President Donald Trump praised Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Tuesday for cursing and belittling a National Public Radio reporter who asked him about the Ukraine scandal that has engulfed the White House.
Trump soaked up applause from a friendly audience of White House employees as he name-checked Pompeo at an appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Impressive. That reporter couldn't have done too good a job on you," Trump said to Pompeo. "I think you did a good job on her, actually."
The praise came a day after the State Department apparently retaliated for the spat by removing NPR from the pool of reporters traveling with Pompeo on a trip to Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Pompeo lost his cool Friday when Mary Louise Kelly, a veteran diplomatic correspondent for NPR, asked him about his role in the ouster of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
The nation's top diplomat ushered Kelly into a private room where he berated her and cursed at her for supposedly violating the terms under which he agreed to do the interview. Kelly later released emails showing that she told a press aide that she planned to ask about Ukraine.
Pompeo also sought to belittle the journalist by demanding that she pick out Ukraine on an unmarked map, which she says she did.
He also asked her if she thought "Americans really (care) about Ukraine," a damaging and revealing remark that could undercut his diplomatic mission to Kyiv.
After Kelly went public with her account of the dispute, Pompeo fired back with an extraordinary statement on official State Department letterhead in which he accused her of lying and acting unprofessionally.
In the very unusual personal diatribe, Pompeo wrongly claimed that Kelly broke a promise to not discuss Ukraine and suggested without providing any evidence that she confused Ukraine and Bangladesh.
Press freedom and journalism groups condemned the State Department for blacklisting NPR over the dispute.
