On Thursday morning, Rich Lowry spoke with former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on an exclusive, members-only NRPLUS conference call.
Rich and the secretary kicked off the call with a discussion of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Secretary Pompeo pointed out how what we are seeing now is nothing new from Putin – it is his typical model of coercive diplomacy.
The pair moved on to our other authoritarian adversary: China. They discussed whether China or Russia posed a bigger threat to our nation and emphasized the importance of working to ensure that Russia and China don’t form a military coalition against us. They went on to discuss the probability that Covid-19 originated from a Wuhan lab, with Secretary Pompeo sharing his experiences with China during the initial outbreak in early 2020. He pointed out that one of the biggest unanswered questions of the lab-leak theory is the military component. Continuing with the topic of China, the pair discussed the Olympics in Beijing and whether the secretary supports the diplomatic boycott of the games. They also discussed what the U.S. involvement should be in any conflict between Taiwan and China.
The secretary then shared his thoughts on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, contrasting the strategies and goals of the Trump and Biden administrations.
Throughout the call the pair answered questions submitted by your fellow NRPLUS members. And Rich concluded the conversation in standard form: Is Secretary Pompeo optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our nation?
You can listen to the full recording above. Thank you to those who joined us for the call, and we look forward to seeing you all on the next one.