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Other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Next, mike pompeo reflects on his time serving as cia director and secretary of state under the Trump Administration. Following his remarks, mr. Pompeo took questions from the audience including how to debate conservative points of view on college campuses. This is from a conference hosted by the Young America foundation. Good evening. Its good to see all your great faces out there. Did you have a good day . Yeah. I will give a brief introduction before mime voice gives out. The word to think about with this introduction is leadership. On the screen behind me you see a plaque. About four years ago not too long after we dedicated the us embassy for the first time in jerusalem the capital of the state of israel. [applause] now, why thats important is because politicians for years if not decades said theyre going to move the embassy from the United States from tel aviv to jerusalem, thats the capital where the Prime Minister is at. Where the seat of the government is, they said theyre going to move it and in the end a bunch a bunch of democrats said you cant do that. First and foremost President Trump is the first president to make that happen but the reason why i showed you that plaque is up there you see one other important name. It was the 70th secretary of state mike pompeo thats because there was a secretary of state before. I will go into detail what stood in the way of the president being able to deliver on that promise. Its a good reminder that Leadership Matters not just elected office but in an appointed office along the way and for all of you, not just that Leadership Matters on your campuses, even in your communities and households. Our special guest is always in the way, first in his class. Hes a leader on the battlefield in the cold war in the midst of some of the most intense areas. He was a leader when he stepped up and led not one but two Manufacturing Companies caring for families at the good and wholesome work involved with manufacturing and like he said as a member of the United States army he stood up and answered thatcall again. As a member of the us house of representatives from the great state of kansas and when President Trump asked him to serve again he was the director of the Central Bureau of investigation at the cia, i was going to say the bureau but the cia stepped up as well and in fact as zack mentioned when this nation, he stepped up to be the 70th secretary of the United States but along the way hes been a great husband and a great father and i told you before we spoke, its probably one of his most important leadership roles. He i was going to say the bureau the ci step up cia stepped up and lead that as well. In fact, as zack mentioned when this nation, he stepped up to be the 70th secretary of the United States, but along the way hes been a great husband and a great father and i told you before we spoke at events for the Young Americans foundation, it is probably one of his most important leadership roles, it was was he learned to be a leader at every step of the way. Give a warm welcome to the 70th secretary of state mike pompeo. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] mike thank you all. Thanks, everyone. [applause] [cheers and applause] go army mike go army, all right. You know, as i look out this room, i think of all that applause and i think most of you are going, i am uploading so much because one republican said he wasnt going to run for president comes up god bless you. [laughter] scott, thanks for the kind introduction. Thanks for getting the pronouns right. I appreciate that. [laughter] and you mentioned fifth grade sunday school, it reminded me i have had this incredible privilege. I have had the chance to serve as team leader, a member of my Homeowners Association board, ive been lots of talk places in my life. [laughter] but if you can do sunday school, chairman kim has nothing on you. [laughter] like, you can, you can confront anyone if you can sit in sunday school for an hour. [laughter] um. Tonight, i will share some comments and ill spend a lot of time listening to you and taking questions talking about the things that are on your mind, but there are a few things i think are so important, especially for the young people who are in the audience tonight. Who im sure as you and other leaders come and speak to you, you have heard them, but i want to give you a practitioners view thats because my life has been filled with an incredible opportunity. I had the chance to go to law school at west point, where i got a fantastic education but frankly the things i learned the most work from the people who i spent time with, the young people, my peers, my bosses who ive been able to learn from and experience things from so when we talk about the world whether its some of the silliness thats taking place in our schools today, or the challenges abroad, you should know, and Governor Walker and i were talking about this, in the end, the question comes to be, can you execute . Can you deliver . Practitioners have that additional burden. Some of the folks here tonight run businesses. Its great to talk about marginal costs and all of that but what really matters is can you build teams . Can you convince customers that your product is worthy . And in the same way as secretary of state, can you convince your adversaries the things you say, you really mean . We didnt have the advantage of having the media with the wind at our backs. How is that for diplomatic speak . It reminds me, i