Mike Pompeo Says He Predicts a “Smooth Transition To Second Trump Administration”

In a press conference on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he expects to see a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

Pompeo is the most recent member of the Trump administration to publicly address the election, and stand by the President in his claims of election fraud.

“When the process is complete, there will be electors selected. There’s a process. The Constitution lays it out pretty clearly…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.

When asked whether he believed the allegations by Trump and others of voter fraud, Pompeo sidestepped the question and said that the voting process needs to be verified as legal.

“I’m very confident that we will count — and we must count — every legal vote. We must make sure that any vote that wasn’t lawful ought not be counted. That dilutes your vote if it’s done improperly. We got to get that right. And when we get it right, we’ll get it right.”

One reporter pointed out that regimes in foreign countries are typically criticized by US officials if they refuse to step down when they lose elections, but Pompeo insisted that the scenarios are not the same.

“That’s ridiculous, and you know it’s ridiculous. And you asked it because it’s ridiculous,” Pompeo replied in frustration.

“We want every one of those votes [overseas] to be counted in the same way that we have every expectation that every vote here in the United States will be counted, too. It is totally appropriate. The United States has an election system that is laid out deeply in our Constitution, and we’re going to make sure that we get that right,” he said.

Pompeo’s comments were quickly rebuked by members of the Democratic party, including Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer.

Meanwhile, Richard Pilger, Head of DOJ election crimes unit, has announced that he will be resigning in protest, after Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the United States to investigate claims of voter fraud at numerous polling places in different key battleground states. Pilger’s resignation came just hours after Barr sent out a memo announcing his plan to move forward with election investigations.

Democrats have insisted that there is currently no evidence to warrant an investigation, while the Trump campaign insists that an investigation is needed to uncover the evidence.

In a press conference on Monday night, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that “This election is not over, far from it.”

She went on to express that the president is not backing down on his claims of election fraud and will continue his legal challenges despite push back from the media and from key allies. Other members of the GOP have been at odds about Trump’s decision to contest the election, but members of his administration are standing by him.

It also appears that the Trump administration is planning on proceeding with policy as if they were heading into a second term. This week, The Washington Post reported that the White House told federal agencies to proceed with plans for Trump’s February budget.