Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said administration officials who feel they cannot back President Trump should find “something else to do.”
“If you can’t be on the team, if you’re not supporting this mission, maybe you’ve got to find something else to do,” Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday” in an interview aired Sunday.
“We need everyone who’s engaged in helping achieve President Trump’s mission,” he said, ticking off a list of federal agencies, including the Justice Department.
Pompeo was reacting to a question about deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who according to a story in the New York Times last week, raised the idea in May 2017 of secretly recording Trump and then trying to invoke the 25th Amendment to have him removed from office.
While Pompeo wouldn’t address Rosenstein directly, Fox anchor Chris Wallace asked if a person who tried to record the president and use the 25th Amendment is on the team.
“Not remotely,” Pompeo said.
The secretary of state said he’s relayed the same message to junior and senior colleagues in the State Department and other federal agencies.
“I’ve been pretty clear since my beginning of service here in this administration,” he said.
Rosenstein has denied the claims in two separate statements, but the New York Times has stood by its reporting.
Many of Trump’s allies have called on him to fire Rosenstein, but GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham cautioned against letting him go, but said it indicated a plot against the president.
“He shouldn’t fire Rosenstein unless you believe Rosenstein’s line, he said he did not do the things alleged, but there is a bureaucratic coup against President Trump being discovered here.
Before the election, the people in question tried to taint the election, tip it to Clinton’s favor. After the election, they are trying to undermine the president,” Graham said on “Fox.”
United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said talk of ousting Trump through the 25th Amendment is “absurd.”
“I have never been part of it. I’ve never heard it. I don’t think that is a reality at all among all of the cabinet members. I’ve just never heard that. That’s absurd.”
“I have never been part of it. I’ve never heard it. I don’t think that is a reality at all among all of the Cabinet members. I’ve just never heard it. That’s absurd,” she told ABC’s “This Week.”
“Never has anyone talked about the 25th Amendment, never has anyone even questioned the president’s mental stability … what you feel when you go to the White House is we’re going in a good direction,” she said.