Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is brushing aside results of last week’s presidential election showing that President Donald Trump lost his bid for a second term. Pompeo told reporters with a grin on Tuesday that the “transition” to a second Trump term would be “smooth,” but later said the State Department would be prepared no matter who is president on Inauguration Day.
Tongue-in-cheek or not, Pompeo’s remarks implying that Trump might yet be reelected were striking, coming at a tense moment for the nation as Trump refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden. Pompeo, America’s top diplomat and fourth-in-line for the presidency, spoke even as world leaders have been congratulating the former vice president.
We check in on the latest with the national political scene.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guest:
Anna Edgerton, politics editor for Bloomberg; she tweets