Pompeo defends phone call, saying Trump wanted to stop Ukrainian corruption

Source: Politico | October 6, 2019 | David M. Herszenhorn

Secretary of state says ‘If you can help me with X, we’ll help you achieve Y.’

It wasn’t political extortion — Donald Trump was actually trying to help Ukraine fight corruption, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday of the July phone call at the center of the U.S. president’s ongoing impeachment scandal.

Speaking on stage at an event in Athens, Pompeo placed the call in the context of normal relations between countries, in which each tries to advance its own national interests. He said nations routinely tell each other, “If you can help me with X, we’ll help you achieve Y.”

In this case, Pompeo said, the U.S. position was not linked to Trump’s personal political agenda but to the U.S. national interest in making sure Ukraine was not corrupt before selling missile systems to Kyiv.

Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, is now also caught up in the impeachment inquiry being conducted by the U.S. Congress into whether the president pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and potentially withheld aid to Ukraine in an effort to force the Kyiv government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.

Pompeo’s remarks Saturday came during an event organized by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. embassy in Greece at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens.

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  • Consistent October 6, 2019 at 4:15 pm #32155

    EVERYDAY October 6, 2019 at 6:21 pm #32158

    Keep defending your idol, Mike. When the excrement hits the fan, you are going down along with your idol. Or maybe instead of your idol. Trump has been known to throw his most fervent defenders under the bus just to save himself.

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