Pompeo in bizarre confrontation over location of Ukraine on map
MIKE POMPEO, the US secretary of state, demanded a journalist prove they knew where Ukraine is on a map during a rant littered with expletives.
Mary Louise Kelly, a German-born former BBC journalist working for National Public Radio, said America’s top diplomat made the bizarre request after she questioned him about Ukraine during a testy interview.
The extraordinary row began following a tense nine-minute interview.
Mr Pompeo said it had been agreed beforehand that Ms Kelly would stick to the subject of Iran. Ms Kelly has disputed that. She asked him about Ukraine and the removal of Marie Yovanovitch as US ambassador to Kyiv, a key aspect of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Ms Kelly said she was then invited to Mr Pompeo’s private living room, without her tape recorder.
She said the secretary of state “shouted at me for about the same amount of time as the interview itself lasted”. The journalist added: “He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine. He asked, ‘Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’
“He used the F-word in that sentence and many others.”
She said Mr Pompeo then asked his assistants to bring out a map of the world without the countries named, to see if Ms Kelly knew where Ukraine was. “I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away,” she said, adding that Mr Pompeo responded, “People will hear about this.”
After Ms Kelly spoke publicly about the incident Mr Pompeo issued a statement in which he did not dispute her account.
However, Mr Pompeo later implied she had pointed to Bangladesh rather than Ukraine. In a statement he said: “It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine.”
He also claimed the reporter had “violated the basic rules of journalism and decency” by revealing details of their off-the-record conversation.
Ms Kelly denied the conversation was off the record.
Mr Pompeo claimed it was another example of how “unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this Administration”.
‘He shouted at me for about nine minutes – the same amount of time as the interview itself lasted’