Pompeo Swears at Reporter After Testy Interview, Asks If Americans Actually Care About Ukraine
A reporter for National Public Radio says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used profanity and demanded she identify Ukraine on an unmarked map after he refused to answer whether he owed former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch an apology.
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In an interview Friday for NPR’s All Things Considered, Pompeo told Mary Louise Kelly, “You know, I agreed to come on your show today to talk about Iran. That’s what I intend to do. I know what our Ukraine policy has been now for the three years of this administration.”
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As Kelly pressed him on the issue, Pompeo tried to wrap things up. When asked whether the administration’s Ukraine policy had been taken over by officials unaffiliated with the State Department, Pompeo replied, “I’ve been clear about that. I know exactly what we were doing. I know precisely what the direction the State Department gave to our officials around the world about how to manage our Ukraine policy.”
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After the interview, Pompeo became upset by her questioning, Kelly said, and “shouted at me for about [the] same amount of time as the interview itself had lasted.” Pompeo asked her, “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” according to Kelly, who noted that he “used the F-word in that sentence and many others.”
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Pompeo then asked her if she could find Ukraine on a map, she recalled, and when she said that she could, “He called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing.”
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“I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He said, ‘People will hear about this,'” Kelly said. “And then he turned, said he had things to do and I thanked him again for his time and left.”
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Pompeo is scheduled to travel to Ukraine next week.
