Thread by @Headsnipe011

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Martha MacCallum of Fox News

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QUESTION:  All right.  Let’s turn to the impeachment process that is underway now on Capitol Hill.  There’s been a parade of State Department officials that have been going through and testifying before Congress.  Yesterday, it was Alexander Vindman.

He says that there were things that were deleted from the transcript of the call that were specifically about the Bidens and about Burisma, investigating both of those. & he claims that there was a quid pro quo for a White House meeting and for the aid to be released to Ukraine.

You were on that call as well.  Do you agree with him that those items were not part of the transcript, but they were part of that phone call?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Oh, I don’t know what any of the witnesses have actually said.  We’re now reporting on leaks from Democrats who have a mission set here to take down President Trump.

What I know is I was on the call, I listened to the call, I thought the way the President handled it was appropriate.  We were incredibly focused on a couple of simple things with respect to Ukraine strategy.

We’ve executed on that.  Don’t forget, Martha, this is the administration that provided defensive weapon systems to Ukraine.  The previous administration —

QUESTION:  That’s true.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  — I couldn’t tell you why, I couldn’t answer if it’s because of Hunter Biden that Barack Obama and V.P. Biden didn’t give defensive weapon systems to Ukraine.  They’ll have to answer for that.  Maybe I just don’t have the full story.

Here’s what I know:  If you’re looking for an administration that’s been tough on Russia, helped the Ukrainian people, helped the Ukrainian leadership fight back corruption, do the things that that country needs to do, this administration’s actions are fantastic.

QUESTION:  So is all we’re seeing here – I mean, these were all people that worked in the State Department under you.  They obviously have a lot of problems with the way that this was carried out, these people who worked in the Ukraine department.

Do you feel torn between the policy that you’re upholding under the President of the United States and the policies that they wanted to see enacted?

Because they sound very disappointed that things got pulled away from them and they are all pointing to the common thread of Rudy Giuliani here.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah, Martha.  I actually – again, I haven’t seen the testimony.  I frankly wish that I had.  We’re not allowed to have State Department lawyers in the room.  That’s deeply troubling.

But my understanding is that every one of these individuals had the same Ukrainian policy that President Trump had.  This is a Ukraine policy that wanted to provide Javelin weapon systems.  We did that.

This was a Ukraine policy that wanted to ensure that Mr. Zelensky had the resources he needed to push back against the corruption that we all know has existed in Ukraine.

I actually think the policy that every one of my officials was trying to achieve is the same one that President Trump and I were trying to get the outcome on.

QUESTION:  So just to go back for one second, you were on the call.  Was there anything that was on the call that pointed to a quid pro quo?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The call was consistent with what I had a long set of conversations with President Trump on our policy for an awfully long time.  I was part of this administration from the very beginning – first as CIA director, and now as Secretary of State.

Our policy has been very clear all along with respect to Ukraine.  The President had real concerns that the Europeans weren’t doing enough, that we were —

QUESTION:  That part is understandable.  It’s the question about —

SECRETARY POMPEO:  — we were having to spend more than our fair share.

QUESTION:  — Joe Biden and investigating him that is the part that I think is of the greatest concern.  Did you hear anything on that call that is not in the transcript?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  I heard the President very clearly on that call talking about making sure that corruption – whether that corruption took place in the 2016 election, whether that corruption was continuing to take place,

that the monies that were being provided would be used appropriately.  It was very consistent with what I’d understood President Trump and our administration to be doing all along.

QUESTION:  When Rudy Giuliani was here and I was speaking with him about this, his – he expressed the fact that he felt that they kind of didn’t get it, the people who were working on Ukraine, and that he did, that he understood the corruption that was happening in the country,

and that they might have great intentions but that they just weren’t on to what he was on to in terms of the dark underbelly of what’s going on in Ukraine.

Did he express those concerns to you, and do you agree with him that some of the folks that worked on that didn’t see it the way he did?

SEC. POMPEO:  Martha, our team was focused on a singular mission there.  Every conversation I had with every one of the State Dept officials that was working on this was focused on a singular mission. Our team’s been deeply aware for an awfully long time of corruption in Ukraine.

QUESTION:  So you weren’t aware of any friction between people who thought that Rudy Giuliani was overstepping his bounds?  They didn’t bring those concerns to you?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Martha – Martha, there is always friction inside an organization —

QUESTION:  Sure.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  — of 70,000 people.  Lots of different ideas, people looking for lots of different things.  It is – in every mission – and I must say too Ukraine is one of dozens of issues that we address every single day at the State Department.

I know you’ve got people out here who are thinking about impeachment every day and all day, it’s on every TV, IT’S BREATHLESS REPORTING.  The State Department is out making sure that the American people are safe.

There’s a government in Lebanon that has just fallen, protests in Chile that rise to the level that we had to have a meeting council that was very important for the world.

QUESTION:  Well, did anything —

SECRETARY POMPEO:  We’re focused on these big, broad issues, Martha.

QUESTION:  Let me ask you this, then, because that’s one of those issues that – with regard to this, and then I have one more question for you on a totally different matter.

But the question is:  Was there anything with regard to Joe Biden or Burisma that you guys were concerned about in terms of national security at the State Department?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah, Martha, we were focused on corruption.  And if that corruption involved —

QUESTION:  So you were – you were concerned about that?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  If that corruption involved individuals who had business interests there, we want to know that these oligarchs that have operated in Ukraine outside of Ukrainian bounds for too long need to be stopped.