Secretary of State Mike Pompeo implied that President Trump won the 2020 presidential election, despite the accumulating vote tallies that underpin a growing consensus that Joe Biden is the president-elect.
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo told reporters Tuesday at the State Department.
That statement was offered in response to a question about whether the State Department is “currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team.”
Pompeo’s subsequent comments were somewhat open-ended, though he remained agnostic about the outcome of the lawsuits and the certification of the votes.
“The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is functional today, successful today, and successful with the president who’s in office on January 20th a minute after noon will also be successful,” Pompeo said.
Secretary of State @MikePompeo tells reporters “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” pic.twitter.com/buFHsC6ld2
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 10, 2020
Trump has insisted that he was the victim of widespread voter fraud in recent days, saying that the counting of the ballots after Election Day in many states is corrupt. Several Republican lawmakers have echoed those allegations, including two Georgia senators who still must face Democratic challengers in a January runoff in a state projected to produce one of Trump’s most stinging defeats.
Their complaints were dismissed by the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican official tasked with overseeing the state’s elections.
“Was there illegal voting? I am sure there was,” Raffensperger said. “And my office is investigating all of it. Does it rise to the numbers or margin necessary to change the outcome to where President Trump is given Georgia’s electoral votes? That is unlikely.”
Raffensperger suggested that the calls for his resignation issued by in-state Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler shouldn’t be taken seriously. “I know emotions are running high. Politics are involved in everything right now,” he said. “If I was Senator Perdue, I’d be irritated I was in a runoff. And both Senators and I are all unhappy with the potential outcome for our president.”
Pompeo, asked if such public misgivings about the electoral outcome “discredit” U.S. efforts to promote free and fair elections overseas, maintained that they do not.
“It took us 37 plus days in an election back in 2000, [we] conducted a successful transition then,” he said. “I am very confident that we will count, and we must count every legal vote . . .any vote that wasn’t lawful ought not be counted. That dilutes your vote, if it’s done improperly, right? When we get it right. We’ll get it right. We’re in good shape.”
