Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a blistering statement condemning an NPR reporter for reporting on the details of a conversation he claimed was off the record.
NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly conducted an interview with Pompeo on Friday morning that abruptly ended after she turned her questions to Yovanovitch and Ukraine, according to the outlet. Pompeo then left the room, and an aide directed the reporter to speak with him in his private quarters, where he reportedly berated her. However, he said that the second conversation was off the record.
“It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency,” the secretary of state’s statement reads. “This is another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this Administration. 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.”
He did not deny any aspects of her account, only that it should not have been published.
Following Pompeo’s departure from the interview room, Kelly was asked to leave her tape recorder there, but to go into Pompeo’s personal office to see him again. Kelly and Pompeo disagree about whether or not the following conversation was off the record.
Pompeo proceeded to shout and curse at Kelly, asking her if the public about Ukraine and noting that “people will hear about this.”
The secretary got upset over repeated questions about whether owed former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch an apology. She was removed from her post last spring and has pointed the finger at Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for starting a smear campaign against her.
A private recording of President Trump saying he wanted people to “take [Yovanovitch] out” was released earlier this week.
