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The statement accuses Kelly of lying while setting up the interview and about part of their discussion being off the record, and calls the media “unhinged.” Kelly has said that she precleared topics for the interview with Pompeo’s team — which NPR CEO John Lansing says is confirmed by an email chain — and that she did not agree to have a conversation off the record.
The statement was released following an interview between the two in which Pompeo bristled at Kelly for asking him about Ukraine and his failure to publicly defend Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. According to Kelly, he yelled at her, swore, asked whether the American people care about Ukraine and asked her to point out Ukraine on an unlabeled map.

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

Pompeo’s statement does not discount Mary Louise Kelly’s claims about what transpired during her time with Pompeo on Friday, including him asking her if she could find Ukraine on a map. Seemingly regarding that point, Pompeo issued a strange line — “It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine” — in his statement about Kelly on Saturday.

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.

He previously lashed out at other female members of the media — including Nancy Amons and Judy Woodruff, when they similarly, professionally asked him about Ukraine. He even accused them of working for the Democratic National Committee in response to their questions.
Marie Yovanovitch got smeared. Where was Mike Pompeo?

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.

Pompeo’s conducted plenty of interviews in which he hasn’t acted insultingly or maliciously, like those on Fox, OANN, with Ben Shapiro and others. He doesn’t curse. He doesn’t ask those interviewers to do ridiculous tests. It seems Pompeo, who leads a department which has historically focused on advancing on what used to be a core US foreign policy objective — freedom of the press — just wants the press to ask him questions he wants to answer.

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.

But according to Kelly’s recounting of her profanity-laced interaction with Pompeo after their formal interview ended, he asked her if she thought Americans cared about Ukraine. He also was seemingly irked that she brought up Ukraine during their interview at all and claimed he hadn’t agreed to discuss the country, even though she said that she had pre-cleared the topic with his staff, in writing before the interview.
The alarming assault on the free press

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.

Pompeo is scheduled to visit Ukraine this week and his expected public messages of support will be diluted by what he’s said during his time with Kelly.

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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