Tag: Trump State Department

Trump blames Mike Pompeo for State Department officials’ devastating testimony in impeachment inquiry: ‘Rein your people in!’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump unloaded recently on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom he blames for devastating testimony against him the House impeachment inquiry.

The president confronted Pompeo, who has been his closest ally, during an Oct. 29 lunch at the White House, according to four current former senior administration officials who spoke to NBC News.

“(Trump) just felt like, ‘rein your people in,’” said one senior administration official.

View the complete November 18 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

How rich people like Gordon Sondland buy their way to being US ambassadors – 4 questions answered

In every other developed democratic country, the role of ambassador, with only very rare exceptions, is given to career diplomats who have spent decades learning the art of international relations.

In the U.S., however, many ambassadors are untrained in diplomacy, and have simply bought their way into a prestigious post.

The involvement of the American ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, in the Ukraine scandal has prompted interest in the media and Congress in the role of non-career ambassadors like him.

View the complete November 18 article by Dennis Jett, Professor of International Affairs at Pennsylvania State University on the Conversation website here.

Pompeo tries to spin himself out of a tricky situation

Washington Post logo“Not — not — not once — not once, George, did Ambassador McKinley say something to me during that entire time period.”

— Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Oct. 20, 2019

“Three probably.”

— former State Department adviser to Pompeo Michael McKinley, after being asked how many conversations he had with Pompeo “about this matter,” interview with congressional investigators, Oct. 16

Was the secretary of state caught in a lie? Or is he just artfully answering questions — or, more to the point, not answering questions?

This is a story of spin. See if you can keep track of the bouncing ball.

The Facts

Michael McKinley was the U.S. ambassador to Brazil when Pompeo asked him to leave his post early in 2018 to act as his senior adviser and liaison to the Foreign Service. McKinley abruptly resigned in October after the controversy over the administration’s dealings with Ukraine erupted, in protest of what he told lawmakers was the use of ambassadors to advance domestic political objectives and a failure by the State Department to support those officials.

View the complete November 11 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

How the State Dept.’s Dissenters Incited a Revolt, Then a Rallying Cry

New York Times logoShock, anger and sadness are giving way to pride among career diplomats that they are defending American ideals and holding the Trump administration accountable.

WASHINGTON — State Department Foreign Service officers usually express their views in formal diplomatic cables, but these days they are using closed Facebook groups and encrypted apps to convey their pride in Marie L. Yovanovitch, the ousted ambassador to Ukraine, whose House testimony opened the floodgates on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

#GoMasha is their rallying cry.

In private conversations, they trade admiring notes about career State Department officials like William B. Taylor Jr. and George P. Kent, who delivered damning testimony about a shadow Ukraine policy infected by partisan politics and presidential conspiracy theories, and William V. Roebuck, a senior diplomat in Syria who wrote a searing memo on how Mr. Trump abandoned the Kurds and upended American influence.

View the complete November 9 article by Michael Crowley, Lara Jakes and David E Sanger on The New York Times website here.

Pressure builds on Pompeo as impeachment inquiry charges ahead

The Hill logoThe impeachment inquiry spotlight is starting to shift toward Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as testimony from senior State Department officials raises questions about whether he enabled a shadow foreign policy led by Rudy Giuliani or if he pushed back against decisions harmful to U.S. interests.

Pompeo has been an ardent defender of President Trump, but witness testimony highlights small instances of pushback by the secretary, illustrating the perilous tightrope walk he faces of preserving his relationship with the president and ensuring his political future.

But Democrats have seized on witness accounts of when Pompeo failed to counter Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, arguing the secretary favored protecting his own political interests over the State Department’s.

View the complete November 7 article by Laura Kelly on The Hill website here.

AP sources: State Dept. worried about defending ambassador

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department’s third-ranking official is expected to tell House impeachment investigators on Wednesday that political considerations were behind the agency’s refusal to deliver a robust defense of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

People familiar with the matter say the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service, David Hale, plans to say that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior officials determined that publicly defending ousted Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch would hurt the effort to free up U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.

Hale, who arrived Wednesday morning to testify behind closed doors, will also say that the State Department worried about the reaction from President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was one of the strongest advocates for removing the ambassador, according to the people. Several State Department officials have told lawmakers they opposed the dismissal of Yovanovitch in May, a personnel change that came at Trump’s direction.

View the complete November 6 article by Matthew Lee on the Associated Press website here.

Mike Pompeo accused of plotting escape route back home during taxpayer-funded trips to Kansas

AlterNet logoAccording to the Guardian, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been jetting back and forth between Washington his home state of Kansas for a number of bizarrely political events, including radio interviews, “workplace development” talks with first daughter Ivanka Trump, and — on one strange occasion — handing out State Department buttons emblazoned with “#Swagger.”

kylie 🌻@kcylizzle
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be speaking with Wichita State students this morning in an effort to recruit students to work as diplomats for the State Department. It’s unclear how these students were chosen to participate in this event.

View image on Twitter

kylie 🌻@kcylizzle

These buttons were just passed out to students.

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Mike Pompeo doubles down on conspiracy theory claiming Biden and Obama withheld Ukraine assistance

AlterNet logoIt’s often forgotten that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended West Point, where he took a pledge to hold honesty above all. And the person who seems to forget it most often is Mike Pompeo.

The Washington Post reports that Pompeo appeared on Fox News Wednesday evening not only to profess his support for an entire series of definitively debunked, never-made-any-sense-to-begin-with conspiracy theories—such as American company CrowdStrike ferrying a secret “missing” DNC server to Ukraine, and the Steele dossier actually being written by a Ukrainian hired by Hillary Clinton. Pompeo refused to condemn any of the things that Trump was asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate, even though they aren’t just false—they are genuinely bizarre.

Then Pompeo made his own contribution to the Hall of Ludicrous by adding a new conspiracy theory, one that involves President Barack Obama: “I couldn’t tell you why, I couldn’t answer if it’s because of Hunter Biden, that Barack Obama and Vice President Biden didn’t give weapons to Ukraine. They’ll have to answer for that. Maybe — maybe I just don’t have the full story.”

View the complete October 31 article by Mark Sumner from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

State Dept. official broached Pompeo’s role in Ukraine in new testimony

The Hill logoA leading State Department official testified before Congress on Saturday and touched upon Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s role in the administration’s dealings with Ukraine — the issue at the center of the Democrats’ fast-evolving impeachment investigation into President Trump.

Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs, broached the topic of Pompeo while being deposed in the Capitol by the three House committees — Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs — leading the impeachment investigation, according to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

“I can’t get into the details,” Perry said, “but certainly there are questions.”

View the complete October 26 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Democrats subpoena White House, State Dept. officials for depositions in impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoHouse Democrats have subpoenaed three Trump administration officials for depositions as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Trump‘s dealings with Ukraine, lawmakers announced Friday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) issued subpoenas for two officials with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and one State Department official.

The subpoenas come as Democrats expand their probe into whether Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch two investigations that would benefit him politically.

View the complete October 25 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.