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EXCLUSIVE – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that last weekend’s U.S. military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities sent a signal to the world.
Pompeo, who served as CIA director and later as the top U.S. diplomat in President Donald Trump’s first administration, said in a national exclusive interview with Fox News Digital that the attack delivered a message “that America is back leading in the world.”
And regardless of the heated debate this week over the president’s claims that the attack “obliterated” Iran’s ability to acquire nuclear weapons, Pompeo said that “there was sufficient damage done” and, as a result, “Americans are safer.”
CLICK HERE FOR FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE U.S. STRIKE ON IRAN
Pompeo cautioned that “there are some risks in the near term, for sure. Iranians could decide to do something clandestine, or a terror cell here or something. But make no mistake about it, what President Trump did and what the Israelis did before him, made not only the region, the Gulf and Israel, safer, they made the United States and the West safer.”
Praising the Trump administration’s handling of the strike on Iran, Pompeo noted, “I think they’ve got it nearly pitch perfect. They got the messaging right. They ran an incredibly good military operation as well.”
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And he said the U.S. is now closer to ridding “ourselves of this risk that you’ll have an ayatollah, a theocracy, a thug that will have the capacity to build a nuclear weapons program.”
Pompeo was interviewed before delivering a speech titled, “Rebuilding American Deterrence” to the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire.
Pointing to the strike on Iran, Pompeo told Fox News that America’s deterrence against top adversaries across the globe “increased as a result of what happened in the Middle East. It’s undoubtedly true.”
In his speech and during his interview, Pompeo also called out isolationists on the right and left for abandoning U.S. global leadership.
“There are those in my own party and those on the left who don’t think American leadership matters in the world, that it’s not worth it for the United States of America to do the hard work to keep our people safe,” he argued.
And Pompeo said part of his message is “that absent American leadership in the world, that we’re all a lot less safe.”
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Pompeo took a hard look at running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and made multiple trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states that have traditionally voted in the GOP presidential primaries.
And his return to the Granite State sparked speculation regarding a potential 2028 White House bid. Wednesday night’s event was held at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, which for decades has been a must-stop in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state for those with national ambitions.
“Yeah, unavoidable. The question comes out when someone who’s the former Secretary of State travels to this beautiful place,” Pompeo told Fox News, as he referred to New Hampshire.
Pompeo said that “I really came here because I do want to be part of the policy debate. What happens three and a half years from now is an awfully long ways off.”
But at this extremely early point in the 2028 election cycle, he didn’t rule out a possible White House run, saying “we’ll see what the good Lord brings in a couple of years.”
Asked if he wasn’t ruling out anything down the road when it comes to service to the nation, Pompeo told Fox News, “No, if I get a call and an opportunity for a place that I think I can make a difference, I’ll do it every time.”
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