Pompeo Reacts to Shrieking Heckler: ‘If There Were Only So Much Freedom of Expression in Iran’
A heckler who interrupted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech on Sunday night in support of the Iranian people got little sympathy from the audience or from her target, who used the disturbance to underline his message about the plight of those living under the regime in Tehran.
Pompeo was speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi, Calif. about the regime’s abuses at home and policies abroad when a woman began shouting slogans to the effect that “the Trump-Pence regime is kidnapping children.”
The audience, who had given Pompeo an enthusiastic reception, immediately broke into loud boos.
Pompeo waited, smiling patiently, as the yelling continued, and as the audience response morphed into chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A. …”
Then he said, “if there were only so much freedom of expression in Iran,” drawing more cheers before proceeding with his speech.
— Patrick Goodenough, July 22 CNSNews.com blog post
Responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s warning Sunday that a war with Iran would be “the mother of all wars,” President Trump used his Twitter feed for a warning of his own directed at the regime in Tehran.
“To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,” the president tweeted.
“WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”
— Patrick Goodenough, July 22 CNS blog post
(The contrast: Goodenough didn’t refer to Trump as “shrieking” or “yelling” even though tweeting in all caps is the Twitter equivalent of yelling. Also, the Pompeo post has a note describing it as “corrected” without detailing what, exactly, was corrected.)