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July 26, 2018

Senators Grill Secretary of State Pompeo over Trump-Putin Meeting
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Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended President Trump's
July 16 Helsinki summit with President Putin, refusing to say what the
two discussed behind closed doors with only a pair of translators
present. This is New Jersey's Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioning Pompeo.

Sen. Bob Menendez: "We don't know what the truth is. And the only way
that we will know what the truth is, what transpired in those two hours,
in a highly amazing period of time to spend alone one on one, is by
understanding at least that if you were briefed by the president, what
he told you. I don't think that's unfair to know, to understand what
policy is."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "Senator, presidents are permitted to
have conversations with their Cabinet members that aren't repeated in
public. I owe-I owe the president the capacity for him to have
conversations with him, try to provide him the best foreign policy
advise that I can. It's what I was brought on to do."



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