have been a secretary of state for a couple of months and consecutive days, the new times ran a headline, worst secretary of state ever. Ok. Next day was David Ignatius at the washington post, same headline, so clearly coordinated. Worst secretary of state ever. My son calls me and he knows im pretty tough, he thought, dad might be suffering. I will call. And he said, dad, i did some research and there is this fellow named Elijah Washburn and he was secretary of state for 11 days. Surely, youre better than him. [laughter] [applause] and so, kids will keep you humble and keep you going so we have this thing called where we are number two. He and i have joined. We worked on things that matter. Our focus every day was trying to keep each and every one of you safe. And i hope as we move through this Campaign Season that will be what you demand as well. I hope what we will all demand as we move through this political process is that we ask candidates not just residential candidates, the next candidate for school board, candidate for district attorney, candidates across the country. I hope we will ask this hard question about the things they intend to do. What is it you will do that will matter in my life . What is it you will do to put my city in a better place, county, or keep crime off the streets in our urban environments . Focus less on twitter or x or whatever its called. [laughter] i hope we will focus on the things that actually deliver, and that is where i thought we would spend a few minutes, then take questions. What are those things . These are the things that are timeless. You all here do amazing work because you focus on things that matter, things that are timeless. We know the institutions that matter. Dont let them gaslight you. I joked about pronouns. We know that there are two genders. I get it. My son lives in a contested space. Dont let them talk about the fact that its not clear how many genders there are. Tonight, you will have riley gains here. We should pretty much just keep men in mens sports. This is not hard. Dont let them feel you. Dont let them obliterate you, dont let them tell you dont remember. You get it. It was great to be the Supreme Court they finally understood what equality meant as well. [applause] its an imperative. And i know so many alumni who were part of that. Not just the Supreme Court but in states all across america who were working to create the quality, working to create programs in schools we want kids to go in. A place where you want your granddaughter, a school that is worthy of him or her. Youre not going to be drawn into some crappy school someplace and let Randy Weingarten tell you what they should be learning. We have parents that have the capability of doing that. We are going to recognize that deeply. You may be surprised i started the conversation talking about things that matter at home but you are the secretary of state, there are two rules. The first rule is dont promise you anything your boss has told you you cannot promise. I was introduced as the 70th secretary of state, donald trump was the 45th president , so i knew that there was more turnover in my gig than his. [laughter] so i was mindful i was not president of the United States. I was his diplomat. I was his senior spy cia director. We were aiming to achieve the outcomes people of america had commanded him to do. The second thing you have to make sure it is you just never lose the theme. You never lose the mission set that drove you to do the things you said you would do. And for us we knew if you dont get it right at home, the chance you can deliver security for america is near zero. I was a young soldier before most of you were born. Uh, along to ago, but i was a soldier, and i knew that we mattered. I knew that it mattered at the state department. We needed to have the strongest most capable lethal fighting force in the world so we should focus a little less on dei. We should focus on a little less on making sure that all our military bases are Carbon Neutral by 2040, which as a tanker makes me laugh. I imagine im looking for my fuel. [laughter] it is frightening. But in the end its the broad map of American People delivering American Power to its economy and its people and the central understanding of our founders. If we get these things wrong and the American Economy doesnt grow 2 , 3 , not just. 6 , and the American People walk away from our founding traditions for the 73rd or secretary of state 74th wont have a prayer. Just look at this in todays world. Without a strong capable American Economy, the ukrainian people would be suffering even more than they are today. It doesnt matter we have had the wherewithal to deliver on the tools and weapons needed to defend their own sovereignty and at enormous costs to the imprinting people. It has cost us money, taxpayer money, there is no doubt about that, but tens of thousands of ukrainians have lost their lives and each one of their families will suffer for that forever but they did it because they had central idea but said invading another sovereign nation and destroying its infrastructure and killing civilians is indecent, and we must [applause] we must make sure we protected. For america it matters for a couple of reasons and one of them is we always try to do the right thing. That is good. That is porton. But as Jean Kirkpatrick said sometimes you have to work with bad guys too. But ukraine matters whether its in kyiv, warsaw, or the baltic nations. If you go back and look at Vladimir Putin statements over the last 24 years, it is clear his intentions were limited