The Daily Signal - Pompeo: Biden Administration Inviting UN Racism Experts 'Enormous Mistake'

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

In an exclusive interview with "The Daily Signal Podcast," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticizes the Biden administration for asking the United Nations to send its racism experts to the U.S. "Our administration understood that the U.N. Human Rights Commission was simply ... a bunch of anti-semitic thugs who spend most of their time nagging on Israel for the things they do simply to defend themselves.," says Pompeo. "To invite them in to look at American systemic racism, which frankly doesn't exist ... we know what these reports will end up saying. We know, they'll say, 'Oh, this is racism and the Americans need do X, Y, and Z to go fix it.'" "This is a commission occupied by people like Venezuela, by the Iranians," Pompeo adds. "These are bad actors trying to stick the thumb in the eye of the American people." "To have permitted them to come in and evaluate racism in America is an enormous mistake .... They'll come after America hard, and we shouldn't let them do that," the former secretary of state says. Read the lightly edited transcript, pasted below, or listen to the podcast to learn more about what Pompeo has to say about this, what he describes as the Biden administration's failure to lead on China and Hong Kong policies, and how the administration has put climate change ahead of American security. We also cover these stories: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has another heated exchange with Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate committee hearing. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., names five Republicans to serve on a special committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki avoids answering questions about which Facebook posts the Biden administration will flag as misinformation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Snap up Ancestry DNA's lowest price ever in our incredible cyber sale. With 50% off Ancestry DNA kits, it's the perfect time to help a loved one unwrap the past. And with their latest update, they'll discover their family origins like never before. With even more precise regions and new and exclusive features, their best gift, our lowest price. 50% off Ancestry DNA, only until December 2nd. Visit Ancestry.ca for more details. Terms apply. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, July 21st. I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we feature Rachel Del Judas's conversation with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. They discuss

the Biden administration's failure of leadership on China and Hong Kong. Pompeo also addresses how the administration has put climate change ahead of American security. And don't forget, if you're enjoying today's podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star radio on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now, today's show was recorded at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, so please excuse the background music and noise. And now on today's top news. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky sparred with Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing Tuesday. The heated exchange centered on whether the U.S. government funded gain of function research in China where COVID-19 originated. as reported by the Daily Signals, Fred Lucas. Gain of function research is the process of making a virus more infectious for the purpose of studying it. This kind of research was taking place in the Wuhan lab in China,

and Senator Paul says the National Institute of Health funded such research at the lab that some believe is responsible for the COVID-19 virus. Let's take a listen to Senator Paul and Dr. Fauci's exchange per NBC News. And Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about. Okay, you get one person. Let's read from the NIH. Can I answer the question?

This is your definition that you guys wrote. It says that scientific research that increases the transmittability among animals is gain of function. They took animal viruses that only occur in animals. and they increase their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that is not gain of function. It is not. It's a dance, and you're dancing around this, because you're trying to obscure responsibility

for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic. And let's send Dr. Fauci. I have to. Well, now you're getting into something. If the point that you are making is that the grant that was funded as a sub-award from EcoHealth to Wuhan, created SARS-CoV-2, that's where you are getting. Let me finish. We don't know. Wait a minute.

I didn't come to the lab, but all the evidence is pointing that it came from the lab. And there will be responsibility for those who funded the lab, including yourself. Senator Paul went on to say that he was not saying that the virus from the known gain of function research caused the pandemic, but that evidence shows the U.S. funded other gain of function research at the Wuhan lab, per Fred Lucas. Fauci responded by saying, You are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individuals. I totally resent that. And if anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has named five Republicans to serve on the House Committee that will investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. The five members include Indiana Representative Jim Banks, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, Illinois Representative Rodney Davis, North Dakota Representative Kelly Armstrong, and Texas Representative Troy Neils. House Democrats created the committee after Senate Republicans block the creation of such a committee in the Senate. The House voted to approve the committee 222 to 190, largely along party lines. GOP representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois were the only Republicans who voted in favor of the committee. Representative Banks said in a statement that he accepted the opportunity to serve

on the January 6th committee because we need leaders who will force the Democrats and the media to answer questions so far ignored. Among them, why was the Capitol unprepared and vulnerable to attack on January 6th? House Press Secretary Jen Saki is avoiding answering questions about which Facebook posts the White House will flag as misinformation. Last week, Saki said the White House will flag post to Facebook that they deem as vaccine misinformation. When pressed on the issue Monday, Saki did not say whether or not the White House will release information on what posts it considers misinformation and will ask Facebook to block. Saki said, first of all, we have not asked Facebook to block any individual posts.

