitution establishes it quite clearly. The world must have full confidence that the transition needed to make sure the state department is functional today, successful today, and successful with a president taking office on January 20, one minute after noon, will also be successful. “
The state department is not currently communicating with Biden’s team and all government agencies have been told to proceed with their budgets as if Trump had been re-elected, much to the outrage of Democrats.
“Secretary Pompeo shouldn’t play along with unfounded and dangerous attacks on the legitimacy of last week’s election,” said Eliot Engel, Democratic chairman of the House foreign affairs committee. “The state department should now begin preparing for President-elect Biden’s transition.”
Pompeo said he was receiving “calls from all over the world” but did not say from whom. The leaders of America’s top allies, including Canada, Britain, France, Ireland and Germany, congratulated Biden in phone calls Monday and Tuesday.
“They understand that we have a legal process. They understand that this takes time, ”said the Secretary of State, comparing the current situation with the 2000 elections. In 2000, George W Bush was leading by 537 votes in Florida, when the Supreme Court intervened to stop the vote counting. Biden is ahead by tens of thousands of votes in four states.
Echoing Trump’s line, which has become the party line for Republicans, Pompeo said: “We must count every legal vote, we want to make sure that any vote that is not legal is not counted,” that dilutes his vote. , if done. correctly. I have to get it right. When we get it right, we get it right. We are in good shape. “
When asked by a reporter whether Trump’s refusal to concede discredits America’s promotion of democratic norms abroad, Pompeo responded irritably, “That’s ridiculous and you know it’s ridiculous, and you asked because it’s ridiculous.”
He added: “We want the law to be enforced in a way that reflects the reality of what happened, and that is what I believe we are committed to here in the United States and that is what we work on in all parts of the world. . “
