US State Department officials and diplomats have been left shocked, confused and outraged after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a statement on the transition of the presidency after President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the presidential elections, reported CNN.
Pompeo on Tuesday stated that there will be a smooth transition to a "second Trump administration" when asked if the State Department will cooperate with the Biden transition.
"I am sick....How dare he undermine our work?" said a US diplomat overseas.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," CNN quoted the official, who added that Pompeo was sinking his legacy, even with all the work and diplomacy of his term.
"How can he be serious?....This is actually incredibly scary," said another diplomat.
According to CNN, 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.
Pompeo did not answer directly about whether he believed the allegations of widespread voter fraud.
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement 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 GSA should release the funding and support necessary for a smooth transition that protects our national security.... The State Department should now begin preparing for President-elect Biden's transition," Chairman Eliot Engel said.
After Biden was projected to be the winner of the US presidential elections, Trump refused to concede defeat, saying that the election was "far from over", and promised legal challenges by his campaign.
Trump's campaign has filed several lawsuits to challenge the results in a few battleground states after the president spent months spreading unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots could open the election up to fraud, reported The Hill.
( With inputs from ANI )
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