A volcano just erupted all over Pompeo
by digby
POMPEO: I’m not going to get into hypotheticals about what someone else said.STEPHANOPOULOS: Except it’s not a hypothetical. The chief of staff confirmed aid was withheld for political investigations.
POMPEO: … 😐😐😐 … pic.twitter.com/85MihdTa0g
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2019
Gordon D. Sondland, the diplomat at the center of the House impeachment inquiry, kept Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apprised of key developments in the campaign to pressure Ukraine’s leader into public commitments that would satisfy President Trump, two people briefed on the matter said.
Mr. Sondland informed Mr. Pompeo in mid-August about a draft statement that Mr. Sondland and another American diplomat had worked on with the Ukrainians that they hoped would persuade Mr. Trump to grant Ukraine’s new president the Oval Office meeting he was seeking, the people said.
Later that month, Mr. Sondland discussed with Mr. Pompeo the possibility of pushing the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to pledge during a planned meeting with Mr. Trump in Warsaw that he would take the steps being sought by Mr. Trump as a way to break the logjam in relations between the two countries, the people said.
Mr. Pompeo expressed his approval of the plan, they said, but Mr. Trump later canceled his trip to Poland.
It appears that all the president’s men are in the crosshairs now: Pompeo, Mulvaney, Bolton, Perry, Giuliani.
Pompeo has been telling people that wants to resign and run for the Senate:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has shared with three prominent Republicans that he wants to resign and run for Senate next year in Kansas, Time reports.
The Republicans told Time that Pompeo’s original plan was to stay at the State Department until next spring, but because of the House impeachment inquiry, he’s thinking about making an early — and hopefully smooth — exit. They do not know if Pompeo has discussed any of this with Trump.
Pompeo’s concern is that the longer he stays in the Trump administration, the more he will be criticized for not defending the current and former diplomats who have testified in the impeachment inquiry, Time reports.
Good luck with that. The good ship Trump has sailed, I’m afraid, and Pompeo long ago lashed himself to the mast.