On June 15, 2021, former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the formation of the Committee for American Values Political Action (CAVPAC), whose mission, as stated in a press release, is “to protect American values and help the Republican Party reclaim the majority of seats in the House and Senate, as well as control of governorships and state legislatures across the United States. seats, as well as control of governorships and state legislatures across America.”
On behalf of The Epoch Times, I spoke with Secretary of State Pompeo on the phone about CAVPAC and his views on the current situation.
There was much to recall, including the Secretary of State’s emphasis on reforming our left-leaning education system in his new CAVPAC. (Note: Pompeo graduated from West Point and graduated first in his class.)
It is also worth noting that the policies of this administration are vastly different from those of the Donald Trump administration, in which Pompeo played a key role.
For example, I asked the secretary of state, “Would you have given Israel more time to deal with Hamas in the recent conflict?” He replied, “We would tell Israel, do what you have to do, it’s not a matter of us giving them time, we would say, you have an obligation and a responsibility to defend your country, go do it.”
In addition, when asked about President Biden’s ranking of “white supremacy” as the greatest security threat to our country, Pompeo called it “out of touch with reality. (He ranked the Chinese Communist Party at the top)
The following is the full text of the conversation, with only minor changes for clarity.
Roger Simon: Mr. Secretary, let’s start with your CAVPAC, which I imagine you named in honor of the cavalry, the cavalry that came to save America, that America needs, and that CAVPAC is full of the best of intentions – embracing American values and so on. But I want to ask you a difficult question. Our schools, starting in kindergarten, teach children critical race theory, our universities have turned into Marxist indoctrination camps, entertainment and mainstream media are doing the same thing, and all of this has been going on for some time. Is it too late to talk about embracing American values, and what can CAVPAC do to turn this around?
Pompeo: No, it’s not too late.
When I was a young officer, the cavalry sounded the alarm. It’s a little late for us to do it now, but I’m glad it’s not too late to do this program, and the Republic is strong. I know exactly what you mean, and I’ve been asked that question before. But over the last four years, I’ve worked on problems around the world, not the least of which is China. There is no greater threat to the United States than the domestic challenge of the Marxist socialist ideology of the progressive left.
You talked about the theories that are imposed on kindergarten children that say America was founded on racism, and those theories are the challenge of our time, and we can rectify all of that, and the American people know how to do it, and do it in these places: our schools, our churches, our faith-based institutions, and those are going to be the places where Republicans will regain their footing, and we need to make sure that there are leaders at all levels at the grassroots level who are working for that working hard.
That’s why I’m going to be running around, and I’ve been running around for two months now, going around the country talking about this very important set of values, and then finding people who are ready to stand up for that. Whether it’s at a state college board meeting, whether it’s at a parent meeting, whether it’s at a city council, these are the places where we reject ideology and bring America back to its founding ideals, the ideals that made the most remarkable nation in history. I believe that decline is rare, and the American people will choose not to let that happen.
Roger Simon: Very optimistic, and I hope you’re right. But it’s a real dilemma for some of the readers of the Epoch Times – right, center-right, traditional liberals – in other words, probably your constituents. You were the head of the State Department and the CIA, two government agencies that, like other government agencies, are not very popular with this group right now. In fact, last night, Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson and Revolver Media covered this, and I believe the FBI, the Justice Department, were involved in various ways in instigating the events of January 6th, and you were the leader of those agencies, would CAVPAC be against this?
POMPEO: Absolutely, it would be totally inappropriate for the Justice Department to actually do that.
I pushed back against the bureaucracy within the State Department. When there are unelected officials who have their own world view and try to undermine a government and a president who was fairly elected under the Constitution, it creates a huge problem. I’m actually proud of the work that the State Department did under my leadership because we stopped a lot of the malfeasance that was going on there. It’s a very large agency.
