Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left many questions unanswered during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, according to Sen. Tom Udall, and lawmakers are no closer now than they were before knowing what happened between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during their private meeting in Helsinki.
"That's the disturbing thing," the New Mexico Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"What we end up having here is a president who is a walking conflict of interest.
He noted that Trump has businesses worldwide and has been waiting to set up a Trump Tower in Russia for decades.
"One of his sons made the specific comment that the Russians are disproportionately represented in the deals that they do, and so I just wanted to know, and I think the American people wanted to know, is he working for the American people or is he working for himself?" said Udall.
He said he found it "very discouraging" that Pompeo couldn't answer questions about what went on in the two-hour discussion between the presidents, and that there isn't a formal presentation about the meeting.
Udall said it's a "little bit of both" when asked if Pompeo either would not share what he knows about the meeting, or that he does not know what happened.
"I think he told us what he was assigned to do, but then when you start asking him specific questions, when they got tricky and they got tough in terms of the questions, he would just avoid them," the senator said.
"It's very hard to tell. I mean, he's really got the boss from hell...he's got a president who is really unbalanced and doesn't really focus on what he should be doing in those meetings."
Udall said he does trust Defense Secretary James Mattis and finds him a "calming figure" and widely respected. He also believes Trump is still listening to Mattis.
"I've seen several times where he seems to be accompanying him to meetings and they're having good discussions," said Udall.
"I fear that he's isolated because when you have [John] Bolton and Pompeo and that triumvirate there is in the White House, I really worry that they're overwhelming Mattis."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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