Interview
Secretary of State
QUESTION: Tell me what it’s like to be back in Kansas. I mean, this is your first stop back since becoming Secretary of State.
SECRETARY POMPEO: It’s great fun to be home. It feels great. Susan and I are having a good time. We had a chance to talk to some friends yesterday. We’ll get a little bit more chance to do that today as well. But importantly, we’re here to help Kansas businesses, Kansas entrepreneurs, and that’s something that’s near and dear to my heart as well.
QUESTION: And that’s something I was going to ask you about. Why is that important to you as Secretary of State? It’s obviously something you care about, but how does that play into your role as Secretary of State?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So no nation can be truly strong and safe without a robust economy, right – it costs money to defend the country, and other nations respect economic power as well, so that tool is central. So part of growing our economy is making sure that our businesses, whether they’re big companies in New York City or in Kansas or smaller entrepreneurs all across America – need to make sure that they have access to markets, that other countries don’t prohibit us from selling, that we can partner and get resources, foreign direct investment here in the United States. And the State Department can play a big role in that.
QUESTION: And you also made trips recently to Texas and to Iowa, and you said in part in one interview that you want stop just hiring people from Boston and D.C. and New York. Why is that important to you, to talk to young people in Kansas and in Missouri about working for the State Department?
SECRETARY POMPEO: We work in 180-plus countries around the world. We need a very diverse workforce, and part of that diversity is making sure we have people from all across America, people who go to schools out here in the Midwest and who grew up and were raised out in places like Iowa and Texas and Missouri and Kansas. And so I want Kansas kids to know that being a diplomat is a privilege, it’s a service to America, and I want them to know whether they’re a mathematician, an engineer, an English student, we use all kinds of different skills and we want them to take a look at the State Department as a place they can make a really great life.
QUESTION: You often talk about the family farm, or the farm that your family has in Winfield, which is where I grew up.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah.
QUESTION: And you mentioned kind of opening markets and trade. The tariffs the President put on Chinese imports have obviously hurt farmers in the short term. What do you say to farmers in Winfield when they feel the pinch from those tariffs?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, Jace, look, to your point, you know this and I know this: It’s a tough business. These are hardworking people, and President Trump is determined to make their lives better. When he came into office, we’d had decades of Chinese abuse where we couldn’t sell our wheat, couldn’t sell our cattle, we couldn’t sell our beans or our cotton into China without a massive tariff, and when we did, they would steal our intellectual property. Those were unacceptable outcomes. The trade war was started an awfully long time ago by China. President Trump’s trying to flip that. He’s trying to make it better. I’ve seen the discussions; I know we’re making progress. I’m hopeful there’ll be a deal with China before too long, but I think farmers know this: They want to hand their farm down to the next generation, to their kids and to their grandkids, and if we don’t ensure that China and other countries as well in Europe – if we don’t ensure that they treat our farmers fairly, it’ll be really bad news in the medium and long run for agriculture in Kansas and all across America.
QUESTION: And staying on China, what things does the administration realistically expect to get out of a deal with China? I mean, what would that look like?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So there are really three primary objectives from the trade agreement. First is access to markets on a fair and reciprocal basis. You mentioned tariffs. That’s one piece of it. We want to make sure that the two countries compete with an even set of tariffs. We would hope no tariffs in either country, but non-tariff barriers too, places where they say that Kansas food isn’t safe, which is ridiculous on its face. So we’ve got to pull those back as well. And then the last piece is an enforceable mechanism. For too long companies that manufactured airplanes or sold services to sell into China had to hand over their intellectual property. They had to share with them their patents and all the things that really provided resources and power to their businesses, and then China just flat-out stole it. We want to put mechanisms in place that prevent China from stealing American intellectual property as well.
QUESTION: And you mentioned this a little bit. How does trade impact national security? How are those two things related?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, they’re very closely linked. Jace, I don’t travel to any country around the world where America’s economy isn’t front and center. These countries want access. They want know-how. They want the human capital. They want Americans to come invest in their country. If we don’t have a successful economy, if we’re not – we’ve got one of the lowest unemployment rates in history in the United States today. If we don’t maintain that and, frankly, even make it better, countries will see us as weak and they will think they can push us around. And when that happens, it presents a real risk not only to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, but to those of us who live right here in the United States as well.
QUESTION: Switching gears a little bit, you came from the CIA, and one of the reports in 2017 found that Russians meddled in the U.S. 2016 election. With 2020 coming up, how can Americans be sure that Russia or any other country isn’t meddling in our elections or compromising our democratic process?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So it’s an important question. Russian interference took place long before 2016. It took place in 2016 as well, but not only Russia. We have risks from China, Iran, North Korea. There are many countries that want to undermine Western democracy. Trump administration has been very focused on that. The 2018 elections, the off-year election cycle, the non-presidential cycle, we did pretty well at reducing that risk. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, all of the resources that America can bring to bear should give the American people great confidence that we will continue to hold free and fair elections here in the United States with reduced risk that others will interfere. Americans need to be vigilant. This is important. But America will get this right.
QUESTION: Another place where elections have been a big issue is Venezuela, and you announced that U.S. diplomats were being removed from Venezuela as political chaos continues there. Of course, the United States supporting Juan Guaido as the interim president, but Maduro continues to hold power there. What’s really the long-term strategy in Venezuela, and what makes it important to the American national interest?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So the mission set is very clear. We are working to deliver democracy for the Venezuelan people. Maduro usurped power; he’s not the duly elected president. Juan Guaido is the person that the Venezuelan people chose. America and now 54 other nations simply have ratified that, have said, “Yep, we recognize that’s what Venezuelans want.” The humanitarian crisis there, Jace, is of such extraordinary proportion, the largest humanitarian crisis not connected to armed conflict in the world’s history. Millions of people have had to flee Venezuela.