There are always going to be bad people, but we make it clear that we want everybody to do the right thing. I’ve met some of the leaders of the FBI, I didn’t run that organization, but I’ve met some of their people, and I’ve seen some of the leaders who seem to have lost their way, and they should be held accountable for that, and it’s definitely a good time to get back on the right path.
Every government employee is supposed to act in accordance with their responsibilities under the Constitution, and they are supposed to be strong agents when it comes to the fair election of the president of the United States, whether it’s intelligence gathering and operations at the CIA or foreign policy and foreign policy at the State Department. Article II of our Constitution designates a Commander in Chief, and I will fight relentlessly to make sure that happens.
Roger Simon: Speaking of the Commander-in-Chief, you and Donald Trump seem to be working very well together, especially with the signing of the Abraham Accords, and I want to talk about that right away. Trump also has a political action committee, how do you two work together, now that you’re almost in agreement on most issues? Are there potential conflicts?
Pompeo: There’s no question that we’re going to be working on some of the same end goals, and we’re going to find the same types of leaders, leaders who are committed to the idea of the work that we’ve been doing for four years, and that has a cumulative effect in many ways.
But I want to be involved in that, particularly in the area of education, which will be one of our focuses. We’re also going to focus on the House and the Senate, having to win back some seats because we have to make sure that President Biden has as little room to exert himself as possible. Just look at his press conference in Geneva after his summit with Vladimir Putin to see that this is important.
But we have to win the school board race, we have to win the city council race. We saw what happened in the schools today, and it’s something that CAVPAC will be looking at, that others haven’t taken the time to do, and it’s about the American people and the average family across the country.
Roger Simon: It’s good to hear the focus on the school board. We have a civil war brewing in Williamson County, Nashville, between the nominal Republicans who are in charge of the school board and the average citizen. Citizens have just formed a new organization called Mothers for Liberty, have you heard of it?
Pompeo: I haven’t heard of it, but I know exactly what they’re doing because I’ve seen what’s going on around the country.
Roger Simon: They’ve gone national, and I recommend them to you. I want to talk a little bit more about the Abrahamic Accords and the Middle East. Do you think those agreements are in jeopardy right now? How do you relate that to the situation in Iran, where Saudi Arabia seems to be backing off and working on a deal with Iran?
Pompeo: The U.S. leadership provided the space for the Abrahamic Agreement to be signed, and the Abrahamic Agreement is at risk if the U.S. makes overtures to Iran, as we did during the eight years of the Obama administration. Having said that, these countries now understand that a foreign policy based on the elimination of Israel is not good for their people.
So whether it’s the Bahrainis, the Sudanese, the Moroccans, frankly, even those countries that didn’t sign the Abrahamic Agreement, the Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, they know that Israel, the key partner in the region is the country that they want to stand with. And when they have to choose between Israel and Iran, they’re going to make a very simple choice. I’m confident in that, but in some ways your view is broader than that.
What prompted this to happen? It’s good leadership from these countries, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the UAE leadership in Bahrain. These leaders are important, but the United States stands with them, the United States says we will support Israel, protect it from the Iranian threat, withdraw from the Comprehensive Agreement on Iran’s Nuclear Program (JCPOA) and put tremendous economic pressure on the Iranian regime, and all of these moves create space for these leaders to make decisions that recognize Israel’s right to exist.
When the U.S. abandons that, we go back to this failed Iran nuclear deal, and these countries then see that Iran has a way to get nuclear weapons, which makes it even harder for them, which puts Israeli and American lives at risk.
Roger Simon: Would you have given Israel more time to deal with Hamas in the recent conflict?
Pompeo: We would tell Israel to do what you need to do, but it wouldn’t be us giving them time, we would say, you have a duty and responsibility to defend your country, go do it.
Roger Simon: On Tuesday, the Biden administration unveiled a national security strategy that lists domestic terrorism as the greatest threat to the United States, primarily “those who preach white racial superiority” – not China, Russia, Iran or foreign terrorist groups.
