Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the controversy surrounding the Trump administration and its outreach to Ukraine a “silly gotcha game.”
At the end of a speech in Greece on Saturday, the top U.S. diplomat was asked if there are any “red flags” that need further investigating stemming from a phone call in July in which President Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals.
“This is what’s wrong when the world doesn’t focus on the things that are right, the things that matter, the things that impact real people’s lives, and instead, you get caught up in some silly gotcha game,” he replied.
Pompeo is on the final leg of a weeklong tour of Europe, which included stops in Italy, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, but he has been unable to escape the shadow of the burgeoning Ukraine scandal.
The chairmen of three Democratic-led House committees, who are involved in an impeachment inquiry, sent a letter to the State Department last week demanding that Pompeo turn over documents related to allegations that Trump set up a quid pro quo deal with the president of Ukraine to investigate political foes, including 2020 Democratic front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Although a House Foreign Affairs Committee aide said Pompeo did not meet Friday’s subpoena deadline, Pompeo said at a news conference in Greece on Saturday that the “State Department sent a letter last night to Congress which is our initial response to the document request. We’ll obviously do all the things we’re required to do by law.”
During the news conference, he also called it “our duty investigate if we think there was interference in the election of 2016,” alluding to Trump’s request that Zelensky look into allegations of collusion between the Democrats and Ukraine in the last presidential election during the same July call.