So our mission set is clear. The American people have been generous, we’ve provided over 200 metric tons of food that’s sitting in Colombia, in Curacao, and in Brazil. We want to get it in. We want to get medicine to the sick and food to the hungry. Maduro won’t let that happen. So we are working alongside all the countries in the region to ensure that the Venezuelan people get what it is that they have demanded and that they so richly deserve.
QUESTION: And what’s the next step if Maduro doesn’t give up power? I mean, what comes next?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, the Venezuelan people will ultimately make that decision. You see the protests. You see the power outages. You can begin to see that the will – Venezuelan people’s will is beginning to be worked. The United States has said that we’re prepared to do anything, that all options are on the table. So we continue to look at ways that we can help the Venezuelan people achieve the democracy that they’re demanding.
QUESTION: And Russia is supporting the Maduro government?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah. Sadly, the Russians and the Cubans are at the center of protecting Maduro and keeping him in power. I think the world needs to see the Russians and the Cubans for what they are in this region: bad actors starving the Venezuelan people.
QUESTION: And how does that affect an already strained Russia-U.S. relations?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So we have places where we have conversations with Russia that are important. When I was the CIA director, we worked on counterterrorism, to ensure that if there were Americans flying on Russian aircraft or Russians flying on American aircraft, that we exchanged information to keep them safe. There are important places that the United States and Russia can work together. I frankly wish there were more, and I wish Russia would do more to allow us to find a common set of interests, even though we have very, very different countries.
QUESTION: And another country that is very different is North Korea. And you pointed out in an interview, I think, with USA Today that you probably spent more time with Kim Jong-un and North Korean leadership than any other American in history. What do you make of Kim Jong-un as a leader?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So this is a leader who has made a promise. He made that promise to me on multiple occasions. He made that promise to the world and to President Trump in June of last year in Singapore. He said: I’m prepared to denuclearize in exchange for a brighter future for the North Korean people and peace and stability on the peninsula.
We’ve got missile tests stopped, we’ve got nuclear tests stopped. We managed to get hostages back. But the denuclearization which Chairman Kim has committed to, there’s still a long way to go. We’re continuing to work on that process. The negotiations have made real progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do. President Trump always says there’s a long way to go and we’ve got time to get there. We want to get there as quickly as we can. We’ll be working on this in a way that delivers the security not only for us and America, for the world. The people of South Korea, the people of Japan – they’re all determined to help us get the nuclear weapons out of North Korea.
QUESTION: Did you think that we would be even having these conversations with North Korean leadership even just a couple of years ago? Is that something you foresaw?
SECRETARY POMPEO: No. It’s a very different approach. We have achieved something really important. We have the most powerful sanctions on North Korea any administration has ever put in place, while also having the most successful diplomatic engagement that has ever taken place. Those twin efforts – the economic sanctions and our efforts to negotiate, to achieve a diplomatic resolution of this – I hope will lead to a really good outcome.
QUESTION: You mentioned the sanctions. A recent UN report shows that perhaps North Korea is evading those sanctions through hacking and ships and vessels there. I mean, knowing that, how do Americans trust that Kim Jong-un is being forthright in these negotiations?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, remember, this is about verification. This isn’t about trust. There’s deep distrust. There’s distrust between both parties. We need to see Chairman Kim actually deliver. Your point about sanctions enforcement – it’s never perfect, but it’s pretty good. China has done good work. We wish that they would do more, but we have put real pressure – the reason that these conversations are taking place, the reason that these negotiations have moved as far as they have, is because of the effective enforcement of those sanctions.
QUESTION: And I’ve got a couple of lighter questions that maybe you’re not getting from other folks, but I’ll start with this one. It seems like you’re getting asked constantly about your political future in Kansas. People want to know, are you running for governor or senate. I won’t ask you those, because I know you’ve already answered them. But I will ask you: Why do you believe so many people are throwing your name out there for just about every office you can imagine?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Goodness, it’s a great question. I don’t frankly know why. As I’ve said before, I’m very focused on what I’m doing. It’s an incredible privilege to serve President Trump and America as his Secretary of State. That’s all I can see so far; it’s a full-time gig for sure. I couldn’t tell you why they are. It’s humbling to have folks say that they think you’d be good at some of these jobs, and I appreciate that. But I couldn’t tell you. You’d have to ask them why they continue to put my name forward.
QUESTION: Mind you, I got one more question for you. You’ve been at this job for nearly a year now. What’s something that you think in the last almost year is an accomplishment, something you’re very proud of, and what’s something that you’d still like to accomplish or still want to do?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Oh goodness, there’s always more to do on almost every file at the State Department. We talked about North Korea. We’ve made some good progress on Middle East stability, but a lot more work to do there. I’m very proud of what we’ve done at the State Department as well, getting the State Department in the front of American foreign policy and making sure that our team was in the field doing its mission. I think we’ve had a number of accomplishments. I think President Trump’s foreign policy record will be a lasting record of good work, keeping the American people safe. But there’s always more to do.
QUESTION: All right. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, thanks for being here.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you.
Published March 19, 2019 at 01:06PM
Read more at https://travel.state.gov
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