In a June 1 speech, Biden again called white supremacy “the most lethal threat to homeland security today. As a former secretary of state, would you like to comment on this new security strategy? Do you agree with this statement? What do you think are the factors behind this?
Pompeo: I think this strategy is out of touch with reality, and it’s backed by the politics of the progressive movement. We know what the greatest threat to homeland security is, and I’ve talked about it, is the destruction of our civil institutions, the destruction of our founding ideology, the suggestion to the world that our country is false and built on racist ideology, and that this systemic racism continues to spread through our country.
These ideologies threaten our republic and threaten our institutions. In successive administrations, the goal of the national security strategy has been to identify foreign adversaries that threaten our country, and the Chinese Communist Party should be at the top of the list. Iranians should take sides, and although the CCP is the only organization capable of disrupting and changing our way of life in the next 5, 10 and 20 years, we need to focus like a laser to fight back against it.
Roger Simon: Speaking of the Chinese Communist Party, we’re seeing more of their warplanes entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone than ever before. Do you think we are in great danger of having Taiwan occupied in the next three years under the Biden administration?
Pompeo: Taiwan is certainly Xi Jinping’s primary goal, in his words, reunification, in my words: taking over a democratic country. Xi knows how important that is to his country, and he sees the weakness of the United States, and the combination of the two is dangerous.
This administration, I hope, will continue to build on what we’ve done over the years. We tell the Chinese Communist Party in no uncertain terms that this is your commitment and it needs to be kept, and if you don’t do that, there will be a price to pay. Second, we have done everything possible to support the people of Taiwan, Taiwan’s democracy, and to provide them with weapons to strengthen their military so that the CCP will not consider Taiwan an easy target.
Finally, we built a set of relationships with the Japanese, the Australians, and the Indians that made it clear that we were united in our opposition to any feint against Taiwan, any action that endangered the people of Taiwan.
It’s those initiatives that build deterrence, and I pray that this administration does, we haven’t seen them prepared to take the strong action necessary to continue that process, and I’m concerned that Xi Jinping will see that as a green light, and I hope I’m wrong.
Roger Simon: Two questions, yesterday on Fox host Sean Hannity, you said that Biden showed his weakness by not wanting to stand next to Putin and answer questions from the press corps. Now that you’ve seen the summit, do you still think so?
Pompeo: I still think so, and I watched the speeches by Putin and President Biden. President Putin made a big deal of talking about the moral equivalence between our two countries, denying cyber attacks, denying his egregious actions that violate the basic norms that we all expect to apply – basic human rights – and it would have been great if President Biden had prepared for that in advance.
When Putin was asked that question, it would have been great if Biden had answered that that wasn’t true and responded to those things in a respectful but clear way, in the first place, that the United States would not be indifferent when Russia – the Russian president – was making propaganda to the world, and we lost that opportunity.
Putin said he didn’t feel any pressure, and when I heard President Biden speak, he didn’t sound like he was exerting any pressure. It’s actions, not words, that make the Russians understand, they understand practical actions, they understand moral clarity. And I think that’s what President Biden didn’t do at the summit, and he had an opportunity to communicate that to the world, and he missed that opportunity today.
Roger Simon: Last question, again from Hannity’s show, March, he asked you if you would consider running for president, and you said, you’ve been fighting, and if you lose, would you consider a second term as secretary of state?
POMPEO: No, I haven’t thought beyond 2022, to be honest with you, I haven’t even considered whether that’s possible. There’s unfinished business, and there’s still a lot of important work to be done for a conservative secretary of state, and any time the president asks you to take on something like that, you have to weigh — your responsibility to the United States. I do that all the time. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t continue to weigh this carefully, but the struggle I face today is what I’ve discussed at CAVPAC, and we’ll keep fighting until January of 2023, and we’ll look ahead.
ROGER SIMON: Thank you very much, sir.
Pompeo: Thank you, have a good day, sir.
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