World News: OnPolitics Today: Pompeo and circumstance

Wednesday, July 25

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on July 25, 2018

Trump's secretary of state gets grilled on TV

Also on Wednesday: Trump goes to war with his one-time confidant and pushes back that Russia invite.

The Russia questions wouldn't stop: Mike Pompeo got pounded over President Trump's stance toward Moscow on Wednesday as senators sought clarity on how the president plans to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"President Trump has stated that he accepts our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election," Pompeo said. "He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened."

The committee's senators, who saw Trump stand beside Putin last week and doubt the meddling ever took place, were not all convinced.

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What's Cohen on?

Trump opened an attack Wednesday on his one-time confidant and fixer Michael Cohen, one day after the surfacing of a tape of the two discussing a possible payment to a former Playboy model. "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?" Trump tweeted. "So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?"

A tape on CNN featured Trump and Cohen discussing Karen McDougal, a woman who claimed to have had an affair with Trump beginning in 2006. Cohen made at least a dozen secret recordings that federal prosecutors seized from him in April. He's expected to cooperate with prosecutors, and the White House is a tad anxious about what could surface next.

Russia? No rush

In a surprising reversal, the White House announced Wednesday that Trump will not, in fact, be inviting Putin over to Washington for a meeting this year. That comes amid mounting pressure from fellow Republicans (and Democrats, natch) over his handing of Russia. The stated reason for the delay? "Witch hunt," adviser John Bolton claimed.

"The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," Bolton said in a statement. Ah.

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