to this one piece of land on ukraine. They were deeper and bigger. For anyone who doesnt think for a moment that xi jinping and china is watching whether the world still has what the world has always had. If you think he isnt watching to see either we are good on our word for things that matter to the American People, i think we are just sadly mistaken. Theres too many in the Republican Party have had a different view of that. I think that is in enormous mistake. I wish it were not the case that america had to lead. I wish it was the case we could sit back and drink pinnock a lot and just relax. But sadly, the very freedom that is part of the name of this organization depends on america, not just American Leadership to keep others free but to keep ourselves free as well. It does not mean and we end the Trump Administration were good at this it does not mean sending the 82nd airborne every time there is a problem in the world. It simply means understanding that theres a place for American Leadership in properly executing. You can determine our adversaries without ever having to send our young boys and girls to risk their lives. We did it. I must say, we will never get credit for the fact that Vladimir Putin did not invade europe on our watch. I get asked all the time. [applause] i get asked all the time. I get asked all the time like would this have happened if he were still there . I said did you see the pictures of me at the end . I was done. I was at the end of my time. The truth is i cant prove whether it wouldve happened. If President Trump were here, he would say no, is not just going to happen. [laughter] i can even do a better impression. I have an impression of donald trump doing chairman kim that his killer. [cheering] not tonight. [laughter] here is something i can say, he did not invade europe on our watch. That is factually true. He didnt take an inch for four years and he went right back at it because he did not confidence that the United States of america would do the right thing at the right moment for the right reason. In the same way i think he feared we would have done. That is the execution of deterrence in the finest tradition of president reagan. We flipped the script on china. For 50 years we had been engaging with them, brooke no ill will towards the Chinese People. I actually pray for him. I pray for the Chinese People that america will do the right thing and continue to confront xi jinping in his communist party. There was a big fight inside the state department to say no, engagement has no longer run its course and is no longer working for us, and we began to challenge what had been a war on america for at least 25 years, perhaps as many as 40. Millions of american jobs destroyed, that fires foisted on the world that killed millions of people. We could see that xi jinping was a different cat, a different kind of leader there, and his intentions were not just to hold one million of his own people in concentration camps. That is bad enough. That is troubling enough and Many American businesses should rethink what they are doing there globally. There were hegemonic and an attempt to describe america as a country in decline was just observational, it was his effort. He wants america to be in decline. You should know he is telling his stories on tiktok as we speak, telling stories about rising power and america as a failed has been a country. I dont believe that for a second, but i do not also believe it is an a priori conclusion that it will forever be so. It will continue to take effort and sacrifice and work for us to continue to confront what is the first power since at least the soviet union that ever had the chance to change the way we live in america, so i will not spend a lot of time talking about. But know this much, we must get this right. It is not impossible. There are many problems confronting china today. And we should stoke them. [applause] and we should do all that we can , because when we get this right, when we get this right, we wont have to go fight them. When we get this right, they will not invade taiwan. When we get this right, they wont bribe african leaders. When we get this right they wont run a surveillance state in their own country unrivaled in history. I think about so many chineseamericans today who are being touched on the streets, having Chinese People walk up and ask them how is your cousin doing . Asking them, how is your uncle . Chinese students studying at our finest universities having the Chinese Government what are you studying we know where your uncle is. These are the kinds of things that threaten civilizations, and we benefited enormously from the civilization that exist today and the rules that exist on the global stage. We have to continue to protect them and we have to continue to be the greatest nation in the history of that civilization. [applause] i, i am convinced that we will be. Im convinced you all are going to let the left gaslight use. I am convinced that we would do all the things that are needed. We have this very special place when i was a cadet, first day, show up, they give you a rifle, a uniform, and the federalist papers. Loved my uniform. The rifle was cool. The federalist papers, i still have. Read them. Xi jinping does not want you to understand that. One more thing. This helpline appeared as i was leaving the administration in a New York Times reporter grandpas headline, and i had been working on religious freedom issues and i was unembarrassed to speak about my faith in its centrality and how i thought about americas place in the world was that the