Trump, Pompeo and ‘The Death of Stalin’
Trump, Pompeo and ‘The Death of Stalin’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among other sycophantish Trump aides, refuses to acknowledge that Biden has defeated Trump.
The Trump administration’s psychological resistance to the transition to the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris administration took on an increasingly absurdist, “Death of Stalin”-esque quality as Secretary of State and 2024 GOP presidential hopeful Mike Pompeo heralded “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” at a State Department press briefing on Tuesday. The White House, meantime, continued a purge at the Pentagon, starting with Trump’s firing of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday, and the swapping-in on Tuesday of controversial Trump loyalists as the acting policy chief, chief of staff and top intelligence official, none of them confirmed or confirmable for their posts.
Western capitals provided readouts of western leaders’ (Canada’s Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel) congratulatory phone calls with Biden and Harris, while some of the last foreign hold-outs, among them Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, acknowledged Biden’s win and offered congratulations. Foreign leader calls that would normally be coordinated with the State Department were not, because the Trump administration General Services Administration (GSA) head Emily Murphy has so far refused to ascertain that Biden and Harris are the ‘successful candidates’ in the 2020 presidential election.
“Administrator Murphy’s refusal to ascertain President-elect Biden’s victory in the 2020 election puts American lives at risk,” Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat who served in the Obama administration, said in a statement.
“The transition team is being denied access to intelligence and secure facilities it needs to map out defense strategies after the President-elect is sworn in as Commander in Chief,” Beyer continued. “Donald Trump’s firing of national security officials adds to this leadership vacuum, and our adversaries are watching.”
The former Republican chair of the House Intelligence committee, and former Trump transition team member, Mike Rogers, also said Biden should be getting the intelligence briefings traditionally offered to the president-elect, for the sake of US national security.
“Our adversaries aren't waiting for the transition to take place,” Rogers, a former Michigan Republican congressman and FBI agent, tweeted
“JoeBiden should receive the President's Daily Brief (PDB) starting today. He needs to know what the latest threats are & begin to plan accordingly. This isn't about politics; this is about national security.”
Biden himself, characteristically, sought to lower tensions at the Trump administration shenanigans.
Asked by a reporter Tuesday, “What do you say to the Americans that are anxious over the fact that President Trump has yet to concede,” President-Elect Biden urged calm.
"I just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly...it will not help the president's legacy,” Biden said
How do you expect to work with Republicans if they won’t even acknowledge you as the president-elect, another reporter asked.
“They will,” Biden responded.
Though only four Republican Senators—Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)—have yet publicly acknowledged Biden/Harris’s victory, Reuters reported on Tuesday that some senior Senate Republican aides are privately signalling they expect the charade to subside in the next week or so.
“At some point this has to give,” Reuters cited a Senate Republican aide. “And I give it a week or two.”
Back at the State Department, Mike Pompeo dismissed repeated questions about a transition to the Biden administration with increasing near-hysteria.
“Is the State Department currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team?” Fox News’ Rich Edson asked. “And if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to national security?”
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo—absurdly? seriously? no one was quite sure—responded. “Right. We’re ready.”
“The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is functional today, successful today, and successful with the president who’s in office on January 20th, a minute after noon, will also be successful,” he continued.
Pompeo, subsequently asked by Reuters’ Humeyra Pamuk what guidance he is giving American diplomats to offer foreign capitals about the results of the US elections, and how can the State Department weigh in on elections tumult across the globe when Pres. Trump has refused to concede, erupted.
“That’s ridiculous and you know it’s ridiculous, and you asked it because it’s ridiculous,” Pompeo responded. “You asked a question that is ridiculous.”
Trump later attaboyed Pompeo’s sycophancy.
“That’s why Mike was number one in his class at West Point!” Trump tweeted approvingly above a video of Pompeo heralding a smooth transition to Trump’s second term.
Pompeo’s former West Point classmate, ousted Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, warned in an embargoed, Nov. 4 interview anticipating his imminent dismissal, that the team of sycophants Trumpworld was preparing to install at DoD would likely put up even less resistance to his demands. Among the team that came in with Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller this week was former Devin Nunes aide and Trump NSC official Kash Patel. Also elevated Tuesday after the ouster of the acting under secretary of defense for policy, conspiracy theorist Anthony Tata, whose nomination for the same job collapsed this past summer.
“At the end of the day,...you’ve got to pick your fights,” Esper told Military Times. “Who’s going to come in behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes man.’ And then God help us.”
“In the last 24 hours, the Secretary of Defense (SecDef), the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD-P), and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intell (OUSD-I) have been sacked,” former NSC and Pentagon official Alexander Vindman wrote on Twitter. “Trump loyalist now sit in the 1, 3, and 4 slots at DOD. Kash Patel is DOD Chief of Staff. Why?”
Photo credit: still from the Death of Stalin, Nicola Dove, IFC.