Pompeo rebukes Biden’s new foreign policy

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admonished President Biden’s newly-announced diplomatic strategy during one of his first media appearances since the Trump administration ended.

Appearing on Fox News on Thursday evening, Pompeo gave his reactions to Biden’s announcement earlier that day in which he stated, “America is back, diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”

“I don’t think the American people can afford to go back to eight more years of Barack Obama’s foreign policy. I hope they’ll move forward with a foreign policy, much more like our America First foreign policy,” Pompeo said to Fox News host and former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy.

Pompeo also shot back at Biden’s criticisms of former President Trump, who Biden said had failed to stand up to Russia.

“We worked hard to prevent Russia from interfering in our election. I’m proud of the work that we did. I’m proud of the work we did to push back against Russia,” Pompeo said.

Soon after Trump assumed office, former FBI Director Robert Mueller launched an investigation into the Trump campaign to determine if Russia had aided in getting Trump elected. However, in 2019 Mueller announced that he had discovered no proof that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia.

Gowdy noted that Biden has committed to rebuilding ties with allies, and Pompeo acknowledged that his time as secretary may not have been well received by other nations.

“When I was the secretary of State, I shot straight. I told it like it was. That probably won’t frankly surprise you,” Pompeo told Gowdy. “And there were some cold receptions in Brussels and in some of the salons of Europe, there’s no doubt about that.”

Gowdy asked Pompeo if he would ever return to public service, to which he replied it’s “hard to know.”

“I served as a soldier a long time ago now. Then I had the incredible opportunity to serve alongside you as a member of Congress and then these two new jobs in the Trump administration,” he said. “We’ll have to see what life brings. For now I’m gonna take a little break. Work hard, think a little bit, write a little bit and then we’ll see what’s in front of us.”