Mike Pompeo Arraigns Washington Post Over ‘Sick’ Headline for ISIS Leader’s Obituary

McConnell Criticizes Impeachment Inquiry as ‘Kangaroo Court’ in Fundraising Pitch

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has new criticism for the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, accusing the Democrats of running a “kangaroo court.” The Democratic leadership is “conducting a kangaroo court over in the House, denying the president his due process rights that every American is entitled to,” McConnell stated in the Facebook ad. “If I have your support, I hope you’ll donate now,” he added, reported The Hill. The ads began running on Oct. 24, according to Facebook. In a caption for one ad, he wrote that “we cannot sit back and let the House Dems deny President Trump basic fairness and due process. Help me fight this kangaroo court!” McConnell hasn’t made many public statements about the impeachment inquiry. “We have not had any conversations on…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ripped the Washington Post over its obituary for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS terrorist leader who died during a U.S. military raid over the weekend.

The paper printed an obituary for al-Baghdadi that initially called him “terrorist-in-chief” in its headline. However, the headline was changed to call him an “austere religious scholar” instead.

After a backlash, the paper updated the headline again to call him “extremist leader of Islamic State,” but the flattering description of the terrorist still remains inside the article, along with a number of lines about his past before becoming the head of ISIS.

“I think it’s appalling and sick … that they’ve frankly not apologized for taking this man who was the head of the terrorist organization that beheaded people… who led a caliphate that threatened large pieces of the Middle East and, indeed, presented risks to the United States and America,” Pompeo said during an Oct. 28 appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“The fact that a national newspaper would describe this person as an ‘austere scholar’ in their headline—in the immediate aftermath of the achievements of President Trump and the administration—is truly appalling,” Pompeo continued.

Media critics, lawmakers, and others coalesced around the issue on Sunday, building up a force that seemed to prompt the outlet to change the headline. Ivanka Trump, another administration official, wrote: “Unreal. al-Baghdadi described as ‘Austere religious scholar’ instead of ‘terrorist’ in Washpo Obituary headline.”

The paper’s later update read: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.”

The paper did not apologize for the description of al-Baghdadi nor explain why the description is fit for the body of the article but not the headline.

“Regarding our al-Baghdadi obituary, the headline should never have read that way and we changed it quickly,” wrote Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of Washington Post Live, in a statement.

Kris Coratti, a spokeswoman for the outlet, later told CNN: “Post correspondents have spent years in Iraq and Syria documenting ISIS savagery, often at great personal risk. Unfortunately, a headline written in haste to portray the origins of al-Baghdadi and ISIS didn’t communicate that brutality.”

“The headline was promptly changed,” she added.

The obituary still includes the line: “When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the reins of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010, few had heard of the organization or its new leader, then an austere religious scholar with wire-frame glasses and no known aptitude for fighting and killing.”

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House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff Says He Wasn’t Told About al-Baghdadi Raid

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who is heading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, said he was not told about the raid that left ISIS terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead on Saturday. Schiff, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News that he wasn’t told about the operation. Hours before, Trump said in a press conference that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other officials were not told due as it would risk potential leaks that would have imperiled the lives of American soldiers. “My understanding [Pelosi] wasn’t [told]. But a couple of things, first of all, good riddance. [Al-Baghdadi] was a blood thirsty killer to the degree that he retained operational control of ISIS,” Schiff told the broadcaster. “This is an operational success, this is a symbolic victory. He…