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The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is over, and one of the best speeches of the entire event was given by Mike Pompeo, who was a key player in the Trump Administration, Congressman from the State of Kansas and, in addition, is emerging as a possible presidential candidate for 2024.
How can Pompeo’s speech at CPAC be described? Challenging, powerful and stubbornly free. It was a speech that did not leave the audience indifferent, which applauded with fervor at every turn where it was possible to approve the message of the former Secretary of State.
Pompeo targeted cancel culture, socialism, the Chinese Communist Party, woke culture, the Democrats, the Paris Agreement and President Joe Biden himself. A Republican machine gun that bet on the unmistakable line of reaching the hearts of the base.
“Last year, I came here as America’s 70th Secretary of State, President Trump’s Secretary of State. And before that, I was here as a member of Congress from South Central Kansas. Yeah, go Kansas. But this is different. This time’s different. In the last few months, we’ve been called clowns and deplorables and ignorant rednecks. We’ve been called the evil resistance. The New York Times thinks I’m the worst Secretary of State of all time.”
He added authoritatively, “Yeah. Since I last saw you, the Chinese have sanctioned me. The Iranians don’t think so much of me either, but I’m proud of our fight and I’m proud of our accomplishments and that we have truly upended the status quo. We’ve demonstrated enormous resistance. Resistance to socialism, to the woke, cancel culture. I’ll talk some about that. We resisted seeing our liberty and our freedoms slipping away. This is a noble worthy fight and we’re in it.”
America First
During much of his speech, Pompeo took the opportunity to talk about the achievements of the Trump Administration and the importance of America First and how this should be the way forward for the USA; emphasizing how vital it is to fight for freedom, despite the fact that things may not always go well.
“We don’t always see it going exactly the way we want, but we should never give up. We should always be true to ourselves and we will succeed at all of it if we do,” Pompeo asserted after telling a story about his family and, in particular, his grandfather Earl Mercer.
“We focused on the economy that put Americans back to work. We did it by also securing our borders, giving Americans the chance to make a good wage and a chance to take care of their families. And we also… I’m from Kansas, don’t forget. We built American energy jobs too. We rolled back regulations on job careers, and we wanted everyone to take risks and grow their business and create opportunity for people all across America. I heard this time and time again. I remember I ran for Congress in 2010, when President Obama was in office. Employers and workers had both lost confidence. We restored that confidence. They knew we had their back. We knew we’d support them, not burden them. We wanted them to be successful.”
Mike Pompeo
A key part of the Republican’s speech was to talk about working people, a base the GOP must target if they are to continue to gain support from the American working masses.
After that, Pompeo took the opportunity to deliver what was one of his most withering criticisms in his entire speech.
“The hallmark of our work here in America was that we were bold and fearless. And what I hear today, 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. And I see to my predecessor’s predecessor, green geek, John Kerry, right? He thinks these folks are all going to go make solar panels. I’ll tell you what, you ask the good people of midland Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, or South Dakota, Pennsylvania. You think petroleum engineers and rig hands are going to go out and make solar panels?”
Mike Pompeo
“No, and you can bet this too. Those cheap Chinese solar panels will start flooding into America like you have not seen. And this won’t be good for the United States of America. Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes we get accused, say we don’t care about the environment. We create jobs that destroy the environment. That’s just not true. We simply didn’t do it. We didn’t protect the environment on the backs of American workers. There were more job openings than people looking for work for much of these past four years. It was an amazing accomplishment.” said the former Secretary of State after criticizing Kerry.
At this point, it is important to stress that the Biden Administration has a diametrically opposed approach to the Trump Administration. The Democrat seeks, in effect, to prioritize the development of more renewable energy in the long term. This major project, which includes reducing the country’s carbon emissions, may jeopardize the practice of drilling or fracking, which has been key to the economic success of the United States and has served not only to generate thousands of jobs, but also for many companies to lower their carbon emissions.
