Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, July 30.
Democratic lawmakers grilled the top US diplomat on several issues. Among them: Pompeo’s decision in May to fire the State Department’s inspector general, who was investigating whether he misused department resources and his push to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, and the Trump administration’s decision on Wednesday to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany. Menendez said the reduction “abetted” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Menendez argued that Pompeo’s policies toward China had not stopped its “march in the South China Sea” or its “suppressing and oppressing its own people” in Hong Kong. But he refused to say whether he had specifically raised allegations that Moscow was paying bounties to Taliban fighters to kill US troops in Afghanistan.Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, pressed Pompeo to explain his decision to recall former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and asked him whether he believed she was effective in her role and a valuable part of the State Department.
He also addressed the firing of Steve Linick, the State Department inspector general who was ousted in May while leading two investigations into the secretary’s potential misuse of department resources and his effort to push billions of dollars worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The secretary denied knowing about the investigations and said they were not part of his decision to oust Linick.
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