Its easier to just call NPR fake news, right? More your style?

So from NPR's emails to Pompeo's staff its easy to pinpoint exactly how this 'miscommunication' happened;



So Martin left with the impression that Kelly agreed to keep the interview to Iran 'barring the news gods serving up anything overnight' and would cut out Ukraine questions he had been asked before. Kelly either left with the impression that Pompeo's staff was aware she was going to ask questions about Ukraine because she 'never takes anything off the table'- or she intentionally worded her response to vaguely mirror Martin's to leave him with a false impression. He asked her to stick to Iran, and she said "yes", and agreed not to waste time on questions he had answered before. A reasonable person could believe she meant she was cutting out the Ukraine topics and only talking about Iran, and when Martin briefed Pompeo on the interview, he'd go in with the impression its only about Iran.

However, two things immediately stick out about Kelly's pivot to Ukraine in mid-interview.
She led immediately with a "question he's answered many times in recent months". There was no cleverness to avoid that, she instantly went straight to ambassador yovanovitch and asked a loaded question about whether she deserved an apology. Even on the best possible day, even in the most charitable context, her question was the equivalent of a loaded "Have you stopped beating your wife?". That's the kind of question you expect from a Breitbart journalist chasing a liberal staffer in a parking lot, not from NPR in an official interview. And second, she clearly recognized that Pompeo was not willing to talk about Ukraine and was clearly aware that his staff had asked her to keep the interview just to Iran, and she plunged ahead with more Ukraine questions one after another after another. She had a perfect opportunity when they paused uncomfortably for 5 seconds after he directly told her he was only there to talk about Iran, in which she came back and insistently demanded he talk about Ukraine.

I'm inclined to believe that Kelly was being intentionally misleading in her emails just to ambush him, not a miscommunication. She was clearly hostile and on the attack in the interview, acting in bad faith. Whatever civility is supposed to exist with journalists, she threw it out the window to try to get a 'gotcha' moment. At the same time, Pompeo clearly reacted impetuously and channeled his grievance into spite. Most politicians would have just kept up the charade of a smile indefinitely and tried to brush it off and just vented about the little shithead reporter in private while banging their mistress or whatever, but Pompeo called her out for her bullshit to her face and then when she violated off-the-record, he did it via official state department statement.

And all of this really does reflect on the state of the Trump / Media relationship. This was Mary Louise Kelly from NPR, carrying what tattered remaining pretense of journalistic integrity remain in the industry, and Pompeo, a Harvard law JD and long time CEO and longer lived politician than just the administration. And it was just a bloody knife fight. Can anyone imagine NPR reporters gunning after an Obama official the way they just went after Pompeo? They would have respected any ground rules they asked for. If there was any miscommunication, they would have stopped at the pause and switched tack when they make it obvious they aren't willing to talk about a subject. Or they would have just repeated whatever talking point Obama wanted

Poor journalistic etiquette. Don’t really like Pompeo but regardless she should have maintained some integrity.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Jan 26 2020 08:13pm

You would probably find the amount of text dedicated to Israel within our aggregated house/senate docket to be disturbing. I poured over some at the beginning of 2019 when the counter BDS lobby was in full swing targeting our 1st amendment. Not a great ally if we have to spend so much $$ and time on them within our own federal system, and guard against 1st amendment attacks by our allies lobby. #disgusting

This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Jan 27 2020 11:42am

Yes, it's clear that the aide didn't want to talk about Ukraine and Kelly was quite explicit that she did. There really shouldn't have been a miscommunication there and it's the staff's fault for not preparing Pompeo properly.

Pompeo is between a rock and a hard place given his boss and I don't envy his position. I don't know how often off-the-record tirades occur, but it's really inappropriate so I can't blame Kelly for going public like this. His press statement is just absurd.

