US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “there will be a smooth transition to our second Trump administration” despite plans being in place for president-elect Joe Biden to be formally confirmed by the Electoral College as the election winner on December 14. Mr Pompeo said the Trump administration was “ready” and that “the world is watching what’s taking place”.
He went on to assert that all votes would be counted.
The Secretary of State added: “When the process is complete, there’ll be electors selected. There’s a process. The Constitution lays it out pretty clearly.
“The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is functional today … and successful with a president who’s in office on January 20, a minute after noon, will also be successful.”
Mr Pompeo also labelled as “ridiculous” a question as to whether he had given diplomats advice regarding referring to Mr Biden as “president-elect”.
He said the State Department cared to ensure that elections everywhere are “safe and secure and free and fair, and my officers risk their lives to ensure that that happens”.
He added: “They work diligently on that. We often encounter situations where it’s not clear about a particular election.
“We work to uncover facts, we work to do discovery, to learn whether in fact the outcome, the decision that was made reflected the will of the people. That’s our responsibility.
“The United States has an election system that is laid out deeply in our Constitution, and we’re going to make sure that we get that right. You want every vote to be counted. You want to run the process.
“We want the lot to be imposed in a way that reflects the reality of what took place, and that’s what I think we’re engaged in here in the United States and that’s what we work on every place all across the world.”
Mr Biden criticised Mr Trump’s refusal to accept his victory in the election, adding that his failure to concede “does not change the dynamic” of the transfer of power.
He branded Mr Trump’s stance “an embarrassment” that will “not help the president’s legacy”.
Mr Biden said: “We’re going to be going moving along in a consistent manner, putting together our administration, White House, and reviewing who we’re going to pick for cabinet positions. And nothing’s going to stop that.
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“And so I’m confident that the fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we’re able to do between now and January 20th.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris argued on Tuesday that the result of the vote reflected that most Americans did not want the Affordable Care Act to be scrapped.
She said: “Now, I know we all know that we just had an election in America.
“An election where healthcare was very much on the ballot.