Pompeo invited dozens of GOP donors and partisan activists to taxpayer-funded dinners
1 / 5WASHINGTON — The invitation list for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's taxpayer-funded"Madison Dinners," now under scrutiny by two congressional committees, included dozens of donors to Republican candidates and causes, campaign finance records show.
The heavy concentration of Republican donors and power brokers who were invited or attended marks a significant departure from the practice of past secretaries of state. There also were invitees from right-leaning advocacy groups such as the American Conservative Union and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, as well as conservative luminaries such as Oliver North and Karl Rove. Ten Republican members of the House and the Senate were invited, as was Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots.
Invitations to the media skewed heavily to the right, with more than 15 invitations going to journalists from conservative-leaning media outlets such as Fox News' Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade. Other media attendees included CBS News' Norah O'Donnell, CNN's Jamie Gangel and CNBC's Joe Kernen, the documents show.
In a separate statement, a State Department spokesperson said:"NBC News has found that more than half of the dinner guests were not affiliated with the Republican Party thus confirming the bipartisan nature of these dinners. The Madison Dinners will continue to bring foreign diplomats together with American political, business, and media leaders to help advance U.S. national security interests and diplomacy.
"I think most secretaries are very careful to avoid partisan political activities, to make sure that they aren't involved in domestic politics," a former senior official familiar with how past dinners were organized said."They understood politics as a fact of life, but they always thought that the national security was not to be mixed in with politics at the State Department.
"Our democracy faces some severe threats under President Trump. But social events at the State Department with the secretary and his wife are not among them," he wrote. 'Regretted due to filming'For the dinners, Pompeo and his wife, Susan, sought out a Who's Who of the top corporate leaders in America, including the CEOs of IBM, JetBlue, oil giant ConocoPhillips and Google subsidiary Jigsaw, who were all invited, according to State Department records.
Top-ranked U.S. tennis star John Isner said he was unable to attend because of a busy calendar."I declined because of scheduling and was honored by the invite and hope to be invited again. I am a big fan of the Secretary of State and think he is doing an amazing job," an emailed statement provided by Isner's representative said.
Pompeo has denied any wrongdoing or that he pushed for Linick's sacking as retaliation for any pending investigations.
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