The U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo who surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban on behalf of disgraced former President Donald Trump has endorsed Tom Kean, Jr. for the Republican nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district.
Pompeo was a member of the United States House of Representatives when Trump appointed him as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in January 2017.
Pompeo was promoted to secretary of state in March 2018, after Trump fired Rex Tillerson, who was reportedly astonished at how little the President grasped the basics of foreign policy and openly called him a “moron” after a July 20, 2017 Pentagon meeting with Cabinet officials and members of the White House security team.
In Congress, Pompeo was a hardline conservative Republican from Kansas who in 2014, defended the CIA officers who waterboarded detainees as patriots.
“Tom Kean, Jr. is the model of a true public servant,” said Pompeo. “Tom has an unmatched record of standing up for his constituents and his home state of New Jersey, and I am proud to endorse him to take the fight down to Washington on behalf of the people of New Jersey.”
“Tom is the exact kind of leader New Jersey needs to help break the back of inflation, secure our nation’s borders, and put a check on the Democrats to get our country back on track,” said Pompeo, who used taxpayer resources for personal purposes and to bolster his own political ambitions.
Kean is the 53rd Republican candidate endorsed by Pompeo’s super PAC, Champion American Values Political Action Committee.
Pompeo’s frequent taxpayer-funded dinners with political contributors revealed his presidential ambitions, the New York Times reports Pompeo has done even more politicking under the guise of official business.
Pompeo has on multiple occasions used his official State trips to visit conservative donors and politicians—without putting them on his public schedule or informing reporters of the trips.
Pompeo’s secret visits included a dinner meeting with Republican donors while in London for a NATO meeting, and a visit with Republican billionaire Charles Koch aboard a government aircraft while on an official trip to Kansas.
The former secretary and CIA director also made trips to major gatherings of business leaders—which were branded as official business but prime for political schmoozing—including visiting one annual Bilderberg Meeting in Switzerland and two Allen & Company Sun Valley Conferences.
Pompeo’s repeated trips to Kansas were so frequent that the Kansas City Star issued an op-ed proclaiming, “Mike Pompeo, either quit and run for U.S. Senate in Kansas or focus on your day job.”
Those trips and donor dinners reek of Pompeo using his office for political gain in violation of the Hatch Act.
Pompeo’s apparent political opportunism is far from the only scandal to tarnish his tenure as secretary of state, such as firing an inspector general who investigated him for using an aide for personal errands and delivering weapons to Saudi Arabia, then replacing the watchdog with a political ally.
Circumventing congressional approval, Pompeo issued an emergency waiver for an $8 billion arms sale to the Persian Gulf kingdom.
Another Pompeo controversy involved directing government employees to perform household tasks for him and his wife, like washing dishes or walking his dog.