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Who Is?

Who is Mike Pompeo?

Who Is?

iHeartRadio + NowThis

News, Politics

4.1803 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As Democrats nationwide consider who their party will nominate to challenge President Trump in November, Republicans look ahead -- to 2024. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after a meteoric rise through Kansas politics to leading the CIA and the State Department, is widely believed to be preparing to run for higher office. A businessman; a veteran; and a committed Christian, Pompeo represents one possible future for the Republican Party. He’s also an object example of how conservatives, by and large, have accommodated themselves to Trump. On this episode of Who Is, Sean Morrow inspects the complex and contradictory beliefs and impulses of the man who rode the Tea Party to Congress and Benghazi to fame.

  • Lara Jakes, a Diplomatic Correspondent based in the Washington bureau of The New York Times 
  • Dion Lefler, Government and Politics Reporter at The Wichita Eagle 
  • Tom Shine, Director of News and Public Affairs at Wichita Public Radio, KMUW 
  • Nahal Toosi, Foreign Affairs Reporter for Politico

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Let me take you to church.

0:03.4

2015.

0:05.1

Congressman Mike Pompeo is at the pulpit, speaking to an evangelical congregation.

0:12.1

There were over 80 evangelical Christians elected from all across the country.

0:17.3

We can all have our politics.

0:18.9

We can all have our views.

0:19.9

But it is, for me, special and important to know that these men and women also believe in Jesus Christ.

0:26.1

And to the extent we disagree about how we ought to vote or how we ought to think or the right course of action for America, I know that we are all taking our guidance from that same place.

0:36.2

2017, the President of the United States is speaking to a group of agents at CIA headquarters,

0:43.3

talking about his pick for CIA director.

0:47.3

But I met Mike Pompeo, and was the only guy I met.

0:51.3

I didn't want to meet anybody else.

0:52.3

I said, cancel everybody else. I met. I didn't want to meet anybody else. I said cancel everybody else.

0:55.5

I met him and I said he is so good, number one at West Point.

1:00.7

And he was also essentially number one at Harvard Law School.

1:05.3

And then he decided to go into the military.

1:08.3

And he ran for Congress.

1:10.3

And everything he's done has been a home run. People

1:13.6

like him, but much more importantly to me, everybody respects him.

1:18.6

Just two years later, Mike is a true American patriot. I have absolute confidence

1:25.6

that he will do an incredible job as the nation's 70th Secretary of State.

1:31.4

Today, Pompeo is Secretary of State, the most powerful diplomat in the world and one of the most

...

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