Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
Trump's NSA Adviser Robert O'Brien Says It Looks Like Biden Has Won
Posted
November 16, 2020
Views
75,976
Likes
642
Comments
994
Engagement
November 16, 2020
75,976
642
994
2.15%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Episode Timeline
Every episode in order around the one you’re watching — click any card and the page flips straight to it.
1:25Now PlayingPresident Donald Trump's national security adviser promised a "very professional transition" to the administration of President-elect Joe Biden in an interview broadcast Monday, even as Trump continued to falsely claim he won the November election.
Speaking to the Global Security Forum hosted in part by Qatar, Robert O'Brien several times mentioned the transition and referred to recent peace deals that Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates struck with Israel as "a great legacy for the president to have as he leaves office".
While caveating that Trump did have outstanding court challenges, O'Brien's comments signaled some of the firmest statements yet from a senior administration official acknowledging Biden's win in the November 3 vote.
"If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner, obviously things look that way now, we'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council. There's no question about it," O'Brien said.
He added: "This is the United States of America. We've passed the baton and had peaceful, successful transitions even in the most-contentious periods."
Since losing, Trump has made unsubstantiated claims about the election on Twitter.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the vote.
Officials from both the Democratic and Republican parties have said the poll went well, as have international observers.
The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also says: "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history."
O'Brien, Trump's fourth national security adviser, previously served as his special envoy on hostage affairs.
Asked about American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared covering Syria's civil war in 2012 and is believed to be held by Damascus, O'Brien said the US was using "every lever" to get him back home.
"We are using every tool, whether it's through allies, whether it's through adversaries," O'Brien said. "We would like to get him back and I'd like to see him back and I know the president would like to see him back before he leaves office."
Syria has not acknowledged holding Tice.
A top Lebanese security official said Saturday that he visited Syria for two days to speak with officials there about Tice.
O'Brien also said he hoped to see Qatar Airways be able to overfly boycotting Arab countries "in the next 70 days" before the end of Trump's presidency amid a yearslong political dispute.
However, there's been no public sign of tensions easing between Doha and Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.
To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.
Connect with us on…
Breaking News on YouTube
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
