From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker, from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

We're delighted you're listening to this podcast. If you enjoy it, please be sure to subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and elsewhere.

And also, do be kind enough to leave us a favourable review.

At the journal's editorial page, we believe passionately in free expression.

And each week on this podcast, we explore in depth and candor issues of topical or historical importance in politics, economics, business, culture, science, technology and elsewhere.

We speak at length and in depth to people who are leading figures in the field, practitioners,

experts, commentators to try to give us all a better understanding of the major trends driving the news.

This week I'm delighted to say my guest is Mike Pompeo.

Mr Pompeo served under President Donald Trump, first as CIA director,

and then for the final three years of the Trump administration as Secretary of State.

Prior to that, he was a three-term congressman from Kansas. Before entering politics, he served in the US Army

and worked in business as an entrepreneur and executive. Now, he remains very much active in GOP politics and policy.

He established a political action committee last year to support Republican candidates in this year's midterm elections.

And he has a book coming out later this year.

And though he's coy, of course, all this, along with his lengthy experience at the top levels of Republican politics, has raised expectations that he is a leading contender for the party's presidential nomination, perhaps as early as 2024.

Mike Pompeo, thanks very much for joining us.

Chair, it's great to be with you. So, Secretary, we'll talk widely about politics, and particularly

the future of the Republican Party in a little while. But obviously, I want to start with the

inevitable topic of immediate interest, which continues to be, obviously, Russia's war in Ukraine.

As I said, of course, you served at the very top of the US

foreign policy establishment for the Trump administration, and you had a good chance to see

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