A reasonable person in Martin's place could have mistaken Kelly, I mean she conditioned her " I never agree to take anything off the table" on 'developing stories', and didn't condition her 'yes, no wasting time on questions answered'
Is that ambiguity Kelly's fault or is it Martin's fault for failing to clarify it explicitly? I don't know, it seems a trivial quibble
Because what's abundantly clear is that Kelly understood Pompeo didn't want to talk about Ukraine, and plowed ahead with loaded questions anyway, even as he directly told her he was there to talk about Iran. Her loaded question was already a breach of journalistic ethics, her choice to keep hammering Ukraine as he said he didn't want to talk about it and she knew from the aide he didn't want to talk about it was very disrespectful, and its not surprising he threw a temper tantrum and gave her a tirade about etiquette afterwards. She absolutely deserved to be chewed out for it. She breached an off-the-record trust and he quarreled with her on state department letterhead, probably making up the bullshit about where she pointed and justifying it to himself as proportional retaliation to her lies.

He's right that it shows just how deteriorated the relationship between the Trump officials and the media is. That's a two-way relationship and they're both being caustic and uncivil towards each other. He bullshits about Bangladesh, she bullshits about the agreements. I don't think "she struck first" is much of a defense for incivility among grown-ups. It all reeks of the kind of back-and-forth I'd expect from a Breitbart journalist trying to interview Maxine Waters, not NPR and a Harvard educated SoS. Maybe next time Martha Raddetz prepares to interview Jared Kushner about the peace deal, he'll find himself lured onto a boat filled with dildos, condoms and handcuffs and secret video recording.


If this was an Obama official, even if the miscommunication was mere comedy of errors, the whole spat would have started and ended in seconds when she asks a softball question about Ukraine and the official bats it down by saying he's not prepared to talk about Ukraine this morning and she goes back to talking about Iran.

This post was edited by Goomshill on Jan 27 2020 01:03pm

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-27/supreme-court-immigrants-public-benefits

SCOTUS rule allows Trump's "public-charge" immigration enforcement to go into effect in a 5-4 ruling
Its a law that was already long on the books before Trump saying green cards can be denied on the basis that immigrants would be a large net burden on public assistance, if they're not productive members of society and would be on Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers, as well as other factors. Most immigrants are already ineligible for most of these benefits, but some benefits do extend to green card immigrants and this can be grounds to revoke their residency.

It's Martin's fault since he has the final say on whether or not the interview goes through. If there was any question or confusion, you don't schedule the interview because your job is to protect your boss.

Your job as a journalist is to ask questions, even if they are uncomfortable. I remember O'Reilly interviewing Obama before the Super Bowl and he asked tough questions too. It comes with the job and Pompeo would have to be a fucking idiot to not think it'd come up. It's one of the most talked about topics FFS. If you're too much of a pussy, don't schedule an interview.

I agree that if this was an Obama official, this wouldn't have happened. Obama wasn't particularly hostile towards the media and administration officials would be on FoxNews all the time. Trump, on the other hand, is overly hostile towards the media because his base wants it.

Another update to the Ilhan Omar story
Not even going to try to rehash it up to this point but the new developments are;

https://twitter.com/realDSteinberg/status/1221832116788432897
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/01/terroristic-threats-by-omars-enforcer.php
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/01/david-steinberg-responds.php
http://archive.is/c4tow

Ilhan Omar's campaign hired a thug who had just been convicted of a triple stabbing and sent him door to door in Somali neighborhoods to say they must find and 'remove' the whistleblower who leaked the story of her marriage fraud to the media. That was years ago and reported on by journalist David Steinberg, who has been covering her story and got called out by Trump during his rally in Minneapolis for it. Well now that same hired thug has been directly threatening David Steinberg, posting terroristic threats on facebook against him, before deleting his social media (truly a recurring theme with Omar & crew).



Gotta love the juxtaposition of his profile pic smiling with Ilhan Omar next to his feed threatening the journalist exposing Ilhan Omar.
Especially considering his real name is Omar, and her real name is Nur Said Elmi, and he's one of the members of the real Omar family she falsely claimed as siblings when immigrating- a relationship they might have been unaware of during the campaign for all we know.


So he couldn't find the Somali whistleblower he was hired to threaten, and instead is now threatening the journalists who talked to the whistleblower.
Gotta give Ilhan some credit here, she's racking up the scoreboard

This post was edited by Goomshill on Jan 27 2020 06:31pm

Stunning and brave.