Tag: Trump State Department

Top White House official leaving for State Department

Eric Ueland, also a longtime Senate GOP aide, was instrumental in securing bipartisan budget and coronavirus relief deals

Eric Ueland finished a stint as White House legislative affairs director Friday and is headed to the State Department, where he will serve as a senior adviser, a White House official said.

Ueland is reportedly under consideration for undersecretary of State for civilian security, democracy and human rights, a post that has been vacant since Donald Trump became president and that requires Senate confirmation.

Amy Swonger, who’s been a deputy director in the White House legislative affairs office since March 2017, has been named to replace Ueland. Continue reading.

Ex-Pompeo staffers asked to sign letter against ‘smear campaign’

The Hill logoFormer House staffers to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are being asked to sign a letter offering him support after a “smear campaign” that he and his wife asked staffers to carry out trivial tasks such as bringing him lunch or getting his dry cleaning.

The letter obtained by The Hill says Pompeo, while serving as a House member from Kansas, picked up his own dry cleaning and that if there was a deviation, it was to maximize his time with constituents.

The effort comes after Pompeo asked for the firing of Steve Linick, the inspector general (IG) to the State Department. President Trump then ordered that Linick be removed. Continue reading.

State Department scrutiny threatens Pompeo’s political ambitions

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo is facing a critical test with brewing scandals at the State Department that threaten to derail any future political ambitions.

Pompeo has proved to be one of President Trump’s most loyal lieutenants, surviving Democratic probes into the impeachment investigation, military confrontation with Iran and the coronavirus pandemic.

He was once considered a shoo-in to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Pat Roberts(R-Kans.), an offer he officially passed on, and has been floated as a potential presidential candidate for 2024. Continue reading.

PompeoGate: The First Scandal Of Campaign 2024

Do you remember Mike Pompeo?

Not the Pompeo who now serves as secretary of state, and who liked to boast that he had restored the “swagger” of the diplomatic corps (even as he served up his own Ukraine ambassador to a White House smear campaign). And no, not the sleazy character who induced the firing of the State Department’s inspector general in order to bury an investigation of his own misconduct. This Secretary Pompeo is a flunky of President Donald Trump who lives happily inside the president’s ethical vacuum.

But just a few years ago, there was a representative from Kansas by the same name. He was a West Point graduate who oozed religious righteousness — and a congressional scourge who felt obliged to express his white-hot anger in a separate and furious postscript to the House Select Committee on Benghazi report in 2015. Continue reading.

‘It’s all crazy stuff!’: Mike Pompeo tried to defend his shady ouster of a watchdog — and it didn’t go well

AlterNet logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo found himself under fire Wednesday morning as the outrage and questions surrounding the ouster of his department’s inspector general continues to grow. And when Pompeo took questions at a press conference about the firing of Steve Linick, he failed to give even a plausible explanation for the termination and even contradicted himself.

Pompeo flat-out admitted that he was behind the firing, saying he recommended the move to President Donald Trump. Trump himself said that he knew nothing of Linick and made the move on Pompeo’s say-so.

“I recommended to the president that Steve Linick be terminated,” Pompeo said. “Frankly, should have done it some time ago.” Continue reading.

Pompeo on IG firing: ‘Frankly should have done it some time ago’

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday doubled down on his request to fire the State Department’s internal watchdog, while also refusing to detail his reason for recommending the move.

“Frankly should have done it some time ago,” Pompeo said during a combative briefing with reporters at the State Department, referring to his request.

President Trump notified Congress late Friday evening of his intention to dismiss State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick, who was appointed in 2013 under President Obama, because he had lost confidence in the watchdog. Continue reading.

Pompeo, G-7 foreign ministers spar over ‘Wuhan virus’

At issue is whether to link the coronavirus directly to China.

WASHINGTON — Foreign ministers from the Group of 7 leading industrialized democracies sparred Wednesday over whether to call out China as the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meeting by video conference because of the outbreak, the ministers agreed on the need for joint efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes a disease being called COVID-19. But U.S. and European diplomats said the ministers were unable to agree on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s call for the virus to be identified by name as the “Wuhan virus.”

As a result, just a day after G-7 finance ministers and central bankers issued a joint communique referring to the COVID-19 virus, the foreign ministers opted against releasing a group statement. U.S, officials pointed to Tuesday’s finance ministers’ statement to reject suggestions of G-7 disunity and said the foreign ministers had never intended to release their own communique. Continue reading.

State Dept. urges US citizens to avoid all international travel

The Hill logoThe State Department on Thursday issued a level four travel advisory applying to all countries, instructing Americans not to travel internationally and urging U.S. citizens abroad to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The move represents the most drastic warning the department has issued to Americans traveling abroad as the world grapples with the coronavirus outbreak that has spread to over 150 countries and sickened close to 10,000 people in the United States.

“The Department of State advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19. In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period,” the advisory posted Thursday afternoon states. Continue reading.

Pompeo threatens family of ICC staff with consequences while bashing probe of US war crimes

AlterNet logoAmnesty International on Wednesday rebuked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over new comments bashing the International Criminal Court and threatening court staff—and their family members—investigating alleged war crimes committed by United States forces in Afghanistan.

“Threats against family members of ICC staff who are seeking justice is a new low, even for this administration,” said Daniel Balson, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director.

Balson’s comments came a day a press briefing in which Pompeo told reporters the ICC is “a so-called court which is revealing itself to be a nakedly political body.” Continue reading.

Shouting and sniping as Pompeo defends Trump’s Iran and Iraq policy

Criticism over administration’s response to the coronavirus dominates Foreign Affairs hearing

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s first public appearance of the year before Congress was his most heated and combative yet, with House Democrats frequently raising their voice to sharply rebuke the secretary, who categorically rejected all of their criticisms on the administration’s Iran policy and on its handling of the growing worldwide coronavirus outbreak.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing was nominally about the administration’s policy toward Iran and Iraq and its use of war powers. But Democrats used a good portion of their questioning time to ask about the administration’s response to COVID-19, the new coronavirus that began in late 2019 in Wuhan, China and is a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses.

Rep. Ted Deutch said the Trump administration had a major credibility problem on its hands when it came to its handling of COVID-19. Continue reading.