Ex-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Responds to Pompeo

[applegrove]

Ex-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Responds to Pompeo

January 26, 2020 at 9:20 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 6 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/26/ambassador-responds-to-pompeo-on-ukraine/

"SNIP.....

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor responds in the New York Times to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s sarcastic question in private to an NPR reporter: “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?”

“To support Ukraine is to support a rules-based international order that avoided war among major powers in Europe for seven decades. It is to support democracy over autocracy. It is to support freedom over unfreedom. Most Americans do.”

.....SNIP"

[dem4decades]

1. Taylor is awesome, Pompeo eats shit.

[Talitha]

16. + 1000

[mopinko]

24. and boogers.

[dem4decades]

25. Either shit or boogers seems to be high in calories.

[Hekate]

2. I could weep for my country

[dweller]

3. sadly

i believe you, and I, are in that majority now
😞

✌🏼

[pazzyanne]

7. I'm a member of this group...

…

[James48]

4. Who votes to confirm people like Pompeo?

He just sucks.

[dem4decades]

17. The same people who vote to let Trump stay in office.

[PandoraAwakened]

21. Rethuglican-controlled Senate

First, there's a hearing in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. When passed out of there, it goes to entire Senate for confirmation vote.

In other words: Rubber stamp, rubber stamp. Done & done. Majority rules.

Between judicial confirmations and cabinet positions alone, I'm thinking this Senate is going to go down in history as having rubber-stamped the most incompetent judges and appointees we've ever seen.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. The tide has turned

When we look back on the Trump residency it will seem like the 2018 elections were the first cracks in the foundation, and that enlightened and intelligent elites were slow to see daylight. But in effect the boat had leaks from before the beginning, and it has been a steady drip, drip for 37 months. Fear has been replaced by outrage, fortitude, and resolve to change course. Once wisdom begins to dawn on the solid and silent, and they begin to vent, it is only a matter of time. Distractions, lies, threats, and pompous entitlement are all they have at this point. Patriots will not ever surrender.

[stopdiggin]

6. "Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?"

perhaps, and perhaps not. But what is utterly CERTAIN .. is that the U.S. should have a Secretary of State (and President?) that does.

(but the larger question is, Mr. Pompeo, what was the "get" involved for OUR country .. in throwing THAT country under the bus?)

[dweller]

8. Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?

you can damn skippy bet they DO NOW !!

sometimes i compare and contrast that small country and our large one ...
they elected a popular comedian as President, and we somehow ended up
with a damn fool as ours...
now we are both intent in rooting out corruption in our government, and it stems from the same source...
all roads lead
to putin
😡

✌🏼

[Stonepounder]

15. Whether I care about Ukraine or not,

I care about my country and I care about the commitments they make to allies!! That insane bastard in the White House deserted allies we had promised to defend and left them to die! That alone should be grounds for every single member of Congress - Republican or Democrat, Representative or Senator - to boot his miserable ass out of office and apologize to the world for managing to elect him in the first place!

Oh yeah, and LOCK HIM UP!

[crickets]

9. Key sentence at the beginning of the NYT article:

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv later this week, he has reportedly asked, “Do Americans care about Ukraine?”

After his latest tantrum, it is embarrassing that Pompeo will turn right around to go to Ukraine, pretending to represent our country's best interest and theirs, pretending to deal with Ukraine honestly and fairly.

Taylor's most important points are chilling:

Until Russia withdraws from Ukraine — both Donbas and Crimea — and recognizes that Ukraine is an independent, sovereign nation, other nations cannot be secure. Until Russia recommits to a rules-based international order, Western nations are in jeopardy. Ukraine is the front line.

In an even broader sense, Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the West is an attack on democracy. The question of how nations govern themselves — democracy versus autocracy — is being fought out among and within nations. Russia, China, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, the Philippines, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria — all are autocracies, all are unfree. In the contest between democracies and autocracies, the contest between freedom and unfreedom, Ukraine is the front line.

If only someone of Bill Taylor's caliber were representing us as Secretary of State. Instead we have a political crony, a buffoon who trots out a social studies pop quiz to attempt to trip up a learned journalist who put his feet to the fire with pointed questions he didn't want to answer seriously. If this asinine fool had any conscience or sense, he would resign.

None of these Trump clowns are up to the job, not even enough to fake it. Not one.

Oh, and to answer your question, Pompeo: Yes, we care about Ukraine. We care very much.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. Putin's attack on democracy is aided and abetted by Republicans in office.

Republicans are acting to damage democracy and install an oligarchy.

[Mersky]

23. +1!!!

[Mersky]

22. +1!!!

[patphil]

10. What Pompeo was really saying is that he doesn't care about Ukraine.

It's like when Trump makes unfounded generalizations about "many people" saying something or doing something. He's just trying to justify his position.
Pompeo is the Secretary of State. It's his job to care about Ukraine as a strategic ally in their struggle against Russian aggression.
But then, he works for Trump so why would he care?

Patrick Phillips

[Aussie105]

11. "It is to support democracy over autocracy."

Pompeo's response . . . . well, the average American shouldn't care about that, because that's what Trump & cohort are trying to do in America, autocracy is the new democracy you know, and we don't want them to notice while we are doing the changeover.

Why are dumb people so transparent while they think they are being smart?
Telling people who are smarter than you what they should think never works, anyway.

[NoMoreRepugs]

12. Pompeo has a title, he's really not a Secretary of State.

That would require integrity.

[FakeNoose]

29. We need to start calling him

... Secretary of Squat.

[triron]

13. knr

[Kid Berwyn]

14. Taylor is a hero and patriot, loyal to the Constitution.

Pompeo is a liar and bully, loyal to a moronic traitor.

[PandoraAwakened]

19. +10000! n/t

[spanone]

20. ⭐️⭐️⭐️K&R⭐️⭐️⭐️

[exboyfil]

26. I wonder if you put it in these terms

Our only significant rival in the second half of the 20th century fell apart, and the patron saint of the GOP, Reagan, is given credit for this event (whether he deserves it or not). In the GOP camp (and actually for most Americans) it is considered the most significant international win since the end of World War II.

Trump's foreign policy wants to roll back this achievement. In fact it is his stated goal.

How can the Ronnie Raygun lovers also love Trump? It makes no sense.

[dlk]

27. Pompeo was a tea party congressman from Wichita, home of Koch Industries HQ

He’s always been a partisan wing nut. However, he’s graduated into being a thoroughly corrupt thug.

[AlexSFCA]

28. this is about president not releasing funding approved by congress

Even if some Americans do not care about Ukraine they should certainly care about president violating the constitution. If this stands, then any future president can disobey congress at will.