Pompeo defies precedent, backs Trump’s re-election bid

TIL Desk/World/Manila/ Deviating from his own advice and breaking the longstanding precedent of sitting United States secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics, Mike Pompeo has urged Americans to re-elect President Donald Trump if they want to keep the country safe and their freedoms intact.

The unconventional address of Pompeo at the second day of the mostly-virtual Republican National Convention on Tuesday created a political uproar, especially from the opposition Democratic Party, which asserted that the Secretary of State should stay away from partisan politics.

The decision to speak to the political convention in pre-recorded remarks from Jerusalem breaks with the longstanding precedent of sitting secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics and appears to violate guidance on political activities that Pompeo himself emphasised in a cable to diplomats just last month.