Pompeo Madison Dinners scandal (nonfiction)
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Vanity Fair article
Vanity Fair reported:
Pompeo Threw Lavish Dinners for Fox Hosts, GOP Megadonors—With Taxpayer Money
Trump’s secretary of state, already under scrutiny for urging the removal of the State Department’s inspector general, reportedly held about two dozen events with guests like Karl Rove, Laura Ingraham, and Ken Langone.
... Named for the meals former President and Secretary of State James Madison held with foreign diplomats to pick their brains, the lavish events appear to bear less resemblance to those meetings of minds and more to the kind of elbow-rubbing a politically-ambitious former congressman, CIA director, and current secretary of state might engage in to build a base for a future run. Just 14 percent of those invited to the dinners have been foreign officials or diplomats, according to guest lists obtained by NBC News; the rest of the invitees consisted of deep-pocketed figures from the business world, the media, or Washington. The State Department defended the dinners, which are not listed on Pompeo’s public schedule, as educational events where the secretary “has gained knowledge listening to his guests from all across the political spectrum and all around the world.” But critics charge that the invitees for the dinners—Fox News personalities like Laura Ingraham, powerful Republicans like Karl Rove, major GOP donors like Home Depot founder Ken Langone — don’t quite fit the bill for a diplomatic dinner.
“The CEO of Chick-fil-A is not someone I would say is involved in foreign policy,” a source familiar with the dinners told NBC News, referring to Dan Cathy, who attended one of the events at the Harry S. Truman Building in May 2019.