Tag: Trump State Department

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.

Pompeo says he ‘never heard’ about any efforts to surveil Yovanovitch

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said he was not aware of any surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch during her time in Kyiv as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, his first public comments on allegations that associates of Rudy Giuliani surveilled the career diplomat as they pushed for her removal.

“I never heard about this at all,” Pompeo said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt when asked if he was aware that Yovanovitch was being surveilled.

Pompeo said he was only aware of the suggestion that the ambassador was being followed after the release of text messages describing the effort, released this week by the House Intelligence Committee as part of evidence in the impeachment trial against President Trump.  Continue reading.

Pompeo under pressure over threats to Yovanovitch

The Hill logoPressure is building on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reveal what he knew about any threats to the personal safety of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch following allegations that associates of Rudy Giuliani surveilled the career diplomat as they pushed for her removal.

The State Department on Thursday agreed to brief senators on what they knew of efforts to track the ambassador’s movements and what steps were taken to protect her. The move was in response to demands by congressional Democrats to launch investigations.

“I got a message from my staff director that they are talking about briefing us and at the highest levels,” Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN on Thursday.  Continue reading.

Capitol Hill ‘furious’ after Trump’s State Department abruptly cancelled briefing ‘required by law’: report

AlterNet logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo is receiving heat after the State Department stood-up Congress one day after damning text messages showed associates of Rudy Giuliani targeted an American ambassador, according to a new report.

“The State Department abruptly canceled a classified congressional briefing Wednesday that was supposed to focus on embassy security, a House aide said, infuriating Capitol Hill staffers seeking answers on alleged Iranian threats to U.S. missions overseas,” Politico reported Wednesday.

“The cancellation also coincides with documents suggesting that associates of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani put the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine under surveillance,” Politico noted. Continue reading.

Former White House official drops the hammer on Mike Pompeo after ‘two-bit criminals’ stalked Ukraine ambassador

AlterNet logoAddressing a House document dump that provided more evidence in Donald Trump’s still-growing Ukraine scandal, a former White House official claimed on CNN that to all appearances White House foreign policy has been being conducted by “two-bit mobsters.”

“New Day” hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota skipped over Tuesday night’s Democratic debate to point to notes and texts from Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas that indicated that former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was being stalked with hints of personal threats.

“These new text messages were provided to Congress by Giuliani’s foreign associate Lev Parnas,” host Camerota explained. “To dig up dirt on the Bidens and to take down Marie Yovanovitch. The materials include this letter to Ukraine’s president, and in it Giuliani requested a meeting indicating he is working with the U.S. president’s knowledge and consent. That this is the first where Giuliani links efforts to President Trump. There is also this note in Vienna that mentions to get Zelensky to announce an investigation of the Bidens.” Continue reading.

Saudi sentencing in Khashoggi killing draws criticism — except from White House

The Hill logoSaudi Arabia’s death sentence Monday for five people connected to journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing after a trial shrouded in secrecy has prompted widespread criticism — except from the White House.

The White House has not issued an official statement as of Monday afternoon, but a senior administration called the sentencing an “important step.”

“This is an important step in holding those responsible for this terrible crime accountable, and we encourage Saudi Arabia to continue with a fair and transparent judicial process,” the official said.

Continue reading

Mike Pompeo pilloried over photo showing policy board created by Hillary Clinton is now full of ‘lots of white men’ but no women

AlterNet logoU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is under fire after posting a photo of members of his Foreign Affairs Policy Board that is comprised of nearly all white men and no women.

Secretary Pompeo

✔@SecPompeo

A pleasure hosting Foreign Affairs Policy Board members for dinner last night in advance of our third plenary meeting this year. Their feedback and perspectives are critical to the formulation and execution of a foreign policy that best serves the American people’s interests.

View image on Twitter

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In 2011 then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton created the advisory board. It has, before Secretary Pompeo, been a far more diverse group.

In years past, the board has included notable women including former Congresswoman Jane Harman, think tank president Anne-Marie Slaughter, and former governor and EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, among others. The initial founding group of 11 included four women, in addition to Sec. Clinton.

Continue reading

Sondland Kept Pompeo Informed on Ukraine Pressure Campaign

New York Times logoThe diplomat at the center of the impeachment inquiry looped in the secretary of state at key moments as American officials pushed for investigations sought by President Trump.

WASHINGTON — Gordon D. Sondland, the diplomat at the center of the House impeachment inquiry, kept Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apprised of key developments in the campaign to pressure Ukraine’s leader into public commitments that would satisfy President Trump, two people briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Sondland informed Mr. Pompeo in mid-August about a draft statement that Mr. Sondland and another American diplomat had worked on with the Ukrainians that they hoped would persuade Mr. Trump to grant Ukraine’s new president the Oval Office meeting he was seeking, the people said.

Later that month, Mr. Sondland discussed with Mr. Pompeo the possibility of pushing the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to pledge during a planned meeting with Mr. Trump in Warsaw that he would take the steps being sought by Mr. Trump as a way to break the logjam in relations between the two countries, the people said.

View the complete November 20 article by Michael S. Schmidt on The New York Times website here.