Madeleine Albright on Pres. Trump’s Refusal to Concede

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think that we need to be continued to be patient. But what I’m really troubled by is that the people around Trump are not really giving him a reality check of what is going on, and instead coddling him in terms of his misguided approach and thoughts about what really happened. And so, I think that I have been counseling patients and reality checks, and I wish I am such a believer and bipartisanship, Christiane, you know that.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Yes.

ALBRIGHT: And I think that it would be helpful if more Republicans actually made clear that this is a process that has worked, and that we need to be patient and saying things that undermine the process in the way that the current Secretary of State has given his statement. It makes it more complicated in so many ways.

AMANPOUR: You know, it’s really strange, because this very Secretary of State, or at least the Department issued a statement, literally the day that President Trump was saying, stop the count. Two, West Africa to the Ivory Coast saying respect the results of your legitimate election. I mean, it really is a disconnect. And again, I just wonder, what should Democrats be doing right now? There’s a lot of talk about, you know, they hold the votes, they seem to have won. They he’s been named president-elect. What should Democrats be doing to, I don’t know, to be out front and center?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I have to say that, I think actually, that has is what’s happening, because President-elect Biden has been talking about the plan of how he’s going to deal with the number one problem, which is the pandemic, and in naming a group of people scientists, to help really changed the understanding of what the virus is about, and the misinformation that has been put out by the Trump administration. And so, they are working. People are dedicated to making the transition work. As you pointed out, the group of people, especially President-elect Biden has been through transitions. There is a process, and I think that they, the Democrats, are doing what is necessary, is to keep moving and have that kind of patience, and the capability of understanding that this was a very important election. That the number of votes cast were really historic. And that it, we — I think most people understood that we wouldn’t have a result immediately. And so, patience and work already, and that’s what the Biden people are doing, from Joe Biden on down.