Posted on 04/19/2023 9:45:56 AM PDT by Kazan
After months of speculation, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday that he will not seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
During a recent interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Pompeo revealed he and his wife had “come to the conclusion that we’re not going to join the race in 2024.”
“[W]hile we care deeply about America and the issues that I have been talking about this last year-and-a-half and, frankly, for decades, matter an awful lot, this isn’t our moment,” Pompeo said. The former secretary of state also released a pre-recorded video announcing the decision, adding that “the time is just not right.”
When pressed by Baier on who he plans to support in the 2024 GOP primary, Pompeo declined to answer, saying he will back whoever the nominee is and that the primary should not be “about any one person.”
“I want to find that person who can not only talk about the things that matter to every family in America but who can actually build an organization, create a team, and deliver that for the American people,” he said. “And when I figure out who that right person is, I will … get behind them and do everything I can to help them.”
GOP presidential primary polling has regularly shown Pompeo with minuscule support among potential 2024 voters. In a recent survey, for example, only 1 percent of registered New Hampshire voters threw their support behind Pompeo, compared to 42 percent who said they’d back former President Donald Trump and 29 percent for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Conservatives Are Tired of Neocon Foreign Policy
On paper, Pompeo appears to have a fairly solid track record while serving as Trump’s secretary of state. During that time, he helped secure numerous diplomatic wins, including the Abraham Accords and raising global awareness of the threat communist China poses to the existing world order. He also helped facilitate the moving of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
So, why the limited support for a Pompeo presidency?
While numerous issues undoubtedly factor into voters’ candidate selection, it’s revealing how the top two contenders for the 2024 Republican nomination — Trump and DeSantis — are level-headed realists regarding U.S. foreign policy. When it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for instance, both have called on the Biden administration to find a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict.
Contrast such statesmanship with Pompeo, who frequently espoused neocon talking points to justify continued U.S. involvement in the matter. Just last week, Pompeo argued the “quickest” and “cheapest” way to end the ongoing war is to give Ukraine weapons to defend itself while baselessly asserting it would “cost the United States far more” if Ru
Such a claim completely ignores how endlessly shipping weapons to Ukraine — the second most corrupt country in Europe — is becoming increasingly unfavorable among the American public. Moreover, it sidelines the fact that the U.S. has already contributed nearly $200 billion in promised or sent aid to Ukraine, which is more than any other country in the world.
Pompeo’s continued insistence that the U.S. further entrench itself in a conflict that doesn’t implicate U.S. national security isn’t just nonsensical because it’s strategically incorrect. It’s nonsensical because it’s out of touch with where the majority of Republican voters stand on the issue. After witnessing years of foreign interventionism under the Bush and Obama administrations, conservatives recognize that each global conflict is different and that there’s a time and place to use power in order to protect American interests.
Neocons need not apply.
Owwww. Less wasted money.
We don’t have the money for it either
Good that neocons failed but I think it is an overreach to say Pompenos run for president failed. He never announced.
And Trump is getting far more support than DeSantis because most Republican voters are smart enough to understand that DeSantis can't be trusted on this. He's dead broke as far as political figures go, which means he's totally beholden to whatever the establishment GOP donors and U.S. Chamber of Commerce types tell him to do.
Remember -- it was that retard George W. Bush who promised not to engage in "nation building" during the 2000 campaign. By all accounts, that stance didn't even last beyond his first cabinet meeting in the White House.
It’s hard to support an aggressive foreign policy when America just wants to put rainbow flags up around the world. Ideally NeoCons are added to the dust bin of history but we shall see. There is a lot of money to made off of war profiteering .
Wish it wasn’t called “NeoConservativism” since they are Trotskyites
Trump and trust in him anymore is debatable. All Donald Trump wants is revenge on those who have hounded him since he was elected president. Not a bad idea for him, but does little good for the rest of us.
As a whole, the (R) are losers. Trump wanted our side to get a spine! Sadly that has not happened.
So that only leaves DeSantis and Trump is miles ahead of him so can we stop all this foolishness of one ridiculous “candidate” after another helping the rodents by passing snarky remarks about Trump?
