As the Ukraine scandal continues to spread, there’s another figure it’s ensnared — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This past week, he faced questioning about his role in the debacle, including one about whether or not he met with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani when the two of them were in Warsaw at the same time. As if he has something — a big thing — to hide, Pompeo flatly refused to answer that question, and shortly after, he flipped out (in his understated Pompeo-esque way) and suggested the reporter might as well be “working for” the Democrats.
In other words, slinging conspiracy theories and hoping something will stick is the go-to response from the man who’s supposed to be leading U.S. foreign policy when faced with a question he doesn’t like.
Reporter Nancy Amons asked him:
‘Text messages show that diplomats under your authority told the Ukrainians that a good relationship with President Trump was only possible if they investigated his political opponent and theories about what happened in 2016. Were you aware that this was happening?’
Pompeo refused to answer the question, although he hid his refusal under a barrage of angry accusations.
He replied, without ever seeming to actually bring out any evidence of how the reporters “facts” were “wrong”:
‘You know, again, you’ve got your facts wrong. Sounds like you’re working at least in part for the Democratic National Committee when you phrase that predicate of a question in that way. It’s unfortunate and it does a real disservice to the employees and team at the United States Department of State. Our team was incredibly focused. We wanted a good relationship with Ukraine… A very important part of that is making sure that corruption is weeded out at every level inside of Ukraine.’
Watch:
So… were you aware of the scheme to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens in exchange for things like military aid and a summit in D.C. with the Trump administration or not? Odds are, he was (or he’s a dolt who doesn’t know what’s happening right under his nose).
Some of the diplomatic texts that Amons mentions include messages from figures like the still serving E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who wrote that Trump was after the “deliverable.” The “funny” part is that Sondland himself is the one who was most on edge, spelling things out in texts to the point of sounding like he was imagining how the texts would look in court — and even he let word of the “deliverable” slip. Although he refused to show up for scheduled testimony this past week, he’s slated to appear to Congress this coming week.
Besides this issue, Giuliani has also figured prominently in the scheme. With the help of two of his now arrested associates, he served as a kind of middle-man in the Trump administration’s efforts to get dirt from Ukraine on the Bidens. He communicated over and over again with key figures like an adviser of the current Ukrainian president and a former top prosecutor in the country.
Featured Image via screenshot
