Stunned Into Silence, State Department Chief Recalls Manafort at His Guiltiest

Sec. Mike Pompeo’s attempts to deflect questions about the president’s Ukraine quid pro quo scandal died a horrible death on Sunday

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s attempts to deflect and avoid giving honest and straight answers about President Donald Trump’s Ukraine quid pro quo scandal died a horrible death on Sunday during his appearance on ABC News’ The Week.

Host George Stephanopoulos asked the secretary if it was appropriate to withhold military aid to Ukraine until they pursued an investigation into the president’s political rivals. Stephanopoulos was referring to acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admitting to the quid pro quo earlier this week. Pompeo said, “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals and secondary things based on what someone else has said.”

Stephanopoulos responded, “Except it’s not a hypothetical.”

Pompeo insisted, “George, you just said, ‘If this happened.’ That is, by definition, a hypothetical.”

Stephanopoulos did not back down, saying, “The chief of staff said it did.”

JUST IN: "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says when asked if it's appropriate to condition Ukraine aid on political investigation after Mick Mulvaney's comments.@GStephanopoulos: "Except it's not a hypothetical" https://t.co/vwL0GRcvq3 pic.twitter.com/VBBTvIVhAk

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 20, 2019

That is the moment when you could almost see Pompeo start to sweat and one could imagine the memes starting to multiply that would include the intro of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” playing in the background as Pompeo went quiet for a prolonged period of time. Then the secretary eventually awoke from his coma and, with a gravelly voice, righted himself and continued to insist that the question was a hypothetical.

As national security editor for the New Republic Adam Weinstein pointed out, the scene was reminiscent of Trump’s former campaign manager and now-jailed felon Paul Manafort’s infamous 2016 viral moment when he was stumped and stuttered through his answer when asked about Trump’s relationships with Russian oligarchs.

WATCH: In light of AP story re Manafort – take a look at his response to a simple question re Russian oligarch ties https://t.co/getQDJUZZG pic.twitter.com/Ic85K4fAE0

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 22, 2017