The way this works is that there are trends that are out there on social media platforms. And she added that it's up to social media platforms to determine what their application is of their own rules and regulations. And so we just certainly raise where we have concerns about information that's inaccurate that is traveling out there in whatever platform it's traveling on. The Heritage Foundation's Research Fellow in Technology Policy, Kara Frederick, joined Fox News, to explain what the White House is asking Facebook to do here. Facebook is doing too much. And at this point, the caps out of the bag, as others have said, they are saying the quiet part out loud,

this is the Biden administration. They're saying that, you know, hey, we are attempting to circumvent the Constitution. We're attempting to evade the First Amendment by outsourcing our censorship, our desired censorship, to private companies. And this is not tenable. You know, who else thinks it's not.

not tenable, the Supreme Court. A friend of the show, Vivek Ramoswamy, he reminds us in Norwood v. Harrison, 1973, the Supreme Court says this is not allowed. You cannot allow a private entity or a private citizen in that case. So what Facebook represents to do the government's bidding for it. You can't promote what the government cannot do constitutionally. Given the Surgeon General's comments, given Jen Saki's comments from the last week, this is what it looks like they are attempting to do. You can read more on this issue at thedailysignal.com. Now stay tuned for Rachel Del Judis' conversation with former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters atdailysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. We're joined on the Daily Signal by former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, thank you for being with us again on the Daily Signal. It's great to be back on the Daily Signal. You all are doing great jobs. Well, it's great to have you with us.

You had remarked recently on Twitter that the current administration, the Biden administration, is putting climate change ahead of challenging the Chinese Communist Party. Can you tell more about what's going on here and why you said that? So our administration was the first in 40 years to confront the communism and journey of the Chinese Communist Party. It had been, frankly, pretty bipartisan that we would just go along and get along with the Chinese to sell a few. more trinkets. I think the world can see now that's no longer what happens in Beijing, stays in Beijing. Sadly, this administration has reversed much of the good work we did to try and support the people of Tibet, the people of Hong Kong, and frankly to make sure that we don't

live in a world that is dominated by China five or ten or 15 years from now. They're their first person they send to China is John Kerry. That's a bad sign. That tells you that you're going to put climate change ahead of American security. And we know this. The Chinese aren't going to do anything on climate change. Half of the urban CO2 that's emitted comes from 25 cities. Of those 25 cities, 22 are inside of China, and they want to shut our economy down to try and fix that problem set. They're not serious about China. You saw what happened to Secretary Blinkett on the first trip to Anchorage. We've seen no response to the Wuhan virus, killing millions. I hope this administration will come to understand that China is the central threat of our times and we'll begin to confront it the way that we did for four years.

One Monday, very recently today, the Biden administration did call out China for cyber attacks. Do you see the threat of cyber attacks continuing? So it's real, and it's a problem. It's cheap to do. Offense is easy to play. Defense is really, really complicated and really hard. And so while you have to play defense, securing networks and doing that challenging technical work, the United States government has a responsibility.

It has to deter these bad actors. So if this was China, as they say it is, they've got to go and pose real cost. And the Chinese decision makers who've permitted that to happen. this will flourish. And if you allow Vladimir Putin and his thugs to continue to conduct ransomware campaigns all across America and shut down the American economy without any cost to the leadership, it'll happen again. This is a deterrence model that has to be established, and that means the United States is going to have to take real actions to impose real costs on the real bad actors. Secretary Maupayo, you marked on this earlier, but what do you think of the Biden administration's

general approach to China? Where do you see weakness and where do you see opportunities for them to alter that weakness? So they've actually said, the right thing on many fronts. They confirm the genocide is still taking place in western China. They've acknowledged that the Chinese Communist Party is refusing to even talk about their missile and nuclear programs. Those are the right policies. They've said the right words on Taiwan, although I worry that the Chinese believe that when push comes to shove, the Americans won't be with them under the Biden administration if they go confront the Taiwanese in a way that is very, very dangerous. I pray that I'm wrong about that.

They need to demonstrate that resolve. President Reagan had this right. Weakness begets war and peace, strength go together. If we show weakness, if we are unable to muster the courage to confront the Chinese government, then the Chinese will walk all over us, and that means they'll walk all over the world in 10 and 15 and 20 years from now. We'll live in a world that looks like a China-centric model that is the Middle Kingdom controlling and having hedge money over too much of our world, and that's not good for my kids and if I'm blessed one day of my grandchildren.

Well, Secretary of State Blinken also recently invited racism experts to come to the U.S. from the United Nations and talk about racism. This happened very recently about a week or two ago. What's your perspective of this invitation? It's nonsensical. Our administration understood that the UN Human Rights Commission was simply a bunch of thugs, frankly a bunch of anti-Semitic thugs, who spend most of their time nagging on Israel for the things they do simply to defend themselves. to invite them in to look at American systemic racism, which frankly doesn't exist. We know this is a nation that is more perfect every day and how we treat people with dignity they deserve because they're created in the image of God and to allow them to come in.

