MSNBC contributor and Obama-era official Chuck Rosenberg criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for not defending former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Yovanovitch delivered part of her impeachment testimony on Friday morning, during which she explained that she felt threatened by President Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Following Yovanovitch’s remarks, Rosenberg slammed Pompeo for not defending her from the president as the head of the State Department, calling his silence “deafening.”
“Like any leader, I think he has three obligations: First to the public, the American people, second to the mission of his agency, and third, and just as important, to the men and women who serve in that agency,” he said. “His silence is deafening. It is an act of abject cowardice.”
Rosenberg said Pompeo’s behavior is surprising because he is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“I’m astonished that somebody who went to West Point and was an army officer does not have the spine to stand up for the people in his organization who are being denigrated by this president,” he said. “That silence, as I said, is deafening, and it is disgusting.”
Rosenberg, who served as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration during former President Obama’s second term, said he would call Pompeo a coward to his face.
“What I see from him is a complete lack of leadership. I doubt he’s watching this show, and I doubt he’s listening to me, but if he was, I would tell him he’s a coward,” Rosenberg said.
Pompeo, 55, left the Army with the rank of captain before serving both in Congress and as head of the CIA.
