Pompeo said he and Bill Taylor, the charge d’affaires in Kiev, are “in full accord” on US policy there, but did not specifically address a question about his confidence in the diplomat himself.

Pompeo, conducting interviews over a two-day visit in Kansas, has been dismissive and evasive of questions surrounding the House Democratic impeachment probe, despite his department’s increasing entrenchment in that inquiry.

Pompeo sought to downplay the impeachment inquiry as Beltway “noise” in a series of interviews in Wichita, Kansas, on Thursday and Friday — just days after Taylor presented damning testimony related to a quid pro quo underlying presidential lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine.