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Mike Pompeo declining to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden prompts comparison to Putin-style dictatorship

The U.S. Secretary of State on Tuesday said, 'There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.' This statement has received a lot of flak

On Tuesday, November 10, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the world should have every confidence in a post-election transition, but for a second Donald Trump administration.

"There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration," Pompeo told a State Department news conference. “We're going to count all the votes ... The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is... successful today and successful when the president who's in the office on January 20, a minute after noon, will also be successful.” He described U.S. democracy as a “shining city on a hill" and said, “the world needs us to live up to our providential promise."

Pompeo’s words arrive even as world leaders, including from allies like Britain and France, already have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden. Trump also so far has refused to concede and made claims that election fraud was committed. Many have called his claims baseless. 

Asked if the United States can still issue statements calling for free elections around the world, Pompeo said, “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 statement comes just after Richard Pilger, who was director of the Election Crimes Branch of the Justice Department, stepped down from his post on Monday in protest over a memo from Attorney General William Barr to federal prosecutors authorizing them to investigate “specific allegations” of voter fraud before the results of the presidential race are certified. Barr on Monday issued a memo authorizing prosecutors “to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections.”

The leading Republican in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has also backed Trump, saying that he was “100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities,” without citing any evidence of said irregularities.

Pompeo’s statement has received strong backlash from people, many of whom are comparing the move to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian style. 
Guy Verhofstadt, a Member of the European Parliament from Belgium, remarked in the aftermath of this statement, “Confession: I always liked Secretary of State Pompeo @SecPompeo as a straight shooter. That vanished today, as he mocked the greatest democracy in the world, disingenuously preparing the ground for Putin-style authoritarianism!” A Twitter user noted, “Pompeo will do very well in the Putin administration after he flees to Russia to avoid an investigation here for an attempted coup.” 

Political commentator Chris Doyle said, “Trump and Pompeo would like to adopt the Putin-Assad vote-counting method.” Another Twitter user said, “This has Putin’s grubby hands all over it. The Kremlin Konnektion has never been so blatantly apparent like this. Pompeo needs to resign. This is unacceptable. The administration has shown such a lack of leadership & buffoonery that they simply cannot be in the WH.” Another Twitter user said, “Pompeo exudes the same uncaring, self-satisfied bully energy that Putin does. Be leery of this person. His ambitions aren’t fully known yet.”