The impeachment inquiry has created the first rift between President Donald Trump and the Cabinet member who has been his closest ally, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to four current and former senior administration officials.
Trump has fumed for weeks that Pompeo is responsible for hiring State Department officials whose congressional testimony threatens to bring down his presidency, the officials said. The president confronted Pompeo about the officials — and what he believed was a lackluster effort by the secretary of state to block their testimony — during lunch at the White House on Oct. 29, those familiar with the matter said.
Inside the White House, the view was that Trump “just felt like, ‘rein your people in,’” a senior administration official said.
NBC:
News
Guess Who? — ‘I’m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country’
Before departing for California (lucky youse guys!) Trump told reporters that he has the right to interfere in the US Justice system as the chief law inforcement officer, typically the unofficial title of the Attorney MORE
Newscasts
Scarf Lady, Dr. Birx, speaks out about Trump’s Coronavirus Warriors
Asked whether she considered quitting, Birx replied: “Always. I mean, why would you want to put yourself through that every day?” Deborah Birx said in a new interview that she “always considered” resigning from the White House MORE
News
Billy Barr says Trump should stop tweeting about DoJ: ‘Impossible for me to do my job’
In an exclusive interview, Attorney General Bill Barr told ABC News on Thursday that President Donald Trump “has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case” but should stop tweeting about the Justice Department because MORE