.@BudHedinger asks @SecPompeo, "Do you think you might have some anti-Trump or deep staters buried in the State Department that aren’t as enthusiastic about getting these things out as you and the President might be?"
.@SecPompeo replies, "It’s a big bureaucracy, Bud. I’ve now led a couple of them. They often don’t move at the pace that you and I might prefer..." @BudHedinger followups up: "You’re not smelling a rat – you don’t smell a rat like I suggested here?"
.@SecPompeo replies, "There’s always people inside of every organization that aren’t fully on board, on the team’s mission. When we identify them, we move them out of the way... We try to find people only who are committed to doing America’s mission, President Trump’s mission."
And I think this is the first time @SecPompeo is on the record saying this:

@BudHedinger: President wins reelection – will you stay on as Secretary of State if he wants you to? @SecPompeo: Yes. And that’s obviously up to the President, but it’s been an incredible privilege.

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More from @nickschifrin

17 Oct
Our @NewsHour report: a senior former intelligence official tells me President Trump’s entire national security team warned him that Giuliani’s information coming out of Ukraine was likely Russian disinformation, and that Trump shrugged the warning off.
We provide context for Joe Biden’s policy toward Ukraine in 2016, and how ousting the chief prosecutor made it more likely that Burisma, which was widely considered corrupt and where his son Hunter served on the board, would be investigated.
We note the New York Post obtained material that may be authentic. But it also published material, including for its main story, in a way that cannot be verified.
Read 4 tweets
11 Aug
This is what security national security for Beijing looks like: frogmarching a media tycoon through his own newsroom, and plain clothes officers rifling through reporters' desks. Our @NewsHour story on Hong Kong and the arrest of @JimmyLaiApple @chowtingagnes:
.@JimmyLaiApple's arrest was designed to silence a Hong Kong media that until now enjoyed freedoms that don’t exist in mainland China, @HKMarkSimon told me. National Security Law is written so vaguely, pro-democracy advocates fear it can be used against any critics, anywhere.
Last week @SecPompeo imposed sanctions on Carrie Lam and 10 other Hong Kong officials. In response Beijing sanctioned 6 Republican lawmakers, 5 NGO heads, including @AmbDMitchell, who told me, "Around the world, Beijing want people to be quiet about what's really happening."
Read 7 tweets
30 Jun
Our @NewsHour report tonight on Russian bounty payments:
In April 2019, a bomb planted by the Taliban in this spot killed three U.S. Marines. And intelligence officials investigated whether this American blood was on Russian hands.
Last year Taliban believed to have received Russian military intelligence money to target US service members, former military and intelligence officials tell NewsHour. Payments discovered by info taken from Taliban leaders, when US found a large amount of US dollars during raid
It was a dramatic increase in Russian support to the Taliban that former US commander Gen. Nicholson first made public in 2018.
Read 8 tweets
2 Jun
BREAKING: Extraordinary. Senior Defense Official distances @EsperDoD @thejointstaff Milley from @realDonaldTrump photo op outside St. Johns. “Their understanding was they were walking out of the White House to walk through Lafayette Park to review efforts to quell the protests”
MORE: "They were not aware that the park police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square... Once they walked out, they continued with him."
MORE: "As that meeting concluded, the President indicated an interest in viewing the troops that were outside and the Secretary and the Chairman went with him to do so.
That’s the extent of what’s taken place. And they were part of the group who continued through Lafayette Park."
Read 7 tweets
2 May
Senior Administration officials tell me they dismiss the idea of "reparations" as totally unenforceable and totally dismiss out of hand any kind of talk of not paying debt. Instead officials tell me they're accelerating their already considerable pressure campaign on China
That will focus on blocking US technology from being transferred to China; blocking Chinese investment in US; targeting companies such as Huawei; trying to punish China for Hong Kong, Uyghur crackdowns; possible visa restrictions; FON ops as @ChiefPentSpox mentioned yesterday
.@realDonaldTrump in middle: praises Xi, hopes China fulfills trade promises, but increasingly critical. US officials welcome bilateral tension, but China experts fear this is worst crisis in U.S.-China relations since before 1972, say Beijing hardliners have been emboldened.
Read 5 tweets
20 Feb
.⁦@nytopinion⁩ has printed an op-ed by Siraj Haqqani. For anyone who has lived in, covered, or otherwise cared about Afghanistan and Pakistan, that alone is extraordinary. nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opi…
This line is perhaps the most important: “We are about to sign an agreement with the United States and we are fully committed to carrying out its every single provision, in letter and spirit.”
But this line will alarm many in US: “We are aware of concerns...of Afghanistan being used by disruptive groups...These concerns are inflated: Reports about foreign groups in Afghanistan are politically motivated exaggerations by the warmongering players on all sides of the war”
Read 6 tweets

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