The State Department barred an NPR reporter from accompanying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his trip to Europe and Central Asia on Monday, following a tiff between Pompeo and All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly. According to The New York Times, reporter Michele Kelemen was removed from the trip’s press pool after Kelly reported that Pompeo berated and cursed at her following an interview in which she asked him about Ukraine. “The removal of Michele... comes days after Secretary Pompeo harshly criticized the work of an NPR host. We can only conclude that the State Department is retaliating against National Public Radio as a result of this exchange,” Shaun Tandon, president of the State Department Correspondents' Association, said in a statement.
Last week, Kelly reported that Pompeo shouted at her and used “repeated expletives” after she asked him about former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch—who was been a central figure in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump. “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” he reportedly asked her.
