Pompeo on Mulvaney admission of quid pro quo: ‘I never saw that in the decisionmaking process’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday responded to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s admission — which he has since walked back — that the White House made aid to Ukraine conditional on political investigations by saying he “never saw that.”

“I never saw that in the decisionmaking process that I was a part of,” Pompeo said on ABC’s “This Week,” adding, “The conversation was always around, what were the strategic implications? Would that money get to the right place?”

{mosads}Pompeo repeatedly demurred on “talk[ing] about internal deliberations” at the State Department with host George Stephanopoulos and said he would not discuss a “hypothetical” about the appropriateness of conditioning foreign aid on political investigations, despite the host noting that Mulvaney said it had, in fact, occurred.

“I will leave it to the chief of staff to explain what it is he said,” Pompeo said. “I’m telling you what I was involved with. I’m telling you what I saw.”

Stephanopoulos pressed Pompeo on whether it would be appropriate for the White House to make aid conditional on political investigations.

“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals and secondary things based on what someone else has said,” Pompeo said, prompting Stephanopoulos to respond, “Well, except it’s not a hypothetical. We saw the chief of staff, the acting chief of staff right there.”

“You just said, ‘If this happened.’ That is, by definition, a hypothetical,” Pompeo countered.

JUST IN: “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says when asked if it’s appropriate to condition Ukraine aid on political investigation after Mick Mulvaney’s comments.@GStephanopoulos: “Except it’s not a hypothetical” https://t.co/vwL0GRcvq3 pic.twitter.com/VBBTvIVhAk

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 20, 2019

Mulvaney said in a press conference last week that Ukrainian aid was delayed while the White House sought an investigation into the 2016 election.

There is “going to be political influence in foreign policy,” he said. “Get over it.”

Mulvaney has since walked back the comment, saying, “There was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election.”

Pompeo also defended the involvement of President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine diplomacy, telling Stephanopoulos that “private citizens often are part of executing American foreign policy” and again refusing to discuss “internal deliberations” when asked whether the State Department reviewed Giuliani’s possible conflicts of interest in Ukraine.

Pompeo also pushed back on criticism that he failed to defend former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

“We’ve done great things for these officers,” he said. “I see these stories about morale being low. I see things precisely the opposite. … I will always defend them when it’s appropriate.”