Mike Pompeo to Newsmax TV: CPAC Proves Conservatism 'Alive and Well'

The conservative movement is "alive and well," despite some of the disagreements that have made headlines in recent months, and in the end, conservatives will all come together, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Newsmax TV Saturday. 

"This is a party that has a lot of ideas, a party with a lot of factions," Pompeo told Newsmax TV's John Bachman and Mark Halperin in an interview after his speech at the American Conservative Union's gathering. "We know that what's on the other side, the other folks that are trying to undermine what our values are, our understanding of the Constitution, that's a greater threat to the United States than any of us are to each other."

He added that he's "very confident" that the party will continue to succeed in the months ahead and he's counting on a "big run, a good run in 2022" for Republicans. 

There are always "personal differences," Pompeo said, but still, "you're working on a mission, a set of policies that matter and you find a way to work together. I'm very confident that the conservative movement will continue to do that."

Pompeo also previewed former President Donald Trump's upcoming CPAC speech for Sunday, saying he has never seen Trump pull punches privately or publicly. 

"I'm confident he will tell the American people what's on his mind that thinks he's thinking and the hopes he has for the future," said Pompeo. "I hope that he does because the things that we did in my judgment made America safer and more prosperous America first is right. It's the right approach to governing both domestically and abroad."

Meanwhile, Pompeo said his own next steps politically will be to help a candidate in Nebraska work toward the 2022 race. As for his own future, "goodness knows."

"You know, if you'd asked me in 2008 if I was going to run for Congress in 2010 I would have told you you were crazy," he said. "If you told me I was gonna be the CIA director in 2017, if you'd told me that in 2015, I would have told you you were crazy, so I don't know."

Pompeo also slammed the Biden administration for its release of the report implicating Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the information was released for political purposes. 

"They wanted to bolster their view of the Iranians as good guys and the Saudis as bad guys, and that's just completely inappropriate," said Pompeo. "I do know that the United States ought not to do this kind of thing with intelligence being released for a political purpose."

Pompeo also told Newsmax TV that Russia was a "hot topic" during the Trump administration for a number of years, and said Democrats are getting the story "backward" on the relationship between the two countries.

"We were tough where it was appropriate to be tough on Russia and other places we tried to find places we could work together," said Pompeo. "I'd remind everyone that Crimea was taken by the Russians during the Obama-Biden administration, not during the Trump administration...we worked hard to continue to convince the Russians the right thing to do would be to reverse course."

He also spoke about the Biden administration's take on immigration, saying he thinks it will have to review what it has already proposed when it comes to lifting actions former President Donald Trump started 

"I think the American people are going to demand that we keep our border security," he said. "What happens to these people when they come to the United States is tragic, and we shouldn't lead them down the false path of hope. We should secure our borders."

Pompeo also spoke out about the Biden administration's order of airstrikes this past week in Syria and said he was surprised at how quickly the action took place. 

"The seats weren't warm and they undid 60 or 70 pretty significant foreign policy policies that we had laid down," said Pompeo. "I'm disheartened to see them moving so quickly to undo (policies) but there are always differences." 

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