We know what these reports will end up saying. We know they'll say, oh, this is racism. The Americas need to do X, Y, and Z to go fix it. This is a commission occupied by people like Venezuela, by the Iranians. These are bad actors trying to stick the thumb in the eye of the American people to have permitted them to come in and evaluate them. race in America is an enormous mistake. They're certainly not in China looking what's going on with the Uyghurs. They're not in Venezuela, seeing what Majuro was doing. They wrote a small report about

Venezuela, whether it was duly ignored. They'll come after America hard, and we shouldn't let them do that. The U.N. is not the right body to make sure that our America is functioning in the way that it needs to. Well, President Biden recently had his first trip to Europe, and on Twitter you had commented how usually these trips are done to put America first. Was that what happened in this trip in your No, they went there to make friends. They went there to attend nice parties. They went there to essentially apologize for four years of the Trump administration. The Europeans were happy to welcome them.

They're happy to say, boy, it's a good thing President Trump and Mike Pompeii were gone. It's not about making friends. It's about earning respect. It's about preserving American security and freedom. When we do those things, good things will happen for our European friends and allies. They are great partners of ours. But it can't be the case that NATO is solely on the backs of the American people. It can't be that trade and economic growth are done with unfair trade deals between the

United States and Europe. It can't be the case that our diplomacy apologizes for the work that we do around the world. We need to be firm with our friends, we need to hug them, and then we need to make clear we're going to do things that make sense for the American people. It's not what they did on that trip. It was a mistake to go there and then to allow Vladimir Putin to stand alone on a podium and talk about Black Lives Matter and the riots in Washington, D.C., and all across our country, country without the president standing up and saying, no, Mr. President, to the President of Russia,

no, Mr. President, that's just wrong. America is the most exceptional nation in the history of civilization and defend it with all the energy he could muster. Well, during your time, as Secretary of State, you did so much to work on religious freedom protecting it at home and abroad. What is your perspective on the state of religious freedom in the United States right now? So I did. I was able to work on this all across the world.

It was really important to our administration. We believed, and I believe, that the most of the most of the country. More religious freedom is provided to people all across the world, the less risk there is of tyranny and oppression, but also the less risk that there'll be war. Countries that are more free, more tolerant of different religions have a way of working things out amongst themselves. I watch what's happening here at home. I watched what happened during the lockdown from the Wuhan virus. I watched our churches and our pastors not be able to gather. I saw synagogues that couldn't open while bars were open.

That is inconsistent with our constitution. It's deeply immoral. and it's not good for the very Judeo-Christian foundation of the United States of America either. I worry about religious freedom at home. There are those who want to take it away. They want to make America a more secular nation, something more like Europe. That's not how our country has been so successful for 245 years. Well, on that note, speaking of the state of religious freedom in this country, in Canada,

we've seen pastors be thrown in jail. We've seen churches shut down for COVID violations. That's what their law enforcement is saying. We've seen this happen in Canada right next to us. Do you see or feel that something like that serious could happen potentially in this country? And are you concerned about the trajectory of where we are headed? Very concerned about the trajectory. It seems almost unimaginable to me that something like that would happen here.

But I must say over these first six months of the Biden administration, I've seen a whole handful of things that I would have said were unimaginable six months ago. Take a look at our southern border. We had that figured out. We had literally turned off the spigot, and we had made life better for the people of Guatemala and El Salvador and Honduras and Mexico. And we had control of our southern border today. You can see right now over a million people already this year who come across illegally. They ripped the band-aid off because it was Mike Pompeo who negotiated and remained in Mexico.

It was Donald Trump who built the wall. And for that reason and that reason alone, they ripped it off. And you can see the staggeringly bad results. So when it comes to religious freedom and whether we could have some pastor or some rabbi-law, locked up because they simply wanted to be with their flock. I pray that that day doesn't come. On that note, I think we see a lot of people, at least some on the left, you think we live in a free country. You know, this is alarmist language. We'd never see a situation in this country happen. What would you say to them?

You can never take it for granted. Our founders knew this. I worked on the problem set across the world for the last four years, but most of my life I've spent trying to advocate for freedom here in the United States of America. If our Republic falls, it'll because of a failure here at home. It'll be about some dumb idea we teach in our schools. You know, like, that people are racist just because they're white, or our nation was ill-founded because really began in 1619, not 1776. Those ideas undermine the central pillars, the very foundation of our country.

