How Mike Pompeo Triggered The Media
So what did Secretary Pompeo mean when he spoke of a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration” on Tuesday morning at a press conference with journalists at the State Department?
Trump’s refusal to concede the Presidential election is, to be sure, an existential danger to our democracy. That cannot be underestimated. We live in an age of rising illiberalism. “In 2018, Nations in Transit registered the most score declines in the project’s 23-year history: 19 of the 29 countries had declines in their overall Democracy Scores,” writes Freedom House in their influential report Confronting Illiberalism.
Although Trump lost the 2020 election, Trumpism will be around for at least the immediate future. Trump commanded more than 70 million votes this year (more than Obama’s then-record breaking 69 million vote Presidential victory in 2008) and made inroads on behalf of his party among Latino and African-American males. He is a sitting President with all the advantages of his office during a global pandemic, wielding a bullhorn with immense range through the end of the year. Trump is capable of all manner of mischief — even political arson — before President-elect Biden’s inauguration come January.
So why would the Secretary of State, allegedly a non-partisan role, weigh in on our own messy transition process? And why was he so willfully ambiguous in doing so?
Lara Jakes of the New York Times writes:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday echoed President Trump’s baseless demand to delay the election results until “every legal vote” is counted, and he predicted in a deadpan voice, followed by a chuckle and a grin, that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
It was not clear if he was joking, and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for clarity.
A chuckle and a grin? A deadpan voice? What does Pompeo know that we don’t? What is he signalling? For who is he (if he is) performing? Or is this just a case of awkwardness when confronted in real time with a politically sensitive subject?
Pompeo is probably running for President in 2024. He has politicized what was once a non-partisan government position. In many ways he is even more shameless is campaigning for 2024 than he was in fishing for a Kansas Senate seat last year. “Mike Pompeo is obviously running for President in 2024 as the Trump candidate,” MSNBC Host and former Senior advisor to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan tweeted. “Every word he says is aimed at that campaign.”
The ’24 field is large. Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Tucker Carlson, Ben Sasse, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tim Cotton are among those mentioned as potential candidates. Even Donald Trump — who would be 78 in ’24 — is considering another run (however unlikely that scenario). So how does a charismatically-challenged Secretary of State with an evangelical Midwest base convince a party that doesn’t really give a damn about international diplomacy that he is worth a look?
By saying what he said on Tuesday, dear reader.
The result is that he triggered the media. Everyone from FoxNews.com (“Defiant Pompeo Predicts Smooth Transition To a 2nd Trump Administration”) to CNBC (“Pompeo Ignores Biden’s Victory, Claims There Will Be A ‘Smooth Transition to a Second Trump Term”) weighed in. As of the time I write this, the State Department has not come by to clean up the pieces.
And why should they?
If Secretary Pompeo’s intention was to trigger the media, kiss the ring of his political patron and enhance his brand standing in the ’24 race all at once then he accomplished his mission.