Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is speaking out about why he's not speaking out.
Pompeo gave one of the Trump administration's rare press conferences Monday to announce another pro-Israel policy and was immediately hit with impeachment questions. Specifically, Pompeo was asked about one current and one former State Department employee — and refused to defend them even though he said earlier that's something he "always" does.
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Pompeo didn't acknowledge that he had refused to defend one specific employee, in this case Yovanovitch. He then declined to say whether he had confidence in ambassador William Taylor, who replaced Yovanovitch, after he provided damaging testimony against the Trump administration in last week's impeachment hearings.
The conference's main purpose was to announce the U.S. would no longer automatically consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be "inconsistent with international law," as they were found under a 1978 State Department legal opinion. It's yet another affirmation of the Trump administration's pro-Israel stance, and is sure to be opposed by Palestinians and their supporters.
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