Tag: Mike Pompeo

GOP scramble is on to succeed Donald Trump in 2024

From Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo to Nikki Haley and Ted Cruz, the cast of potential White House hopefuls is out in force at CPAC.

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — President Donald Trump is locked in a tough reelection battle, yet the Republicans looking to succeed him are already circling.

They’re visiting early primary states, reaching out to major donors, and — in one instance — even running commercials in Iowa. But perhaps the most overt display of ambition is on display this week here at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a rite of passage for White House aspirants eager to audition before thousands of activists whose support can be critical down the line.

Those with the most prominent speaking roles — a list that includes the likes of Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — are regarded as likely 2024 contenders. At Wednesday evening’s opening reception, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley was mobbed by fans, including a woman who wore a “Nikki 2024” baseball cap. Haley took a picture with the woman and signed the hat. Continue reading.

Trump’s US delegation was ‘dumbfounded’ by hostile reception at Munich conference: report

AlterNet logoAccording to a report from Politico, the U.S. delegation attending the Munich Security Conference were “dumbfounded” by the hostile reception they received from world leaders which included more than a few speeches that were highly critical of the policies of Donald Trump.

The report kicks off by stating, “If the three-day event, which drew to a close on Sunday, illustrated anything, it was that the divergence between the U.S. and the dominant European powers — Germany and France (the U.K. was MIA) — is greater than ever. Those who thought last year’s tense gathering represented a low point in the relationship left Munich this year chastened.”

Over the weekend, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a seventeen-minute speech that included praise for the president’s economic policies that was greeted with silence, while other leaders took shots at the U.S. Continue reading.

Ex-CIA senior operations officer blasts Trumpification of agency — and explains how Pompeo ‘subjugated the country’s interests to those of the president’

AlterNet logoThe Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), founded in 1947 under President Harry Truman, has been in existence for 73 years and has dealt with foreign intelligence under 13 different presidents — the most recent being Donald Trump. In a February 10 article for Just Security, Douglas London (a retired CIA senior operations officer who left in 2018) takes a look at the state of the agency in the Trump era. And London, who now teaches at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., laments that in the last few years, the CIA has been acting in Trump’s interests more than in the foreign intelligence interests of the United States.

Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state in the Trump Administration, served as CIA director from January 2017 to April 2018 — and London recalls that when Pompeo was in charge of the CIA, “anything that could somehow embarrass the president or make him appear weak had to be avoided.”

The former CIA operations officer explains, “Pompeo prioritized shielding Trump from news he didn’t want to hear, an approach to the job that sometimes subjugated the country’s interests to those of the president. Concerned more about his own standing with the president, Pompeo also refused to provide the CIA workforce with any words of support in the face of Trump’s repeated attacks on it — fearing such encouragement would anger Trump.” Continue reading.

Pompeo Pushes Free Press For Kazakhstan After Barring NPR Reporter From Trip

“As a journalist, I’m sure you know the good work the State Department does to train journalists in press freedoms,” the secretary of state told a Kazakh reporter.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo championed a free press for Kazakhstan Sunday, days after cutting a National Public Radio journalist from the trip following his rant over questions about Ukraine.

Pompeo told Kazakh journalist Aigerim Toleukhan in an interview that freedom of the press helps “build out civil societies” — and that the United States was willing to show the media there how to do it. “As a journalist, I’m sure you know the good work the State Department does to train journalists in press freedoms,” he said.

Toleukhan pressed him to reconcile his praise for a free press with his treatment of NPR and his “confrontational” interview over Ukraine. “What kind of message does it send to countries … whose governments routinely suppress press freedom?” she asked. Continue reading.

Bolton told Republican donors Trump is ‘mentally unstable’ and will pull the US out of NATO if reelected: report

AlterNet logoIn his book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” former National Security Adviser John Bolton — according to the New York Times — tears apart one of President Donald Trump’s main defenses against impeachment. Trump and his defenders have maintained that the president never tied military aid to Ukraine with an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, but a leaked manuscript of his book shows Bolton asserting that Trump did, in fact, tie the two together. And Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, in a January 28 article, sheds some more light on Bolton’s reasons for speaking out against Trump: the president’s mental state.

