Pompeo lashes out at journalist; NPR defends its reporter

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By LYNN BERRY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out in anger Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine. In a direct and personal attack, America’s chief diplomat said the journalist had “lied” to him and he called her conduct “shameful.”

NPR said it stood by Mary Louise Kelly’s reporting.

Pompeo claimed in a statement that the incident was “another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt” President Donald Trump and his administration. Pompeo, a former CIA director and Republican congressman from Kansas who is one of Trump’s closest allies in the Cabinet, asserted, “It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in the media when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity.”

In making such a personal attack on a journalist, he is following the lead of Trump, who has repeatedly derided what he calls “fake news” and ridiculed individual reporters. In one of the more memorable instances, Trump mocked a New York Times reporter with a physical disability.



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a visit to an anti-narcotics police base in Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)


Read more: https://apnews.com/968bb9a73fde1ce0c083df55fafe72c1

[ClusterFreak]

1. If you haven't heard the interview, it's balls out. Mary Louise takes Pompeo to task...

...on both Iran and Ukraine. She is both fearless and very respectful at the same time. It's an amazing display of stand your ground journalistic integrity. Mary Louise gets full marks across the board in my book. Poor Widdle Mikey thought he was being picked on by the Big Bad Fake News Media, and so after the interview scolded and F-bombed her up and down in his private office. She didn't flinch. I am soooo impressed. I imagine the interview is posted somewhere (probably prominently) on the NPR website. Go check it out. And enjoy.

[leftieNanner]

3. I listened to it this morning

Kelly is so strong! She didn't allow him to obfuscate - and he really tried! She kept going back to her questions and responding to his "I always supported everyone on the team" BS with facts. He doesn't handle smart journalists very well, does he?

[ClusterFreak]

10. No he does not. And he basically threw a Trumpian...

...toddler tantrum in his office after the interview was over. Mikey needs his binky lol.

[hot2na]

2. Pompeo is a disgrace

But we knew that already.

Big kudo's to Mary Louise Kelly for doing good work in standing up to him.

[cp]

4. Pompass isn't used to being questioned

Much like his lord and master

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. He's incapable of being held to account

Of course any journalist worth their salt would ask him about the basis for the impeachment of the president, since it involves him. He's a grown man - he shouldn't need cotton wool around him. God knows what the CIA thinks of their former director, if he can't bear to be questioned by an informed American journalist.

[SpankMe]

6. Total asshole

And, he's using the old conservative tactic of lying to make someone else look wrong. The reporter correctly pointed out Ukraine on an unlabeled map, whereupon Pompeo shouted "Bangladesh is not Ukraine!" thus trying to trick anyone listening into believing she'd pointed to Bangladesh instead.

Since Bangladesh is, in fact, not Ukraine, dickhead Pompeo can say he was not lying. But - unless this was caught on video - he's muddied the water about what the reporter pointed to and it now comes down to a he-said-she-said proposition that gives conservatives top cover about what really happened.

Republicans are info-warfare assholes who will do anything to maintain power, no matter how deceitful, dishonest and hate-filled. And all this while accusing their opponents of being deceitful, dishonest and hate-filled.

America is doomed.

[karynnj]

14. He erred in saying Bangladesh. She is a scholar on Europe

Even without borders she would clearly not have pointed to the east of India - too far east and too far South to be Europe. He might have fooled someone had he said Belarus or something like that.

[VWolf]

21. That would have required

the HE knew where Belarus was on a map.

[karynnj]

22. He likely has an annotated map and could have picked a more believable error

However, in fact, that would have picked the general area and would not really have been a grievous error.

I remember that Al Franken had the ability to draw the US map pretty accurately from memory. I suspect that many of us, who could correctly fill in all the names on a map with lines, could not do what he did.

[winstars]

7. Not very DIPLOMATIC!!! HE'S A FUCKING REAL ASSHOLE DURING THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW.

[Scarsdale]

9. Show an unmarked

map to tRump, and see if HE can point to any country, even the USA. Pompeo fits into this administration perfectly. ASSHOLES every one of them.

[Maxheader]

8. Cracks in the facade..

Ole 10- hut showing the real him...lick stumpys shoes regardless of the accusations...

[NCjack]

11. NPR. I'll go back to see if ML Kelly's work appears. Really nice when female reporters

rip guys like Trump and Pompeo. It brings out their true identities: jerks.

[PatrickforO]

12. I just read this on CNN.

Pompeo apparently screamed that no one cares about the f-effetty-ff Ukraine, and then made her point it out on an unmarked map.

I'm thinking it's Trump supporters who probably wouldn't be able to point out Ukraine on a map.

[zentrum]

13. They'd ask, "What's a map?"

[central scrutinizer]

15. I abandoned NPR in 1999

When their reporter on the scene at the WTO protests in Seattle was constantly shouted down by their host in DC. She said everything was calm. D.C. only wanted coverage of burning Starbucks and violence to demonize and marginalize the protesters

[Warpy]

16. He's gotten far too comfy

with Pox reporters who can't find their asses with both hands in their back pockets. He got a rude awakening today that the rest of the media are different, they know their stuff going in and they use fact checkers to make sure.

I can imagine that blowhard's frustration. Watch him talk onlly to Pox from now on.

[FormerOstrich]

17. More accurately , Mikey

This is another example of how unhinged members of the Administration have become a quest to defend Donald Trump and his cohorts. It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in administration when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity.

What I am curious about...In that interview I swear I hear him say that the guy we whacked had killed hundreds of Iranians and they were celebrating his death. Did I hear that right? I thought he was responsible for hundreds of American lives (so they said) and was an imminent threat. I get so confused.

[rickyhall]

18. Too many trumps.

Mr P is just another trump.

[zentrum]

19. Call NPR at 1-202-513-2000

....In support of support Mary Louise Kelly.

The Trump cabal will try to cut their funding.

We must defend our Press.

Call 1-202-513-2000 and have her back.

[BlueWI]

20. I stand with Mary Louise Kelly.

The shameful way she was treated speaks volumes about this administration's moral bankruptcy.