Pompeo refuses to acknowledge Biden has won election, sparking furor and ‘disgust’ among diplomats

Washington CNN — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory as President-elect, saying at the State Department Tuesday that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” igniting a furor and roiling diplomats. The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement Tuesday that Pompeo “shouldn’t play along with baseless and dangerous attacks on the legitimacy of last week’s election.” “In fact, all Administration officials should drop their false claims about electoral fraud and should release the funding and support necessary for a smooth transition that protects our national security,” Chairman Eliot Engel of New York said. “This is actually incredibly scary.” One State Department official said they had been watching the news conference until Pompeo “joked about the transition” and then they “flipped it off in disgust.” “For someone who created a code of ethos and a West Point graduate, he’s stooping to the lowest of the low,” they said, adding that Pompeo is “sinking his legacy, even with all the work and diplomacy of his term.” Diplomats are angry and confused about whether Pompeo was suggesting that they should be telling their counterparts that Trump will somehow get a second term, which they know is virtually impossible. Referring to the contested 2000 presidential election that was ultimately determined by a Supreme Court decision that handed victory to Republican President George W. Bush, Pompeo also said, “They understand that this takes time, right, took us 37 plus days in an election back in 2000, conducted successful transition then.” “I’m very confident that we will count, and we must count, every legal vote.