Pompeo widely blasted by US media, seen as 'worst secretary of state ever'

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been widely denounced by domestic media for his egregious performance in office, with The New York Times calling him "the worst secretary of state in American history, without a single diplomatic achievement."

In an opinion piece published by the newspaper, Thomas L. Friedman pointed out that Pompeo's two most notable accomplishments as secretary of state are "shooting two of his senior State Department officials in the back," and pushing conspiracy theories in terms of Washington's response to COVID-19 to scapegoat China and distract domestic attention.

"The secretary of state first accuses China of manufacturing a virus that has killed over 340,000 people worldwide and then, when reminded that our intelligence agencies have concluded no such thing, he backs off with no explanation. Can you be any more unprofessional?" he wrote in late May.

"The morale and effectiveness of our State Department - and our standing in the world - are both the worse for him," Friedman lashed out.

In a hostile speech at Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum last Thursday, Pompeo groundlessly attacked the domestic and foreign policies of China, incited ideological hatred against the Communist Party of China and tried to instigate "the free world" to stand up against China.

"The problem was not simply that the nation's chief diplomat was decidedly undiplomatic. Worse was his misrepresentation of history and his failure to suggest a coherent or viable path forward for managing a relationship that more than any other will define this era," Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article in The Washington Post on July 26.

Pompeo sought to commit the United States to a path that is "bound to fail," Haass warned.

Joe Scarborough, a cable news host on MSNBC, slapped Pompeo over Ukraine issues as a "common thug" and a "criminal" who has been "lying through his teeth" for the US administration.

"He's acting like a common thug. He's lying about our country. He was in on [the Ukraine] call that he knows crossed every line of propriety," Scarborough said. "Now he's behaving like a thug in trying to basically tell Congress that he can do whatever he wants to do and not to reach out to anybody at the State Department."

Likewise, Pompeo was acting like "a bald-faced liar" over Ukraine issues, according to Dartagnan, a community member of Daily Kors, a US group blog and internet forum. "As it turns out, he's looking just as corrupt as his pals," Dartagnan wrote.

"If there was ever a time for the House to exercise its power of Inherent Contempt, this would be that time. Because you'd really be hard pressed to find anyone more inherently contemptible than Mike Pompeo," the writer noted.