headline for the New York Times was mike pompeo, god diplomat. It does not get better than that. [laughter] then i read the article and realized there was this fundamental misunderstanding about who we are as a judeochristian nation and how we deliver good outcomes not only for our own people but people all across this world. I am confident we will get it right. I am long america. I deeply believe we will get another 250 years because of nights like tonight and the opportunity to come together with people like you in Community Around the central ideas. Thank you for doing that. For those of you underwriting, bless you. For those of you volunteering your time, bless you come in for those of you gathering and building friends as part of this network, stay in the fight dont let them walk you off the target. We will win. Thank you very much. [applause] [cheers and applause] thank you, all. All right. [applause] who has got a question . Is the microphone somewhere . Students back there. You got the deal. Stay in your seat. Raise your hand. We will start with a student question. Mike great. Thank you for being here tonight. I am a student at California Lutheran University in california obviously. What are relations like with north korea now and what do you think they should look like in the future . Should there be u. S. Intervention in any way . Mike thank you for the question, young lady. What are relations like . I dont know where to begin. I spent so much time on this file. The most amazing trip of my time in the service was was the first trip when i was a cia director to pyongyang and i met kim for the first time. It was a clandestine trip, easter weekend, 2018. I remember thinking im going to have Easter Service with chairman kim. Like, mindbending. It was equally mindbending because he had returned home, only to die after being held in captivity, but the president gave a clear mission, to convince that life would be better for him if he gave up his nuclear weapons. And of course we ultimately failed. We had three summits. One of my single biggest failures was in hanoi. I read it wrong and put the president a bad place, something we should never do. But as much as we got a pieces wrong we had convinced the north koreans not to continue the missile testing program. We got home the remains of 50 folks that fought and died there, which was pretty special to be part of. I was able to bring three hostages home which may be the greatest achievement personally for me during my time as secretary of state, seeing these three christian men climb on this airplane, get them out of what was surely hell. Its emotional even to speak about today. But we did not change chairman kim. Unfortunately the Biden Administration came in and now back launching missiles, now a soldier crossed the border a week and change ago comes out more hostages still there. Its a very difficult problem because 27 Million People live in the most destitute possible way, and 2 Million People live in abundance in the city of pyongyang, and chairman kim wants to keep it that way, and he is under the boot of president xi jinping in china as well, so it is an incredibly different problem and one that we all have to be mindful of because they possess a very capable Nuclear System and longrange missiles that can deliver them to places that we would not want them to. I wish i had a better answer other than if we could solve the problem with xi jinping, the north korean problem would go away pretty quickly. Thank you for your question. [applause] student mr. Secretary, i attend the university of alabama. Role tied roll tide. You served our country in several different capacities, soldier, ci director, secretary of state. Between all those positions what work or you the most proud of . Mike oh my goodness. I often dont think about that. I think about the things i did not get right. It does not get much better than being cia director. [laughter] i cant tell you about the greatness, but trust me, it is there. [laughter] i often get asked that question differently. I often get asked, are there ufos . And my answer is, we have bigger problems. I loved what i did in each of those places and we had good moments. The work we did in the middle east to build out the Abraham Accords meant that fewer young people have to go fight and die in the middle east. That was my Mission Every day, right, to save the department of defense from doing the things im supposed to be doing. We are the front line for deterrence and if you get it right the work will be a lasting and will create prosperity there and will protect our one ally, friend, israel in ways that are important and give them a chance, so 1948, they will get to have another chance to have 70 plus more years of existence as well. Im counting on it is not only through our good work, but god is watching that place too. But you said what is the one thing. It would be the fact we are able to put the switch on china and begin to get the country to focus on that and the work we do in the middle east. And then a couple of cool operations at the cia too. [laughter] we will now take a question from a supporter. Thank you, mr. Secretary, for coming. My name is jackson, and one, do you regret the deal that you made with the taliban, especially given the chaotic withdrawal that happened under President Biden . And two, who do you plan to support in 2024 . Mike i will answer the first one but not the second one. [laughter] i plan to support in 2024 the republican nominee, whoever that may be. [applause] because i am reasonably certain that person will make