Hillary Clinton criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Monday night for not doing more after reportedly listening in on the call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president that is at the center of the whistleblower complaint.
Mrs. Clinton, who served as secretary of state in the Obama administration before losing to Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election, weighed in on the controversy during an appearance with her daughter Chelsea on the “Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. The comedian asked her, “How many times when you were secretary of state did you have to say to Obama, ’You can’t extort foreign countries to get dirt on your political enemies?’ “
Mrs. Clinton laughed and said, “Yeah, that never happened.”
“I think if the secretary of state was on the call, as it is now being reported, he should have been one of the very first people to, you know, just say, ’Wait a minute, we have got to clean this up, you can’t let that stand,” she said. “But we don’t know what he did.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Mr. Pompeo listened in on the Trump-Ukraine call that has led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.
Mrs. Clinton said she supported Mrs. Pelosi’s decision and said Mr. Trump’s behavior falls into the definition of impeachable offenses.
Mr. Colbert also got a laugh from Mrs. Clinton when he asked whether it was time to “Lock him up?” — alluding to the “Lock her up!” chants that became a hallmark of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign rallies.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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