It cost Trump hundreds of millions to become President. He gave up his celebrity status and cushy life and subjected him to hell from the media, Democrats and Republican establishment. And, he did that so he could take on the problems this country is facing because of the corrupt political class, including unfettered illegal immigration and a foreign policy that is being used to enrich our political class but harming the American people.
Take your ridiculous cheap shots at Trump and stick them up your behind. You're scum.
Pompeo is no more a Necon than was Ronald Reagan.
Kyiv falls to Putin and everything going to just keep NATO alive you can mulitply many times over current regular NATO spending.
People like to talk about how close to Moscow is the border between Ukraine and Russia but most of them ignore what it would mean to move Russian territorial control hundreds of miles closer to and in some cases on the border of, our NATO allies.
No, a set back for Russia over Ukriane WOULD BE cheaper, because it would likely also end Putin’s place in power in Russia, and help deliver a Russia really ready to 100% end what started as the “cold war”.
Why really is Pompeo lower in the GOP polls? He lacks the name recognition of most all the other candidates who, unlike Pompeo, are or were elected officials. Pompeo is a resident of Kansas. I think Pompeo was one of the least attention grabbing Secretary of State that I can remember in my liftime. The term for one U.S. Senator for Kansas - Jerry Moran (R) does not end until 2029 and the other, Roger Marshall (R) does not end until 2027. If any decisions or events would change those conditions I’d recommend Pompeo run for one of those Senate seats. Meanwhile, beyond 2024, he’ll have to do more things to get more name recognition out there.
Pompeo is no more a Necon than was Ronald Reagan.
Kyiv falls to Putin and everything going to just keep NATO alive you can mulitply many times over current regular NATO spending.
People like to talk about how close to Moscow is the border between Ukraine and Russia but most of them ignore what it would mean to move Russian territorial control hundreds of miles closer to and in some cases on the border of, our NATO allies.
No, a set back for Putin over Ukriane WOULD BE cheaper, because it would likely also end Putin’s place in power in Russia, and help deliver a Russia really ready to 100% end what started as the “cold war”.
Why really is Pompeo lower in the GOP polls? He lacks the name recognition of most all the other candidates who, unlike Pompeo, are or were elected officials. Pompeo is a resident of Kansas. I think Pompeo was one of the least attention grabbing Secretary of State that I can remember in my liftime. The term for one U.S. Senator for Kansas - Jerry Moran (R) does not end until 2029 and the other, Roger Marshall (R) does not end until 2027. If any decisions or events would change those conditions I’d recommend Pompeo run for one of those Senate seats. Meanwhile, beyond 2024, he’ll have to do more things to get more name recognition out there.
Totally agree. I also like your post and reasoning regarding the Ukraine/Russia war. However, I disagree with the "whatever it takes" stand of the DC elites but have no suggestions on another route to end it.
What a warped view you have sailor. I suspect a good many of his supporters want exactly that but nothing he has said or done indicates he wants anything other than to save America from itself. Of course saving America will ruffle some feathers but that would be Justice not revenge.
“Totally agree. I also like your post and reasoning regarding the Ukraine/Russia war. However, I disagree with the “whatever it takes” stand of the DC elites but have no suggestions on another route to end it.”
I don’t disagree, but would add that Pompeo is not and was not one of the D.C. elites. And as both head of CIA and then Secretary of State he pushed aside the deep staters parked there and used folks he and Trump agreed on to get things done as Trump wanted them done. In both those roles he was less a defender of the bureacrats there than anyone before him. He correctly saw his roles there as serving to do what the elected Chief Executive wanted done, period. He was not there to “make” foreign policy or intelligence policy but to carry out the policies and mandates given him by the President.
He has a volcanic temper.
Sorry; I wasn’t clear on who I was calling D.C. elites. I didn’t mean Pompeo as he was not one of them, but as you say, one who was carrying out President Trump’s requests to make the world safer in spite of the “deep staters.” I actually like Pompeo and, while understanding his decision to not run for president at this time, wish he had as a he brings a good amount of expertise in foreign affairs.
Warped? You have no idea what you are talking about. Trump most likely will lead this nation to civil war. The sad thing is that the left wants that and the former president does not care how it will hurt the majority of the common folk when he gives them what they desire.
Only the left can lead us to civil war and only if we resist them so if you are saying we should give in because the left will move us to civil war I guess I wouldn't disagree all that much.
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