Pompeo against the CCP
If there was a target against which Mike Pompeo aimed and fired with special passion, it was against the Chinese Communist Party. Above all, explaining how the Administration he was part of understood the nature of Xi Jinping’s regime, arguing that the USA can stand up to the Asian power.
“When the Chinese wanted to come steal your job, we just said no way. 40 years, bipartisan, Democrat and Republican, 40 years of failure letting Made in China crush us was going to stop.”
Not content with that, Pompeo also spoke of a foreign policy focused on strength to put America First, something that included the intelligence and determination needed to avoid war. He also took the opportunity to leave a critique of the Paris Agreement and the Biden’s dministration.
“America first is right for America. It’s right for each of us. America first secures our freedom and the entire world benefits when America is fearless and bold and strong. Let me just tick through a few ways. Right? So first, we showed up the Paris Climate Accord, that it was a job- destroying joke.”
Mike Pomepo
“Look, we all want clean air, safe drinking water. But the Paris Agreement was a fantasy for elite diplomats who just wanted to virtue signal. And when President Biden re-entered this deal, I can tell you that Xi Jiaping was smiling every single minute. And the American workers lost. We too spent a lot of time. We defended America in the Middle East and we defended Israel in the Middle East too. We were told a number of things, right? This was what establishment foreign policy is. You were told that you can’t sanction the Ayatollah in Iran and you can’t stop sending pallets of cash to the leadership. There’ll be a war. Well, we did. And there wasn’t a war”
At this point, Pompeo, latched on not letting go for long minutes of time,, recalling the Trump Administration’s successes in the Middle East and making it clear that the diplomatic efforts he was part of left the diplomatic establishment of the American left and right in a bad light: “The Abraham Accords rewrote decades of failed shuttle negotiations, because we were willing to go against the elites of the foreign policy establishment, left and right to secure American freedom and to champion your values. It’s unfortunate. Looks like the new Team Biden appears to be headed back into appeasing Iran. This will be a disaster for the United States of America and a disaster for the region as well.”
Pompeo vs. President Biden, liberals and an ode to Reagan
Pompeo boasted that, during his time as Secretary of State, foreign policy achievements resolved serious conflicts such as North Korea, deterred U.S. enemies on several fronts and, in addition, also served to bring many Americans back home. In that sense, he attacked President Biden’s phrase “America is back.”
“I hear President Biden saying America’s back. Back to what? So back to pallets of cash to the Ayatollah, so he can build missiles that threaten us. Back to apologizing when Iranians tell our soldiers and sailors to take to their knees at gunpoint. Back to President Biden killing pipelines. Back to all the things that put America at risk. Back to supporting a pipeline in Europe that’ll create European jobs. This is not where we want to go back to any time at all. And we certainly don’t want to go back to letting China have trade deals that kill our jobs right here in America. We can’t afford it. We can’t afford it. It’s not the right thing. And we don’t have to do it. We must be bold. And we must always put America first.”
Mike Pompeo
In one of his last lines, Pompeo took the opportunity to criticize American Liberals for, supposedly, claiming to stand up for those most in need, but, at the same time, generating policies that produce just the opposite.
“I’m always stunned. Liberals pretend to care about the poor. And then they side with the union bosses against the workers. They pretend to stand for children while kids in Democrat-led inner cities aren’t in front of computers like they think they are. They’re struggling to figure out how to stay safe from drug Lords and how to get a meal. That’s not good leadership. That’s not America First leadership. It’s not taking care of those people you’re charged with protecting, and we need to get every one of our children back in school. And we need to get them back in now.”
In closing, Mike Pompeo did not forget to make an ode to former President Ronald Reagan and the fight for freedom.
“President Reagan, a real pipe hitter, President Reagan got stuff done. And he once said, “If we lose freedom here, if we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape. This is the last stand on Earth.” I saw that. I saw that as your Secretary of State, as I traveled all around the world. And I’m confident that he was right. I am confident that the American star will shine across the heavens so long as we keep a proper understanding of our God-given rights at the center of who we are. And we keep up our quest to secure our freedom for our own people and for all of mankind. I’ll be with you in the fight. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you.”
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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