And so when people say something like that could never happen, I don't think anybody believed that our curriculum would be filled with ideas that suggested somehow one is racist for good. just simply demanding that every human being be traded the same, that equality was now viewed as racist. It was unimaginable just a few years ago, and we are living through that today. I want to talk for a moment about your time as Secretary of State. Is there a moment or a trip that stands out to you as something that you like to talk about or a time where you learn something or just a time that you always remember is like, wow, this is something that I'm really grateful

I was able to be in this position for? There are so many, so many wonderful experiences. great memories and good work that me and my team did. I love the trip that I was able to take to Turkey to meet with the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey, a church that is under threat from President Erdogan and from the Russians. It was glorious to go to North Korea to meet with Chairman Kim and bring back three Americans who had been held hostage there. Not long after we'd had an American out of Warmbier returned only to die a few hours after he returned home from that terrible authoritarian thug in North Korea. an incredible blessing to be able to talk to Chairman Kim and convince them that he should let those

three Americans come home. And when I first saw them, when I first saw them climbing aboard our plane there in Pyongyang, I can't remember a time. Other than with the day I was married and all those good things, I can't remember time in my public life where I was so encouraged and so joyous about something that I had at least a little bit of something to do with. We recently brought a piece for National Review, and in it you talked about how this country needs a revival. Can you talk about that piece and tell us about this revival that you see that this country needs? Well, the revival is underway. I've been traveling these last six months, I've been traveling all across American people are just saying enough. The revival, the way to think

about the revival is this. For a long time, I think a lot of us took for granted some of the basic things we've been talking here about on this show, the capacity to go to church and worship in the way we want, the ability to choose which job we want and go work there. The capacity to actually walk into store without a mask on your face. We couldn't have imagined some of the things we've been through in these last year and now these last six months. I think the American people are saying enough. I can see it all across the country. I was in Iowa the day before yesterday. I was in Southwest Missouri yesterday. People are just saying, you're not going to teach my kids this garbage. You're not going to take away my capacity. Go practice my faith in the way I want to. I'm going to go to that PTA

meeting that I would have never thought about going to. I'm going to run for city council. I couldn't have imagined six months ago. was going to run for city council. That revival, that awakening is happening. And I believe it is a spiritual revival as well. People are being reminded of their faith and the importance of their faith to these very civic institutions that matter so much across our country. I'm confident that is happening and I pray that our leaders, I pray leaders from both parties, but certainly the leaders in my party who I think understand this will be fearless in helping make sure that this revival is rewarded in our central institutions.

We've talked about China. What about Russia? What do you think the Biden administration should do to meet the threat of Russia that's continually increasing? So the first thing they did was hand them a new start treaty. So this is a little bit in the weeds, but it's a nuclear agreement that had been in place and it was about to expire. We had told the Russians we weren't going to renew it unless we got some significant changes to benefit of the United States. Within days of taking office, the Biden administration said, no, no, we'll give you five more years when Russians are in fact behaving very inconsistent. consistently with it. It showed weakness. I think Vladimir Putin has shown that. He talked a couple

days ago about how the Ukrainian people and the Russian people are one and the same. That is a bad omen if you're a Ukrainian because you'll recall that the last time President Biden was in power, he was the vice president. The Russians took one-fifth of that country. The Russians will, if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile. And this administration has shown to date, at least, that they're prepared to give that first inch and impose almost no cost on the Russian leadership. You see it in cyber, in the military space. We've seen in diplomacy as well. I hope that they will begin to confront the Russians in a way that makes sense for America. There's places we can work together. When I was a CIA director, I worked closely with the Russian intelligence service on counter terror. That's fine.

In the end, we have to make sure that what happens in Moscow doesn't leave Moscow and impact us all across the world. Before we wrap up, I want to get your advice for young people especially. We see right now it's happening in Cuba, Cuba with the communist regime there. So many students today on college campuses, even in high schools, are taught about communism and people, a lot of young people see it as this wonderful alternative. Meanwhile, we're seeing what's going on on the ground right there with people who can't access health care and can access food even. What is your advice to young people, especially, who have these ideas being talked about and are trying to figure out which path to take and what to believe? Read, study, and keep your faith. And then go

find someone. Go find someone who's fled communism. Go find a former Hong Kong. go find someone who fled communist China, go find someone who fled Cuba, someone who actually lived in that place, and just listen to them. I promise you, when you meet these people, I had a chance to meet, for example, some of the family members of the Uyghurs who were being held in Western China. I was in Kazakhstan, and I had a chance to meet some of those family members. You cannot hear those stories without understanding the terror and horrors,

the communism voice on every person that it has under its authoritarian jack-boot. that would be my urging for them. Don't buy the story. Believe what you see with your own eyes. Capitalism works, free markets work. Civic institutions and our republic will stand when we have free and fair elections. Don't buy the storyline that you can get equality of outcome

if you just manipulate the system with the big government because you might get that equality of outcome. Everyone will be equally diminished and equally poor. Secretary Pompeo is a sobering but really good note to end on. Thank you so much for joining us again. on today. Bless you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal Podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to

subscribe. Thanks again for listening. I'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Rob Blewey and Virginia Allen. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.