WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out in anger Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she requested him in an interview about Ukraine. In a direct and private assault, America’s chief diplomat mentioned the journalist had “lied” to him and he referred to as her conduct “shameful.”
NPR mentioned it stood by Mary Louise Kelly’s reporting.
Pompeo claimed in a press release that the incident was “one other instance of how unhinged the media has turn out to be in its quest to harm” President Donald Trump and his administration. Pompeo, a former CIA director and Republican congressman from Kansas who’s one among Trump’s closest allies within the Cupboard, asserted, “It’s no surprise that the American individuals mistrust many within the media after they so persistently display their agenda and their absence of integrity.”
It’s extraordinary for a secretary of state to make such a private assault on a journalist, however he’s following the lead of Trump, who has repeatedly derided what he calls “faux information” and ridiculed particular person reporters. In one of many extra memorable cases, Trump mocked a New York Instances reporter with a bodily incapacity.
In Friday’s interview, Pompeo responded testily when Kelly requested him about Ukraine and particularly whether or not he defended or ought to have defended Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv whose ouster figured in Trump’s impeachment.
“I’ve defended each State Division official,” he mentioned. “We’ve constructed an amazing crew. The crew that works right here is doing wonderful work all over the world … I’ve defended each single individual on this crew. I’ve performed what’s proper for each single individual on this crew.”
This has been a delicate level for Pompeo. As a Trump loyalist, he has been publicly silent because the president and his allies have disparaged the nonpartisan profession diplomats, together with Yovanovitch, who’ve testified within the impeachment hearings. These diplomats informed Congress that Trump risked undermining Ukraine, a vital U.S. ally, by pressuring for an investigation of Democrat Joe Biden, a Trump political rival.
Yovanovitch, who was seen by Trump allies as a roadblock to these efforts, was informed in Could to depart Ukraine and return to Washington instantly for her personal security. After paperwork launched this month from an affiliate of Trump’s private legal professional advised she was being watched and presumably below menace, Pompeo took three days to deal with the matter and did so solely after coming below harsh criticism from lawmakers and present and former diplomats.
Pompeo was rebuked Saturday by 4 Democrats on the Senate International Relations Committee, who mentioned his “insulting and contemptuous feedback” had been beneath the workplace of the secretary of state.
“As an alternative of calling journalists ‘liars’ and insulting their intelligence after they ask you arduous questions you’d reasonably not reply, your oath of workplace locations on you an obligation and obligation to interact respectfully and transparently,” the letter to Pompeo mentioned. It was signed by Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the highest Democrat on the committee, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
After the NPR interview, Kelly mentioned she was taken to Pompeo’s non-public front room, the place he shouted at her “for about the identical period of time because the interview itself,” utilizing the “F-word” repeatedly. She mentioned he was not pleased to have been questioned about Ukraine.
Pompeo, in his assertion, didn’t deny shouting at Kelly and didn’t apologize. As an alternative, he accused her of mendacity to him when organising the interview, which he apparently anticipated can be restricted to questions on Iran, and for supposedly agreeing to not focus on the post-interview assembly.
Kelly mentioned Pompeo requested whether or not she thought Individuals cared about Ukraine and if she might discover the nation on a map.
“I mentioned sure, and he referred to as out for aides to convey us a map of the world with no writing,” she mentioned in discussing the encounter on “All Issues Thought-about.” “I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He mentioned, ‘individuals will hear about this.’”
Pompeo ended Saturday’s assertion by saying, “It’s value nothing that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine.”
Nancy Barnes, NPR’s senior vice chairman of reports, mentioned in a press release that “Kelly has at all times carried out herself with the utmost integrity, and we stand behind this report.”
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