NBC is reporting on the ‘Madison Dinners’ hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan. Indicating that the recent firing of the Secretary of State Inspector General by Trump at Pompeo’s request may have something to do with these dinners and their possible connection to Pompeo’s run for US Senate in Kansas. www.nytimes.com/...
If that is the case, then the guest list for the last Madison Dinner in January is particularly interesting.
Recall that in May of 2019 Secretary of State Pompeo was instrumental in convincing Trump to declare an emergency that allowed US weapons makers to go ahead with a lucrative 8 billion dollar sale of weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia that had been blocked by congress over concerns related to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the disturbing number of civilians being killed with US provided smart bombs in Yemen. www.nytimes.com/...
Among the beneficiaries of this arms deal was Raytheon — whose US made laser guided smart bombs were used later that year by the UAE Saudi coalition in air strikes in Yemen that killed civilians including three children www.amnesty.org/…
Fast forward to January 2020. Trump is being impeached and his chances for a second term appear to be dimming. During this period, Mitch McConnell was urging Mike Pompeo to run for what will be an open Senate seat in his home state of Kansas, where the incumbent Republican Pat Roberts is retiring. www.washingtonpost.com/...
Who might Pompeo be able to call on for corporate dark money contributions to help fund such a late run for that Kansas senate seat. Well, maybe some of the folks he had helped out with that 2019 arms deal. What better way to cultivate that relationship than to bring some of the parties who benefited from that arms deal together for an intimate dinner.
At one of the final dinners before the pandemic, as President Donald Trump was edging away from a potential military confrontation with Iran in January, Pompeo and his wife hosted the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Princess Reema bint Bandar; Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy; national security adviser Robert O'Brien; and Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, according to a seating list reviewed by NBC News.
Is it possible that any of the profits from that 8 billion dollar arms deal will end up in Pompeo campaign coffers? If you were the State Department Inspector General — would you want to look at this Madison Dinner and the others that preceded it — and wonder if it was a legitimate State Department function or a means of cultivating donors and soliciting campaign contributions.
The coronavirus put a kibosh on these Madison Dinners, but I’m sure there are other ways for Pompeo to curry favor with guys like Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy and plenty of favors Mike can still do for his would be dinner guests before he resigns his job as Secretary of State to openly run for that Kansas senate seat. Since the State Department IG has now been replaced by a Pence loyalist, Mike should be able to get away with this sort of stunt for a couple more weeks news.yahoo.com/…
We will know in the next 2 weeks if Pompeo is going to run for that open Senate seat in Kansas, as the deadline to file is June 1, 2020.