Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday accused a National Public Radio (NPR) reporter of lying about whether she had agreed to keep a post-interview conversation off the record. According to an article published by USA Today, “In an unusual statement, Pompeo shot back at NPR host Mary Louise Kelly after she reported that he grew irritated at her questions about Ukraine and shouted at her in an expletive-laced exchange when the interview was over. Pompeo said Kelly had agreed that conversation was off-the-record; she said no State Department officials made that stipulation and she would not have agreed to it. Pompeo also suggested, but did not directly state, that Kelly could not point out Ukraine on a map, contrary to her account of the conversation.”
In a statement released by the State Department, Pompeo states that NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to him twice. “First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record. It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency. This is another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this Administration.”
Pompeo also wrote that this is another reason for the American people to distrust the media. He concluded by saying, “It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine.” Read the full statement on the State Department website here.
The last sentence in the statement is in regard to Pompeo alleging that the NPR reporter did not know where Ukraine was on a map. According to the USA Today story, “‘“Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” Pompeo apparently shouted at Kelly after the interview. He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,’ Kelly said. ‘He asked if I could find Ukraine on a map. I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing. I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away.’ Pompeo, in his Saturday statement, suggested Kelly did not correctly identify the location of Ukraine on the map.”
President Trump came to Pompeo’s defense by replying to a tweet by Mark Levin that questioned why NPR exists. View the tweet below:
NPR is an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization based in Washington, D.C. NPR differs from other non-profit membership media organizations because it was established by an act of Congress in 1970.
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