August 20, 2019

A lengthy piece in the New Yorker detailed how Mike Pompeo went from being just another run-of-the-mill Republican congressman, supporter of Marco Rubio and critical of then-candidate Donald Trump and his "circus" of a campaign, to being Trump's most fiercely loyal lieutenant proved to be fodder for Gayle King to ask this delicate question of Pompeo.

His answer, that he has a sworn duty to follow the president's orders, no matter how wrong-headed or ludicrous (tellingly, no mention of the Constitution), is pretty much the textbook definition of a "yes-man". Somebody who goes along to get along.

Source: Mediaite

Speaking with Gayle King on CBS This Morning, the secretary reacted to the comment from a former American ambassador who told the New Yorker that Pompeo is “like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass.”

“I find [that] language offensive, and I find the statement ludicrous,” Pompeo said. “I work hard. I work hard for the President of the United States who was Constitutionally elected. He is my leader. My task is to share with him the best information. If we disagree, my duty is to go share with him our disagreements. I do that with great frequency. But when he makes a decision, and it’s legal, it’s my task to execute his decision with all the energy and the power that I have.”

And here is the quote in question,

No matter what Trump has said or done, Pompeo has stood by him. As a former senior White House official told me, “There will never be any daylight publicly between him and Trump.” The former official said that, in private, too, Pompeo is “among the most sycophantic and obsequious people around Trump.” Even more bluntly, a former American ambassador told me, “He’s like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass.”

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