A reporter with a Nashville TV station pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on whether he met with President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani when they were in Warsaw, Poland, earlier this year.
The top U.S. diplomat did not appear to give a direct answer to the question by WSMV’s Nancy Amons on Friday.
Asked whether he met with Giuliani, Pompeo replied, “I don’t talk about who I meet with. I went to Warsaw for a particular purpose. It was an important mission.”
“We brought together people all across the world to take down the world’s largest state-sponsored terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran. That’s what I worked on on that mission,” he added.
“So you’re not going to say whether you met with him?” Amons asked.{mosads}
“When I was in Warsaw, I had a singular focus. My focus was singularly on the work that we have done, effective work, to recover from what the Obama administration has done, which is to underwrite the world’s largest state sponsor of terror. We’ve stopped that. We’re making real progress,” Pompeo said.
“It sounds like you’re not going to say,” Amons told him.
“When I was in Warsaw, we were working diligently to accomplish the mission to take down the terror regime that’s inside the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pompeo repeated. “That’s what I worked on. That’s the only thing that I engaged in while I was there.”
When Amons asked about text messages sent by diplomats regarding the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, Pompeo said it seemed like she worked for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“Text messages show that diplomats under your authority told the Ukrainians that a good relationship with President Trump was only possible if they investigated his political opponent and theories about what happened in 2016. Were you aware that this was happening?” she asked.
“You’ve got your facts wrong. It sounds like you’re working, at least in part, for the Democratic National Committee,” he said.
The State Department did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
House Democrats who are investigating President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine as part of an impeachment inquiry have subpoenaed Pompeo for documents and have requested the testimony of several current and former State Department officials.
They are looking into Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine to look into unsubstantiated allegations against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Trump and Biden have both denied wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, when Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour” mentioned the unsubstantiated allegations, Pompeo also suggested that it seemed like she was working for the DNC.
“There’s been no proof any misdoing on the part of Vice President Biden,” Woodruff said, according to a transcript.
“You all keep repeating that line as if you’re working for the DNC,” Pompeo said.