Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday defended what he characterized as the political accomplishments of the previous administration.
Pompeo suggested that although Trump officials and supporters were attacked from all sides and considered “clowns, deplorable, ignorant rednecks” and “evil resistance,” he is proud of its “fight and accomplishments.”
According to Pompeo, the Trump adminstration “demonstrated enormous resistance to the socialism, to the cancel culture and secured American freedom.”
“What’s good news today for me is when you’re a diplomat, when you’re the 70th Secretary of State, you have to stay in your lane. I don't have that. I’m not a diplomat. I’m going to let it rip,” he remarked.
Jobs, climate and border
Pompeo claimed that the Trump administration created jobs for “workers all across America.”
“We put back to work women, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, everyone. We did that, President Trump did that, our team understood that this matters. We have focus on the economy that put Americans back to work,” he suggested.
The Trump appointee also noted that the previous administration “secured borders giving Americans the chance to make a good wage and the chance to take care of their families,” asserting that “American energy jobs” increased as regulations on jobs were "rolled back." "We wanted everyone to take risk and grow their business in great opportunity for people all across America," he stated.
“I hear Democrats pretend they care about jobs in America, but before the seats were warm in the Oval Office, they destroyed 10,000 jobs in a pipeline,” he said, apparently referring to the cancellation of the hotly-contested Keystone XL oil transfer pipeline, shut down by the Biden administration shortly after taking office.
Pompeo also slammed Democrats for a “green agenda,” and complained that they had cut the key permit for the pipeline.
“Sometimes we get accused that we don’t care about the environment, we create jobs that destroy the environment. That is not true,” he offered. “We didn’t protect the environment on the backs of American workers.”
Pompeo expressed his frustration with the Democratic plan to cut the defense budget. According to the Trump ally, Democrats “want to defund the police while they barricade the Capitol,” suggesting that according to his claim the Dems had it “backwards.”
“Canceling our freedom to assemble peacefully while censoring our communications online is completely antithetical to what our founders understood about America,“ he stated.
Pompeo remarked that “America First” is right for the US because it “secures freedom” and “the entire world benefits when America is fearless and bold and strong.”
Foreign Affairs
Running through his foreign policy agenda, Pompeo referred to one most criticized moves by Trump – the US withdrawal from The Paris Climate Agreement, calling it “a fantasy for elite diplomats who just wanted to virtue signal” and describing the treaty to address longterm climate change risks to humanity as a “job-destroying joke.”
“When Biden reentered this deal, I can tell you, Xi Jinping was smiling every single minute and the American workers lost,” he claimed.
Recalling controversial US policy in the Middle East, Pompeo noted that Washington had defended its interests and “defended Israel.” He addressed claims that aggressive US military actions toward Iran and the shifting of the US embassy in Israel, from Tel Aviv at Jerusalem, would start a war, by reporting that “there wasn’t war.”
Pompeo referred to the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE along with Bahrain, saying that the agreements “forged a real peace” in the region. He also defended the Trump order to assassinate Iran's special forces general, Qasem Soleimani, who was considered a key figure in the fight against Daesh* in the Middle East.
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is held 25-28 February. Ex-president Trump is expected to offer a series of remarks at the conference as the Sunday headliner of the show, primarily concerning future Congressional elections and reportedly to declare himself a "presumptive 2024 nominee" in the next presidential race.
* Daesh (also known as IS, ISIL and ISIS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries
