Tag: mike pompeo
Dismissing Khashoggi As An 'Activist,' Pompeo Provokes Fresh Outrage

Dismissing Khashoggi As An 'Activist,' Pompeo Provokes Fresh Outrage

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has come under fire for criticizing the global condemnation of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing, questioning Khashoggi’s journalistic credentials, and cozying up to the Saudi crown prince, whom a U.S. intelligence report concluded had ordered the assassination.

Khashoggi, an ardent critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, was tortured and then murdered by the kingdom's agents in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2, 2018.

After the murder, former President Donald Trump and Pompeo, then his top diplomat, sprung to the Saudi kingdom’s defense, with Trump describing the public outrage at the Saudis at the time as “just [what we] went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent.”

Despite four years passing since the CIA found that MBS had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination and almost two years since intelligence from the Biden Administration affirmed the conclusion, Pompeo, an ex-director of the CIA, and the Trump family, have continued to legitimize the crown prince and parrot the kingdom’s propaganda.

The murder was “ugly” but not “surprising,” Pompeo said in his new book, Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, wherein he mocked the media for posthumously portraying Khashoggi as “a Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward martyred for bravely criticizing the Saudi royal family.”

Pompeo argued that Khashoggi was “an activist who had supported the losing team in a recent fight for the throne” and could only be considered a journalist “to the extent that I, and many other public figures, are journalists,” insisting that “we need to be clear about who he was,” according to NBC News.

Khashoggi — who blasted MBS, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, for allegedly oppressing critics in the months leading to his death — was “cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood,” an oft-repeated allegation that Khashoggi had vehemently denied time after time when he was alive.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Post’s CEO and publisher Fred Ryan Jr. blasted Pompeo for “so outrageously” mischaracterizing the Saudi-born journalist, “falsehoods,” he said, that Pompeo perpetuates to “dishonor a courageous man’s life” and “as a ploy to sell his books.”


The Post’s editorial board, in a scathing opinion Tuesday, blasted Pompeo for misrepresenting Khashoggi in an outlandish tirade that “reveals much more about Mr. Pompeo than his critics.”

“[Pompeo’s comments show] that, rather than acting as a principled leader of U.S. diplomacy, Mr. Pompeo coddled the person who sent the Khashoggi hit squad,” the publication wrote.

Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, a non-profit advocating for democracy and human rights in the Middle East, accused Pompeo of echoing MBS’s justification for Khashoggi’s death.

"Pompeo's crass and craven comments appearing to justify Jamal Khashoggi's murder by disparaging his political views and falsely associating them with terrorism mirror the same justifications Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and other tyrants use to excuse their crimes," Leah wrote in a statement.

Speaking to NBC on Monday, Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, said that her late husband was “not part of the Muslim Brotherhood” and that she hungered “to silence all of these people who publish books, disparage my husband, and collect money from it.”

“Whatever [Pompeo] mentions about my husband, he doesn’t know my husband. He should be silent and shut up the lies about my husband,” Helen Elatr Khashoggi said. “It is such bad information and the wrong information. … This is not acceptable.”

Pompeo dismissed the criticism on a right-wing podcast hosted by Fox New’s Bret Baier, saying that the Post "went on a major mission to undermine the work that we [in the Trump administration] were trying to do to keep America safe and our relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

"I didn't write that to sell books,” Pompeo told Baier. “I wrote that to explain how we were thinking about keeping the American people safe."

“Americans are safer because we didn’t label Saudi Arabia a pariah state,” Pompeo tweeted late Tuesday, responding to the Post’s statement. Just b/c someone is a part-time stringer for WaPo doesn’t make their life more important than our military serving in dangerous places protecting us all.

On the road promoting his book — which, upon review, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Tim Weiner branded a “master class in the performative anger poisoning American politics” — talked up the prospect of a potential White House run in a CBS Morning interview Tuesday.

"Susan [his wife] and I are thinking, praying, trying to figure out if this is the next place to go serve. We haven't gotten to that conclusion. We'll figure this out in the next handful of months," Pompeo told CBS’s Gayle King.

Nikki Haley Feuding With Mike Pompeo Over 'Lies And Gossip' In His Book

Nikki Haley Feuding With Mike Pompeo Over 'Lies And Gossip' In His Book

Nikki Haley recently pushed back against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claims about her conspiring with former White House advisor Jared Kushner to replace former Vice President Mike Pence.

According to The Guardian, Haley, who previously served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, appeared on Fox News Thursday where she weighed in with her reaction to Pompeo's book, titled Never Give An Inch: Fighting For The America I Love, and the allegations he leveled against her.

Haley quickly dismissed the claims as she insisted that Pompeo's remarks are “lies and gossip to sell a book.”

Prior to Haley's resignation from the Trump administration back in 2018, Pompeo claims she "set up a personal meeting with Trump in the Oval Office without checking with him," the news outlet reports.

"Pompeo writes that John Kelly, then Trump’s chief of staff, thought Haley had in fact been accompanied by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as they presented 'a possible "Haley for vice-president" option,'" the news outlet wrote. "Pompeo also writes unfavorably of Haley’s performance as UN ambassador and criticizes her resignation."

Speaking about Pompeo's claim, Haley said, “I don’t know why he said it, but that’s exactly why I stayed out of DC as much as possible, to get away from the drama."

The former Trump administration official also emphasized that even Pompeo said he wasn't sure if the claim was true.

Haley's appearance on Fox News comes as she considers a presidential run in 2024, something Pompeo is also said to be considering. When asked about her possible run, she revealed that there are currently discussions about that possibility.

She told Fox News, “We are still working through things and we’ll figure it out. I’ve never lost a race. I said that then I still say that now. I’m not going to lose now.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

As Trump Announces, GOP Rivals Are Packing Into The Clown Car Again

As Trump Announces, GOP Rivals Are Packing Into The Clown Car Again

The campaign is underway. I’m going to be covering it right down to the wire in November of 2024. This column is free to all subscribers, but many will be available only to paid subscribers. If you want to receive all of my columns, free and paid, you can become a paid subscriber right here.

Donald Trump’s in the pool – in fact, he’s in the deep end, over his head with all the investigations and possible indictments he faces – and the question now is, who else is going to jump in?

Mike Pence? He’s on a book tour, polishing his Jayzus bona fides, perhaps responding to the fact that several evangelical leaders have expressed doubts about the former president, at least giving the former vice president some hope. Robert Jeffress, a pastor at the First Baptist Dallas church in Texas and previously a close ally and spiritual adviser to Trump (yes, there were such things afoot in the land in past years), told Newsweek last week that he isn’t prepared to support Trump just yet. Although he called the Bellowing One “a great president” and said he would support him in 2024 if he becomes the nominee, for now, Jeffress is sitting on his Bible: “The Republican Party is headed toward a civil war that I have no desire or need to be part of,” Jeffress told Newsweek.

Another evangelical leader spoke out frankly about the Eminently Indictable One at a meeting last week of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) in Irving, Texas. James Robison, the president of the Christian group Life Outreach International, told the group that Trump acted “like a little elementary schoolchild…if Mr. Trump can’t stop his little petty issues, how does he expect people to stop major issues?” Christian lawmakers in the room did not respond positively, The Washington Post reported: “The crowd remained still. Some lawmakers in the ballroom exchanged glances, appearing unsure of how to respond. A few people chuckled awkwardly.”

Mike Evans, Texas author and Christian Zionist who raises money for outreach and support in Israel and was on Trump’s loosely-formed “evangelical advisory board,” wrote in an op-ed in the Post earlier this month that he once left a rally held by the Fake Christian One “in tears because I saw Bible believers glorifying Donald Trump like he was an idol. Donald Trump can’t save America. He can’t even save himself. He used us to win the White House. We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us,” Evans wrote in the Post. “I cannot do that anymore.”

Ron DeSantis? The Harvard and Yale Educated One is said to be meeting with major Republican donors and biding his time. Dan Eberhart, a big-time Republican fund-raiser who has backed the Palm Beach Secret Hoarder in the past, told NBC he’s all-in for DeSantis this year. “If Trump is going to be in, I would like for him not to be the only national Republican candidate out there. But DeSantis isn’t going to get in until after the Florida legislative session ends, at least. Anyone that gets in now runs the risk of peaking too early.”

What about the rest of them? Well, the Clown Car is still out there. You remember Nikki Haley, don’t you? Former South Carolina Governor and Trump’s ambassador to the U.N., Haley told the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas over the weekend that she is considering getting into the race “in a serious way.” She told the crowd that it’s time for “a younger generation to lead across the board.” Hinting strongly at who she was really talking about, Haley said she wasn’t ready to blame “one person” for the disastrous Republican showing in the midterms, but “we don’t need more politicians who just want to go on TV and talk about our problems.” Then she pointedly reminded the crowd that “I have never lost an election and I’m not going to start now.”

Mike Pompeo? He was at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference, too, declaring that although he had been “loyal” in the past, his loyalty had never been “to a person, or a party or a faction.” By omitting the name of the guy who appointed him to be secretary of state, Pompeo left no doubt who he was talking about. If Republicans want to win elections, Pompeo thundered, they can’t just “go on Fox News or send tweets. Personality and celebrity just aren’t going to get it done. We can see that. The American people did not want to look back, they wanted to move forward. They care about what happens tomorrow, not what happened yesterday.”

In fact, there was a whole thing about it’s not a time to “look back,” and we’re finished with “talking about the past” at the meeting in Las Vegas. Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who was term-limited and did not run for reelection this year, told the crowd that his reading of the Republican losses in the midterms showed that voters had “sent a clear message that they want to turn the page.” Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told the crowd that Republicans lost the midterms because “Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.”

The ex-Trump confidant Christie, however, was the only speaker at the conference to utter the name of the FBI Searched One out loud.

The Associated Press reported that while “No fewer than 10 White House prospects stepped onto the stage in Las Vegas…perhaps no one was cheering louder than Trump himself from his Florida estate.” Why would that be, you ask? Well, with so many challengers making noises about getting into the race, Putin’s Favorite Candidate is in the same position he was in back in 2016, when he trashed the occupants of the Clown Car one by one and split the vote in the primaries until he arrived at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July as the Anointed One.

What do we hear from the Lily-Livered Caucus in the Senate? Well, The Hill reported today that only one Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, has come out and said he will support Trump for the presidency. What about the Senator from Obsequious, Lindsey Graham (R-SC)? Not on board yet, but he has allowed as how Trump will be “hard to beat.” Senator Kevin Cramer from North Dakota – I know, I’ve never heard of him either – bravely says “it’s too early.” Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming – another Republican stand-out from a state with a population smaller than Brooklyn – “made a splash last week when she identified DeSantis, not Trump, as the de facto leader of the Republican Party,” according to The Hill. But perhaps Utah's Mitt Romney, the Senator From The 47 Per Cent, described the reaction of the Lily-Livered Caucus best: “One senator in a meeting we had this week said, ‘How many in this room want to see President Trump announce he’s running for president today?’ Not one hand up.”

With all this bravery in the Senate, how, exactly, does a prospective candidate begin inching away from The Frightening One? For an answer to this imponderable, let’s go back to West Point graduate Mike Pompeo. He should know something about Courage In The Face of Imminent Danger, shouldn’t he? Well, this is what he told Semafor when he was asked how and when he was going to begin to move away from Le Gros Terrible de Mar a Lago: “I haven’t shifted. Tell me what the shift is? I’m contemplating presenting myself as the potential president of the United States to the citizens of America. There’s no shift. The things that worked, we should continue to go do.” Wow, you’ll be on the list for the Silver Star for that one, Mike.

Back at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, Eric Levine, a Republican donor from New York, told the AP that it was past time for some of the clowns to get off the stage so the party could settle on two or three candidates and avoid the mistakes they made in 2016. “I don’t think we have the luxury of waiting,” Levine said. “If he [Trump] becomes the Republican brand, the party is going to be destroyed.”

But try to tell that to the base, even the relatively wealthy base that was at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas over the weekend. Politico reported that when Trump addressed the crowd by video from Mar a Lago on Saturday, he was “met by rapturous applause.”

I can think of a few folks who hope the crowds stay just as rapturous about The Excessively Made-Up One as the campaign gets underway. Let’s see…the entire Democratic Party, maybe?

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.

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Pompeo Torched On Twitter For ‘Epic Freudian Slip’

Pompeo Torched On Twitter For ‘Epic Freudian Slip’

Mike Pompeo, who served as former U.S. Secretary of State under the Trump administration, caused a bit of confusion with his recent slip-up on live television.

But, according to HuffPost, some critics saw the jaw-dropping slip-up as "a rare moment of honesty" for the former government official who has a history of sharing false narratives. During his appearance on Fox News with Laura Ingraham asked Pompeo: "Why does the left act as if conservatives are a bigger threat to America than the” Chinese Communist Party?"

“Because, in fact, we often are," Pompeo answered before veering off into a rant to explain why he believes the so-called "left" has "'deep ties' to communism,'" The Post notes.


As expected, Twitter users immediately weighed in with their reactions to Pompeo's remarks. One user tweeted, "Having spent two years reporting on Pompeo, I can attest to how dangerous he is. He turned USAID into a rogue playground for right-wing extremists."

Another user wrote, "Wow. He almost accidentally tells the truth for a split second but then ruins it with an avalanche of bullshit. The @GOP is so “anti-communist” that they’ve been compromised by Russia since the mid-90’s."




Printed with permission from Alternet.