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This statement — as well as Pompeo’s interactions with Kelly and other reporters during his tenure as secretary of state, particularly female ones — give global audiences a rare insight into a cabinet secretary’s true colors.
Pompeo has shown the world that partisanship, petulance and misogyny will be his legacy at the State Department. And, the longer he stays in his position, the more damage we should expect to our ability to advance press freedoms abroad.
Map quest
Kelly, of course, didn’t go to the State Department for a geography quiz, but to question the secretary about issues that were top of mind for her, including Iran and Ukraine. Pompeo’s quest to embarrass Kelly with a map test was a clear attempt to humiliate a woman — but it appears it failed, as Kelly says she was able to identify where Ukraine was.
While a penchant for humiliating people should be a disqualifier for any low level diplomat — not to mention the secretary of state — equally as troublesome is why Pompeo threw a tantrum in the first place.
He doesn’t value a free press, which can often involve tough questions from reporters (although, answering a question about defending a diplomat shouldn’t be tough, of course); he prefers propaganda platforms, which never are challenging. That’s not how democracy works.
His clear disdain for this core component of democracy neuters his own team’s ability to advance press freedoms abroad. He has degraded State officials’ ability to be taken seriously when telling other countries why press freedom matters.
Care package
As President Trump’s impeachment defense team presents their opening arguments as part of the Senate trial, it has tried to make the case that the Trump administration cares about Ukraine and has done more for the country than President Obama. Their hope is to discount the House managers’ argument that Trump put security assistance on hold to get the Ukrainians to do him a political favor.
Pompeo’s questioning of the import of Ukraine to the American people will likely reverberate in Kiev, and probably in Moscow, too.
Whether or not Americans “care” about Ukraine, Pompeo and Trump have said they do since the whistleblower complaint first made headlines. But the secretary of state’s question about whether Americans care about Ukraine certainly doesn’t message that he cares about it. That’s not the message of support that Ukraine needs from the United States.
And, based on what happened with Kelly as well as previous interviews with Amons and Woodruff, if a member of the media does ask him about issues tied to impeachment while he’s in Ukraine, he might use his platform to spew partisanship and more attacks on the media. Vladimir Putin will like that because it degrades US credibility and spreads divisions.
The idea that a president should act, well, presidential seems like a relic three years into the Trump administration. So, too, does the expectation that a secretary of state should be diplomatic — not to mention when he’s asked about a member of his team.
Because of the administration’s myopic focus on self-need, Pompeo probably doesn’t appreciate or doesn’t care about the strategic impact of his actions — but every one of us should.
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