Pompeo Brutally Grilled By Lawmakers on Coronavirus, Iran: ‘You Can Only Give Us 2 Hours’ Because You’re Going to CPAC?
Earlier today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and faced a grilling from Democrats over Iran and how the Trump administration is responding to the global spread of coronavirus.
Congressman David Cicilline raised concerns about the maximum pressure campaign against Iran, saying, “Because of the dishonesty from this administration from this and many other issues, Americans have lost trust in their government. Now we’re facing a serious global health crisis in the form of the coronavirus and trust is more important than ever.”
Cicilline directly asked Pompeo what his role is in the coronavirus response.
Pompeo started by saying, “We agreed that I would come here today to talk about Iran, and the first question today is not about Iran.”
Cicilline then asked specifically about the outbreak of coronavirus within Iran, and Pompeo said that the U.S. will continue to support humanitarian assistance around the world.
Later on, Congressman Bred Sherman asked Pompeo if he would appear before the committee to discuss U.S. efforts to combat the coronavirus or whether it will take another few months to work out another hearing date.
“We have briefed Congress over 70 times on Iran. 70 times,” Pompeo said.
Sherman said he’s asking about the coronavirus and Pompeo responded that “I’m happy to work with you to find a time that works with everyone’s schedule to talk about this.”
When Pompeo tried to continue, Sherman’s frustration with the limited time they had for the hearing became evident. He said, “Sir, you limit us to two hours. Secretary Clinton spent 11 hours. You must adhere to the rules of this committee just as you enforced them as you were sitting in this room!”
Sherman went on to confront Pompeo about the 100+ U.S. troops stationed in Iran who suffered traumatic brain injuries after the Iran missile attack. He brought up the president’s comments in the immediate aftermath saying no Americans were harmed and subsequent comments about the injuries, asking Pompeo if he would like to apologize to those U.S. service members.
Pompeo said, “We take seriously every American service member’s life.”
Congressman Ted Lieu used his time later to first ask, “Does Iran have more enriched uranium now than when Donald Trump took office?”
Pompeo immediately said “yes,” then made a point of clarifying, “They have enriched to a higher level than they did when we took office… It’s a little more complicated, I just wanted to be more precise.”
After asking about the administration’s coronavirus response, Lieu went on to ask, “At 12:15 today, are you yourself speaking at CPAC?”
“Yes I am,” Pompeo said.
“So you can only give two hours to this bipartisan group of members of Congress, and instead of answering questions on life and death issues from a bipartisan group of America’s representatives, you’re gonna go talk to a special interest group,” Lieu said. “It is shameful you can’t even answer basic questions.”
And Pompeo did indeed speak at CPAC hours later:
“Can anyone in this room remember a better time to be an American conservative? We are safer than ever, our economy is more prosperous than ever, and President @realDonaldTrump will not stop winning.” @SecPompeo #CPAC2020 pic.twitter.com/Tu9FYmMuOz
— CPAC 2020 (Text CPAC to 56479) (@CPAC) February 28, 2020
You can watch above, via C-SPAN.
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