A CNN panel on Friday marveled at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's angry rebuttal this week to senators who asked him about President Donald Trump's potential conflicts of interest when it comes to conducting foreign policy.
After a senator asked Pompeo on Thursday about how Americans can trust the president isn't enriching himself through his own foreign policy given that he still refuses to release his tax returns, the secretary of state lashed out and called the very question "absurd" and "scurrilous."
CNN political analyst Mark Preston said it was bizarre seeing Pompeo responding to a completely legitimate question with such rage -- and he said it fed into a theory he had about the two kinds of people who serve in the Trump White House.
"There are two ways of thinking in the White House," he said. "There is one that says, 'I have to stay to try to protect the country from Donald Trump.' And then there is that bunker mentality where they all feel that they are under attack right now. And when we always talk about gaslighting, saying things over and over again, there are a lot of people in the White House that actually believe what Donald Trump is saying right now."
When asked by CNN's Alisyn Camerota about which "group" Pompeo's angry answer about Trump's conflicts of interest fell into, Preston couldn't give a definitive answer.
"That one fell into, 'I want to keep my job and I don't want to get called into the West Wing,'" he said.
Watch the video below.
