The Wichita Eagle had a chance to interview home-state boy made, uh, pick your adjective Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and threw a little salt in a wound:
Eagle: And what good really is the word of the U.S. in light of the president’s treatment of the Kurds? Has that undercut U.S. credibility?
Pompeo: The whole predicate of your question is insane. The word the United States– I’ll give you a good example– the word of the United States is much more respected today than it was just two and a half years ago. The previous administration in Syria, where you asked the question earlier, the previous administration said, ‘Boy, if you use chemical weapons that’s going to be bad,’ and the president drew a red line, President Obama drew a red line. He then duly ignored it. This president said, ‘If you use chemical weapons, I’m going to take action.’ And we fired Tomahawk missiles in to take down that threat to let them know that the cost of violating this, this massive violation of human dignity, these massive human rights violations by using chemical weapons, that there would be a cost imposed for that. And when the President said he would do it. He did. I see that all across the world, we make clear the things that we will do. We also make clear the things that we’re not prepared to do. I think it’s important for people to understand that other countries have to step up too. Other countries must share the burden for not just the security of the world, but security for their own countries. So this president’s been very clear that we have high expectations for how other countries, not just our European partners, but countries in Africa, countries in the Middle East, countries throughout Asia, who depend on the Strait of Hormuz to be up, they need to, they need to do that for themselves as well. And when they do, America will continue to be an enormous partner. I get a chance to travel the world. And when I show up, people want to meet the American secretary of state. They don’t want to meet Mike. They want to meet the American secretary of state who they know can work alongside them to deliver security for their people in an important way.
And now follow-up! Egad, that much should Whoever the interviewer was, they should have gone with:
Eagle: And what third-party information, such as polls and interviews, do you have to verify your claim that the Trump Administration has more respect from around the world than the Obama Administration?
Because, of course, he offered mere eyewitness accounts, which is both a poor way to collect data and, not to insult the Secretary or anything like that, but could be falsified.
An opportunity lost.