Sherman reports that according to his sources, Bolton has told Republican donors that he considers Trump “mentally unstable” and fears that the president would completely pull the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) if he wins a second term in November. Certainly, Trump has been a vehement critic of NATO and fails to see its value. And Joe Biden has warned that Trump’s reelection could mean the end of NATO, which the former vice president believes would be disastrous for both the U.S. and Europe.

“The Room Where It Happened” isn’t due out until March 17. And Sherman reports in his Vanity Fair article that pro-Trump Republicans are going to great lengths to discredit Bolton and his book. An anonymous source close to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Vanity Fair, “Pompeo and Bolton were at war with each other during the administration. Pompeo thought that Bolton was constantly trying to undercut him and the president.” Continue reading.

Trump praises Pompeo over handling of NPR reporter: ‘You did a good job on her’

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Tuesday complimented Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his handling of a dispute with an NPR reporter, making light of the incident and saying that the top diplomat “did a good job on her.”

Trump recognized Pompeo as “our great secretary of State” during remarks announcing his administration’s Middle East peace plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, before referencing his clash with the NPR reporter unprompted.

“That’s impressive. That was very impressive,” Trump said, commenting on the applause that Pompeo received from the crowd when he said his name. “That reporter couldn’t have done too good a job on you yesterday. I think you did a good job on her, actually.” Continue reading.

 

Trump Tweet Threatens NPR Over Pompeo Tantrum

The cycle of Fox News coverage and President Donald Trump’s id repeated itself this weekend, this time involving the network’s coverage of the now-infamous blowup between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly.

In response to negative media coverage, Trump is now seconding a suggestion from Fox News personality Mark Levin — to end NPR’s funding, and even get rid of the organization itself.

Original controversy regarding Pompeo

Kelly’s interview of Pompeo on January 24 became heated when she asked him about the ongoing Ukraine scandal and impeachment, to which he replied that he had only come on to talk about Iran. (Kelly answered that she had confirmed with his staff that she would discuss both Iran and Ukraine.) Continue reading.

Emails support NPR host after Pompeo calls her a liar in setting up contentious interview

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo says an NPR host lied in setting up an interview with him on Friday, but email records support the journalist’s account of how the contentious exchange came to be.

The emails, obtained by The Washington Post, indicate that Pompeo’s staff was aware that NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly would ask Pompeo about several topics in the interview and raised no objections, contrary to Pompeo’s characterization.

In an extraordinary statement issued on State Department letterhead on Saturday, Pompeo blasted Kelly for repeatedly asking him why he refused to express support for the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Kelly said afterward Pompeo berated her using profanity and challenged her to locate Ukraine on an unmarked map, which Kelly said she did. Continue reading.

NPR reporter says Pompeo cursed at her, told her to point to Ukraine on map

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo, apparently frustrated by questions about Ukraine and former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, launched into a profanity-laced rant against an NPR reporter after an interview, the news organization said.

During the interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly that aired Friday, Pompeo refused to say whether he owed an apology to Yovanovitch, whose firing has featured prominently in President Trump’s impeachment inquiry. An aide ended the interview after Kelly pressed Pompeo for a response.

Kelly recounted what happened next in a report that accompanied her interview. She said a staffer escorted her to Pompeo’s private sitting room, where he was waiting. Although she was not allowed to bring recording equipment into the room, she said there was no request that she keep the exchange off the record, and that she would not have agreed to a conversation if it had been. Continue reading.

Mike Pompeo Doubles Down On NPR Reporter Attack. No One Buys It.

Twitter critics called BS after the secretary of state indicated Mary Louise Kelly misidentified Bangladesh as Ukraine in the president’s map challenge.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came out swinging — again — Saturday in yet another attack on a National Public Radio host, indicating she mistook Bangladesh for Ukraine in his map challenge.

But no one is buying it.

Pompeo exploded in a profanity-laced tirade at “All Things Considered” host Mary Louise Kelly after she dared to ask him questions about Ukraine in an interview Friday. He led her to a private office after the interview and yelled at her, using the “F-word and many others,” said Kelly. “He shouted at me for about the same amount of time as the interview itself,” which was 10 minutes. Pompeo also asked: “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” Kelly recounted. Continue reading.