Corker: Pompeo ‘did not endear himself’ to senators at testy hearing

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “did not endear himself” with committee members during Wednesday’s testy three-hour hearing.

Pompeo clashed with senators, especially Democrats on the Foreign Relations panel, who pressed for answers about what President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed during a private two-hour meeting in Helsinki last week.

“Was he handling himself in a manner so that folks at the White House would high-five each other when he responded? I don’t know,” Corker said Thursday. “He probably did not endear himself and probably is going to cause himself a few issues down the road because it takes cooperation on both sides of the aisle to move folks.”

“It was pretty evident that he was pounding his chest so the folks at the White House would cheer him on. Probably could have done without that,” Corker added.

Pompeo got into several angry exchanges with Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, who became irate when Pompeo accused the senior senator of making a “political soliloquy.”

Menendez exploded in exasperation and accused Pompeo of “demeaning” members of the panel, referencing one of Pompeo’s answers that appeared to mock Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

“Please don’t talk to me about politics,” Menendez shouted in response. “If President Obama did what President Trump did in Helsinki, I’d be peeling you off the Capitol ceiling.”