Pompeo Attacks Integrity Of Election, Calls For ‘Second Trump Administration’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens to President Trump during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, July 18, 2018 in Washington, DC. Photo by Olivier Douliery/ Abaca Press
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House on July 18, 2018. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday advanced an effort to undermine democracy and the will of the people in the United States, by rebuffing the legitimate win of President-elect Joe Biden and suggested that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

The comments at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, come after Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday issued a Trump-friendly memo that will allow for investigations into unfounded allegations of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race, a move that follows a days-long refusal by President Trump to concede in an election that he lost when media outlets on Saturday announced President-elect Joe Biden as the projected winner.

Pompeo brusquely dismissed a reporter question about whether President Trump’s refusal to concede election loss undermines efforts by the United States to promote free and fair elections around the world. 

“That’s ridiculous, and you know it’s ridiculous, and you asked it because it’s ridiculous,” Pompeo said in an apparent effort to make a mockery of those who imply Trump is wrong to cast doubt over the outcome of an election that had a clear winner and no evidence of the kind of voter fraud that he has played up for months.

“You asked a question that is ridiculous,” Pompeo said again. “This department cares deeply to make sure that elections around the world are safe and secure and free and fair and my officers risk their lives to ensure that that happens.”

Pompeo’s move to call Trump’s efforts to delegitimize U.S. election results “totally appropriate” is ironic after the State Department just last week issued a statement condemning similar efforts in Côte d’Ivoire. The U.S. Embassy in the West African nation called on local leaders to “create a climate of confidence capable of guaranteeing peace and stability” as doubts crept up locally about the legitimacy of results in the country’s own presidential election.

“The United State calls on Côte d’Ivoire’s leaders to show commitment to the democratic process and the rule of law,” the U.S. embassy’s statement said.

Read the full statement below:

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Notable Replies

  1. ‘There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.’

    With any justice, that’s the end of Pompeo’s political prospects.

    He won’t go away, of course.

  2. Now it’s getting serious folks. This fatuous Goering needs to be slapped down — hard!

  3. “When we get it right, Trump will be reelected…and if that’s not the case we will continue counting the votes until we get it right.” That’s basically the argument Pompeo is making here, that the only legal result is that Trump won, and “the world is watching” is a threat to make sure that happens.

    The world is watching though…aghast to see the US drifting towards a dictatorship the past four years, and wondering if the coup will really be pulled off. Any legal process at this point results in a Biden presidency, there just is no evidence of anything that could lead to the contrary. Republicans are damaging our democracy and our standing in the world with their antics…they, of course, don’t care about that, they only care about holding power at any cost, even if the cost is the end of the United States of America.

  4. It will be known as the White People’s Democratic Republic of Trumplandia (formerly known as the USA)

  5. I know, quiet part out loud. But really, how quiet is a coup d’état?

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