Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been particularly outspoken about the state’s use of a new national security law to arrest activists and political opponents of the Chinese Communist Party. ) He answers that what distinguishes the United States is that it is a “rule of law” nation, and then often turns the tables on his questioners, charging that even raising the issue reveals that the reporters are partisans, not journalists, intent on embarrassing Mr. Trump and the United States. “It reduces our credibility — we look like the countries we condemn for nondemocratic practices before an election.”“I have worked for nine secretaries of state,” Mr. Burns said. Our tradition is that secretaries of state stay out of elections. If they wanted to release Hillary Clinton’s emails, they could have done it in 2017, 2018 or 2019.

Source: New York Times October 10, 2020 21:23 UTC