An NPR reporter said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out at her.

NPR stands by reporting about secretary of state’s behavior

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine.

Pompeo said the journalist had “lied” to him, and he called her conduct “shameful.”

NPR said it stood by Mary Louise Kelly’s reporting.

Pompeo said in a statement that the incident was “another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt” President Donald Trump and his administration.

In Friday’s interview, Pompeo responded testily when Kelly asked him whether he defended or should have defended Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv whose ouster figured in President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

“I have defended every State Department official,” he said. “We’ve built a great team. The team that works here is doing amazing work around the world … I’ve defended every single person on this team. I’ve done what’s right for every single person on this team.”

After the NPR interview, Kelly said she was taken to Pompeo’s private living room, where he shouted at her “for about the same amount of time as the interview itself,” using the “F-word” repeatedly. She said he was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine.

Pompeo, in his statement, did not deny shouting at Kelly and did not apologize. Instead, he accused her of lying to him when setting up the interview, which he expected would be limited to questions about Iran, and for supposedly agreeing not to discuss the post-interview meeting.

Nancy Barnes, NPR’s senior vice president of news, said in a statement that “Kelly has always conducted herself with the utmost integrity, and we stand behind this report.”

Pompeo was rebuked Saturday by four Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said his “insulting and contemptuous comments” were beneath his office.

Mike Pompeo