A draft of Mike Pompeo’s speech signals a calming of stormy waters
Washington — US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will seek to tamp down concern about US President Donald Trump’s stance on Russia, telling law makers that the president fully understands the scope of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US election, according to his prepared remarks ahead of Senate testimony. "He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened," according to a draft of Pompeo’s opening statement to the Senate foreign relations committee obtained by Bloomberg News. "This is perfectly clear to me personally based on the many hours I have spent briefing President Trump on Russia-related issues." The statement marks an effort by Pompeo to quell bipartisan frustration and concern among law makers over what happened when Trump met President Vladimir Putin for more than two hours behind closed doors in Helsinki last week and later appeared to discount his own intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election. Pompeo’s statement addresses a num...
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