Pompeo Lashes Out at Reporter and Demanding situations Her to In finding Ukraine on a Map

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it sounds as if angered by means of a reporter’s questions concerning the Trump management’s firing of america ambassador to Ukraine, lashed out at her after the interview, cursing and difficult her to search out Ukraine on a map, consistent with the reporter.

Mr. Pompeo, who is understood for his bombast, occasional skinny pores and skin and contentious dating with many within the State Division press corps, had declined to mention right through the interview whether or not he owed an apology to the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch.

“I’ve defended each and every unmarried particular person in this group,” Mr. Pompeo mentioned in the interview with the reporter, Mary Louise Kelly of NPR, which used to be recorded Friday morning. “I’ve completed what’s proper for each and every unmarried particular person in this group.”

Requested whether or not he may level to precise remarks by which he defended Ms. Yovanovitch, Mr. Pompeo mentioned: “I’ve mentioned all I’m going to mention these days. Thanks. Thank you for the repeated alternative to take action. I admire that.”

Quickly after that, Ms. Kelly mentioned, an aide to Mr. Pompeo ended the more or less nine-minute interview, and Mr. Pompeo glared at her and left the room — rarely an abnormal response in hurly-burly Washington.

However in a printed in a while NPR, Ms. Kelly described what came about subsequent.

She mentioned the aide who had stopped the interview reappeared and requested her to come back together with her, and not using a recorder. Ms. Kelly mentioned she used to be taken to Mr. Pompeo’s personal lounge, the place he used to be ready, and “the place he shouted at me for roughly the same quantity of time because the interview itself had lasted.”

“He used to be no longer glad to had been puzzled about Ukraine,” Ms. Kelly mentioned on NPR. “He requested, ‘Do you suppose American citizens care about Ukraine?’ He used the f-word in that sentence, and lots of others.”

Mr. Pompeo requested Ms. Kelly if she may to find Ukraine on a map, and Ms. Kelly, whose reporting has taken her world wide — to Russia, North Korea and different international locations — mentioned, “Sure.”

“He referred to as out for his aides to convey him a map of the arena and not using a writing, no international locations marked,” Ms. Kelly mentioned. “I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He mentioned, ‘Other folks will pay attention about this.’”

Ms. Kelly mentioned that after Mr. Pompeo’s aide had summoned her to the room, the aide by no means requested that the assembly with Mr. Pompeo be stored off the document — nor would she have agreed to such an association.

Ms. Kelly additionally mentioned she advised the State Division later on that she deliberate to record on Mr. Pompeo’s tirade, and had no longer heard again.

The State Division didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Friday. A spokeswoman for NPR mentioned Ms. Kelly, a co-host of “All Issues Regarded as,” used to be no longer to be had for additional remark.

On NPR, Ms. Kelly mentioned she had showed with the secretary’s aides prior to the interview that she deliberate to invite him about Iran and Ukraine, so the subject used to be no longer a wonder. However Mr. Pompeo nonetheless bristled at Ms. Kelly’s questions on Ms. Yovanovitch.

“I simply don’t have anything to mention about that this morning,” he mentioned at one level.

Ms. Yovanovitch used to be swiftly recalled from Ukraine remaining Would possibly and has change into a key determine within the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump after she testified remaining yr that she used to be the objective of a smear marketing campaign by means of the president’s private attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani and two of his pals, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. The 2 have since been indicted in a scheme to violate marketing campaign finance rules.

Ms. Yovanovitch testified remaining yr that she felt “threatened” by means of Mr. Trump after it emerged that he advised the Ukrainian president she would “undergo some issues.” Mr. Trump has additionally disparaged Ms. Yovanovitch, a embellished 33-year veteran diplomat, on Twitter.

David E. Sanger contributed reporting.