Pompeo: ‘I Don’t Believe There’s a Deep State at the State Department’
Rep. @tedlieu: "Do you believe there is a "criminal deep state" at the State Department?"@SecPompeo: "I don't believe there's a "deep state" at the State Department."
Full video: https://t.co/w6A2mtgcsB pic.twitter.com/com3FfOqgZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 23, 2018
During his congressional testimony today, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he doesn’t agree with the notion of a “deep state.”
Congressman Ted Lieu (D- CA) brought up President Trump‘s tweet railing against the “criminal deep state” from this morning:
Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018
Trump has tweeted a few times about the “deep state,” and so Lieu asked Pompeo if there is a “criminal deep state at the State Department.”
“I haven’t see the comments from the President,” Pompeo said. “I don’t believe there’s a deep state at the State Department.”
The former CIA director made a point of saying when he led the agency, people who worked for him were focused on helping achieve Trump’s objectives (even if, as he granted, there are a few bad apples at every organization).
Lieu asked, “You’re confident that the members of various agencies are honoring their oaths to the United States Constitution?”
Pompeo responded, “Yeah, in general. Yes, sir.”
Watch above, via C-SPAN.
[image via screengrab]
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