U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lost his temper after a journalist questioned him on the administration's stance on Ukraine in a NPR radio interview on Saturday.
The Secretary of State came under scrutiny last year when it emerged that he had been one of the senior administration officials listening in on a phone call, a center of the impeachment case, between Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Much of the Saturday's interview dealt with Iran. But the journalist Mary Louise Kelly closed the interview by asking questions about Ukraine.
"Do you owe Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch an apology?" the journalist asked.
A tense exchange followed, wherein Pompeo said he had "defended every State Department official," while Kelly asked, in vain, when he had publicly defended Yovanovitch. "I've said all I'm going to say today. Thank you," Pompeo said ending the interview.
But the story didn't end there, and Kelly related the rest in an NPR broadcast on Friday evening, an account which Pompeo on Saturday disputed. She said she thanked the secretary, who did not reply, but leaned in and glared at her before leaving the room.
A staffer then invited Kelly to Pompeo's private living room, without her recorder.
There, Pompeo "was waiting and... he shouted at me for about the same amount of time as the interview itself lasted," Kelly said.
"He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine," Kelly said, adding that the secretary asked her, "Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?"
Pompeo then asked his advisers to bring out a map of the world without the countries labeled, to see whether Kelly knew where Ukraine was located.
"I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away," said Kelly, who holds a master's degree in European studies from Cambridge University.
In a written statement released later by Pompeo, he said Kelly failed to point out where Ukraine is and also accused the reporter of "violating the basic rules of journalism and decency."
He said Kelly lied to him twice. The first time, which he did not elaborate upon, was "in setting up our interview." He also alleged that the post-interview "conversation" was supposed to be off the record.
"It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency. This is another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this administration," Pompeo said.
"It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine," he added.
Kelly said she was not told the conversation would be off the record, nor would she have agreed to those terms if she were asked.
NPR's president and CEO John Lansing said he supported Kelly and called Pompeo's statement "blatantly false" and said neither Kelly nor the organization will be intimidated.
(With input from AFP)
(Cover: A combination of photos of Mary Louise Kelly (L), who accepts the award for best reporter/correspondent/host – non-commercial for "All Things Considered" on "NPR News" at the 43rd annual Gracie Awards in California 2018, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who attends a roundtable discussion on Venezuela in Miami in January 2020. Photos are originally acquired from AP. /CGTN Photo)