Tipsheet

Mike Pompeo's Message to John Kerry: Back Off

Cortney O'Brien
Cortney O'Brien  |  September 20, 2018 2:45 PM

Last week we learned that former Secretary of State John Kerry has been meeting secretly with Iranian officials like foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif this past year to discuss the nuclear agreement signed by President Obama. He also did not deny that he was "waiting out" Trump to try and save the deal. Trump sounded off on Twitter about the secret diplomacy.

In addition to his rendezvous with Iran, Kerry has criticized Trump's foreign policy on North Korea. That summit with Kim Jong Un, for instance, was staged prematurely.

"You’ve got to have a strategy, you’ve got to have more than just the glitzy meeting with the flags and so forth, and nice statements," he said during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Kerry to back off and let him do his job. He already had his chance, it's the Trump administration's turn. 

“Secretary Kerry can’t seem to get off the stage, and you have to," Pompeo said on "The Ingraham Angle." "When I’m the former secretary, I’ll get off. Every previous former secretary has done that, too."

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“Stop and let it go," Pompeo continued. "You had your day.”

Pompeo accused Kerry of "actively undermining" the administration's progress in Iran and elsewhere. In fact, Pompeo said they are trying to do damage control after the mess left by Kerry and friends. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the "horrible, one-sided" Iran deal in May. In terms of North Korea, Pompeo said he speaks with his counterparts there frequently and they are seeking denuclearization by 2021. 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) agrees that Kerry stepped over the line by speaking with Zarif and believes the Department of Justice should launch an investigation into the matter. He cited the Logan Act.

"As you know, the Logan Act is a statute that imposes consequences against any I.S. citizen who, 'without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States,'" Rubio wrote in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.