Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Thursday that the State Department would “honor” the Trump administration’s “promise” to begin the President-elect Joe Biden’s formal transition — a statement that starkly contrasts his suggestion earlier this month that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
When asked during an interview on Fox News Thursday about his incendiary statement earlier this month that added to the Trumpworld’s efforts to delegitimize the election process and Biden’s legitimate win, Pompeo pointed to General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy’s move earlier this week to finally green light Biden’s formal transition process.
“Those things that are required that the President has directed us to do in compliance with the decision that the GSA made, we’ll do all of those things,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo then added that aiding the President-elect’s formal transition is a “legal requirement, and we’ll always honor that promise.”
Pompeo’s latest interview on Fox News comes on the heels of the Trump campaign losing dozens of rulings in several states as the sitting president’s legal team has failed to provide any evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Murphy’s letter to Biden came weeks after the President-elect’s projected victory and Trump’s refusal to concede. The lack of Murphy’s ascertainment acknowledging that Biden is President-elect had restricted the President-elect’s transition team from contacting current administration agency officials and receiving millions in government funding that an incoming administration is entitled to.
Watch Pompeo’s remarks below:
