State Secretary Pompeo really slapped down ABC News for their story saying that he had heard the alleged audio of Khashoggi being tortured and killed.
Here’s the transcript from NewsBusters:
HEATHER NAUERT: All right, we’ve got to wrap it up.
SECRETARY POMPEO: And I will take your Khashoggi question and only that one. I’ve seen no tape. I’ve seen no – or I’ve heard no tape. I’ve seen no transcript. And the network that reported that ought to pull down the headline that says I have.
NAUERT: Thanks, guys.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you for speaking with us.
POMPEO: Do you work for ABC?
QUESTION: No, but —
POMPEO: You should actually ask them. They’re peers of yours. You should tell them that the Secretary of State is on the record saying this, and that they shouldn’t – they shouldn’t do that. This is wrong to do to the fiancé of Khashoggi. We should be factual when we’re reporting things about this. This is a very serious matter that we’re working diligently on. And so to put out headlines that are factually false does no one any good. You should encourage all your colleagues to behave that way. It’s most constructive when the media tells the truth. It’s very useful.
IN fact there’s reporting against the NBC news “scoop”:
Reuters reported Friday that “Turkey has not shared any audio recordings with anyone, its foreign minister said on Friday, dismissing reports that Ankara had passed on audio evidence of the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist to the United States….“Turkey has not given a voice recording to Pompeo or any other American official,” [Mevlut] Cavusoglu told reporters on a visit to Albania.”
AND:
Still waiting for @abc to make this the lede: Reuters: “Turkey has not shared audio recordings with anyone, foreign minister says.” Again, @SecPompeo and I have gone on record 3 times saying that Sec State has not seen/heard alleged #JamalKhashoggi audio/transcript. https://t.co/7tamozUKQJ
— Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox) October 19, 2018
So why did ABC News roll with this? Clearly it’s because they think it’ll do damage to the reputation of the Trump administration that Pompeo might have seen such unequivocal evidence and still defend the Saudis. But it’s untrue. And yet another example of how the media is undermining their own credibility just to attack Trump.