U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the Republican National Conference on its second night Tuesday, speaking in a recording from Jerusalem.
Casting aside his own advice to American diplomats and bulldozing a long tradition of secretary of state non-partisanship, Pompeo plunged into the heart of the 2020 presidential race with a speech supporting President Donald Trump’s reelection.
The address was roundly condemned by Democrats and others as an inappropriate breach of decades of diplomatic precedent and a possible violation of federal law prohibiting executive branch employees from overt political activism while on duty. Indeed, Pompeo himself had reminded State Department staffers of those restrictions only last month. Yet he went ahead with the speech, which was recorded in Jerusalem during an official visit to the Middle East, over strident objections, complaints of hypocrisy and the threat of a congressional investigation.
“Today, today because of President Trump NATO is stronger. Ukraine has defensive weapons citizens, and America left a harmful treaty so our nation can now build missiles to deter Russian aggression,” Pompeo said in his address, praising Trump’s leadership.
Although the State Department maintained Pompeo was speaking in his personal capacity without any U.S. government support or staffing — therefore, legally — the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee identified him a “secretary of state” in previews of his convention remarks.
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