Mike Pompeo to John Kerry: ‘Time to get off the stage’

Mike Pompeo to John Kerry: ‘Time to get off the stage’
John Kerry. Image via Twitter

As tensions between America and Iran escalate, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has grown tired of former Secretary John Kerry attempting to butt into and subvert the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Pompeo was a guest on the “Guy Benson Show” on Fox News Radio Friday and let Kerry have it.

… Pompeo slammed his predecessor John Kerry, telling him “it’s time to get off the stage” and stop inappropriately engaging with foreign leaders while undermining the Trump administration’s foreign policy.

Pompeo made the comments … amid … calls to investigate Kerry, the former secretary of state under President Obama, over the alleged violations of the Logan Act for meeting with Iranian officials.

[…]

“It is ahistorical and completely unhelpful when previous secretaries of state are continuing to engage in the tasks that they engaged in when they were the secretary of state,” Pompeo said. “I’ll leave it at that in the sense of it’s time to get off the stage for the previous administration.”

During interviews to promote his new book this past September, Kerry told an interviewer that he has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif three or four times since leaving his Foggy Bottom office. Kerry explained that their talks touched on the international nuclear agreement that Kerry negotiated and which President Trump wisely withdrew from. That was the first time Kerry admitted his interference with America’s Iran policies, but in May of 2018, the Boston Globe reported that he had been secretly meeting with the Iranian foreign minister and European leaders, advising them on how to save the flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Pompeo went on to accuse Kerry of advising to the Iranians that the best course of action is to wait out the current administration, calling it “unheard of.”

“I understand they have different views than we have, they are entitled to those views. But talking with senior leaders around the world and suggesting to them somehow that waiting out this administration is the best course of action for those countries is something that is unheard of,” he said.

“It is fundamentally different than any previous administration has undertaken and they ought to leave the foreign policy to us,” he added.

It has also been reported that Kerry told Palestinian President Abbas to wait out the Trump administration, stating that Trump would be out of office within one year.

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In recent weeks Trump accused Kerry of violating the Logan Act, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio asked attorney general Barr to investigate. Sadly even if there are formal charges against Kerry, the track record of enforcing the Logan Act is not good. In the 220 years since the it was signed into law, only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating it: Francis Flournoy in 1803 and Jonas P. Levy in 1852. Neither one was convicted.

Cross posted at The Lid

Jeff Dunetz

Jeff Dunetz

Jeff Dunetz is editor and publisher of the The Lid, and a weekly political columnist for the Jewish Star and TruthRevolt. He has also contributed to Breitbart.com, HotAir, and PJ Media’s Tattler.

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