Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday sounded off on President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election results as the Trump campaign is in legal battles in multiple states due to claims of voter fraud.
CNN “New Day” host Alisyn Camerota asked Clapper about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seemingly joking, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
Clapper said Pompeo was “belittling” the voting process. He also claimed that by not immediately accepting the media’s declaration of former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner, the Trump administration is in a “slow slide into autocracy.”
“[A]s far as Secretary Pompeo’s remarks, you know, to me, it struck me as it’s hard for him to say what he said and keep a straight face,” Clapper stated. “And it seemed to me, in one sense, he was kind of belittling the vote and the voting process and the people who stood in line for hours, regardless of their persuasion, at some risk to their health and perhaps their lives to vote. And it just gave me the feeling he was belittling it. And not to mention, of course, how bad this makes us look overseas. Here is the United States, the champion of democracy, and the current administration, the president and his enablers are perpetuating this fantasy that he won the election.”
“And of course, if I were an intelligence analyst in a foreign country looking at the United States,” says Clapper, “I would be writing up its slow slide into autocracy,” he added.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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