Pompeo remarks on ‘second Trump administration’ in question about Biden transition

Yahoo News Video
Updated

During a press conference on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to a question about whether his department was communicating with President-elect Biden’s transition team by saying, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

Video Transcript

- Is the State Department currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team? And if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition, or pose a risk to national security?

MIKE POMPEO: There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. All right, we're ready. The world is watching what's taking place. We're going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there'll 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 that's functional today, successful today, and successful with the president who's in office on January 20th a minute after noon, will also be successful. I went through a transition on the front, and I've been on the other side of this. I'm very confident that we will do all the things that are necessary to make sure that the United States government continue to perform its national security function as we go forward.

- So you believe there's widespread voter fraud, that the reports that we're getting from Pennsylvania, from Michigan, showing vote totals in massive leads-- or significant leads-- with 99% reporting are going to be overturned, and the United States failed to conduct a fraudulent-free election?

MIKE POMPEO: Rich, I'm the Secretary of State. I'm getting calls from all across the world. These people are watching our election. They understand that we have a legal process. They understand that this takes time, right?

It took us 37-plus days in an election back in 2000. We conducted a successful transition then. I am very confident that we will count-- and we must count-- every legal vote. We must make sure that any vote that wasn't lawful not be counted. That dilutes your vote if it's done improperly. We've got to get that right, and when we get it right, we'll get it right. We're in good shape.