Joe Biden has described Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election as an “embarrassment”, pledging to continue the transition to his leadership despite repeated baseless allegations of fraud from the White House.
In sharp contrast, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, insisted yesterday that there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration”. He referenced various legal campaigns, which have so far found to have no merit, and reiterated claims of “illegal votes” being counted without providing any evidence. The state department is not communicating with the Biden team, and all government agencies have been told to proceed as if Trump had been re-elected.
A postal worker whose claims that ballots were tampered with became the basis of the White House’s call for investigation has reportedly recanted his story. Richard Hopkins had claimed that a supervisor at the US postal service (USPS) had instructed staff to alter ballots by backdating those that arrived late, but reportedly admitted he had fabricated his claims during a meeting with investigators for the USPS inspector general.
The news follows a memo sent to prosecutors from the attorney general, William Barr, yesterday, approving investigations into voter fraud despite a lack of evidence. The move was condemned by current and former department of justice officials, and led the official in charge of voter fraud investigations, Richard Pilger, to resign from his post.
