Pompeo trumpets Trump, razzes critics in speech to VOA

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to U.S. government-funded airwaves on Monday to deliver a full-throated defense of the Trump administration’s presentation of its foreign policy and its support for democracy abroad. In an address broadcast live across VOA’s English and foreign language services, Pompeo also stood by the parent agency’s embattled director, Michael Pack, who has been accused by lawmakers and others of trying to turn the U.S.-funded international broadcasters into Trump propaganda outlets. “It’s not fake news for you to broadcast that this is the greatest nation the world has ever known,” Pompeo said, without directly mentioning Wednesday’s deadly attack on the seat of the U.S. Congress. In a message sent to Pack and new VOA director Robert Reilly on Friday, a lawyer for a group of VOA employees objected to Pompeo’s plan to speak at the agency, saying it “endangers public health and safety, violates law, rule and regulation and grossly wastes government resources.” “A broadcast speech by the outgoing secretary of state on topics on which he has been widely covered should be seen for what it is: the use of VOA to disseminate political propaganda in the waning days of the Trump administration,” said the letter, signed by attorney David Seide of the Government Accountability Project. “I read that some VOA employees didn’t want me to speak today,” Pompeo said.