life better for my children and grandchildren, so that seems like a layup. As for the first one, i dont regret at all the policies weve put forth with respect to afghanistan. We come we had the right end of the stick. President trump campaigned. He tweeted like 50 times we are getting out of afghanistan. From literally, not day one, but they two, the president was literally mike, we are not getting out fast enough. We had a big footprint in addition to the uniformed military folks there. He wanted out. He was right. It was time after 20 years to begin to work our way out of that. But we were never able and we did. We got from about 15,000 uniformed folks to about by the 2800 time we left. But even in the last months the president would say, mike, we need to get everybody out. And i would say we can do this. We can absolutely get everybody out. We will put them on airplanes and get them out. It will end badly. And i cannot prove that, because we saw what happened when you do that. And so, i could never look the president in the eye and tell him, mr. President , if we get everybody out, we will have the capacity to prevent terror from rising up there again. And a second we will get the americans out and equipment out in large part. And fourth, you will have something that looks like stability, afghan stability, and those are the four things that for four years we talked about and we never got to where we could do it. The negotiations with the taliban were part of that. In the end much like ukraine and russia, there will be a negotiation. There will be a deal. And we were trying to figure out what the outlines of the deal would look like. Terrorists, these are bad guys, but in the end, they were going to be living, the taliban were going to be living in afghanistan. We need to find a way forward but its interesting to listen to the Biden Administration say , well, it was that agreement that causes failure. And much like ukraine, why didnt it happen on our watch . We did not pull a stone. We did not pick 9 11 as the day we are going to withdraw. We did not tell the bad guys what we were going to do. We began a methodical effort to get our young men and women home. For more years, i cant cant promise that we would have gotten everybody out, but we were determined to reduce the risk from that place including our soldiers, sailors, and marines including to have her own soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and we did that and pretty effectively and we kept that stability. As we drew down, we had afghan stability. We signed the agreement and than they did something they were not allowed to do. We whacked a bunch of them. Right . Deterrence 101. He reached out to me and said her air force your air force they violated a provision 375 whatever it was. He said no they didnt. I said to do you want me to bring you the satellite photos. He said yeah, never mind. We understood how to keep deterrence into President Biden pulled the last out of the back one out that the janga stack and got 13 americans killed and left folks behind we should never have left behind and that is a tragedy. I never talk about afghanistan without this last thought. Im sure many in this room served. A lot of you would have family members that served. They are pretty down because of the way that this unfolded and the way the ultimate withdrawal unfolded. I get that. Dont be down. I watched american lives saved by our presence in afghanistan. There are americans alive tonight because of the work that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines did and everyone who served there should be damn proud of what it is they did. [applause] good evening, secretary. I am from the university of exeter. I am originally from barcelona , catalonia, and my question is in regards to your experience, your incredible experience, and everything youve lived, and bearing in mind the u. S. History , what do you think should be the u. S. Position in regards to self determining countries such as catalonia or scotland . Mike oh goodness. Um, so you have probably a dozen of these around the world, varying configurations, and for the most part the United States would say, yall figure this out. I am not trying to slough this off. There will be time. We had one in morocco where we got a little bit involved, but for the most part, if you believe they ought to be sovereign, that it ought to be the case that people of these countries resolve these things for themselves. That is the rule, and you might be able to walk off and find an exception, but it is a pretty hard rule and i would certainly say that is true for spain and most of the other places. We were, we had plenty of challenges in the World Without trying to intervene and solve long historical disputes that were deeply held. By the way, this is amongst friends and allies, spain, right . We had the conflict between the south koreans and the japanese history was deep and difficult, and we all know the differences between armenia and azerbaijan , the history there. These are complex problems that america should step very lightly in these spaces to permit for time and the people who have the cultural awareness and the people who will have to live with that outcome for decades we should let them figured their way through it in almost every instance. [applause] by the way, it is not in those cases that we dont have preferences for the outcome that we would like to see. We almost always do, but the fact that we have a preference doesnt mean that its correct for u. S. Policy to step in and tried to bigfoot the darn thing. Yes, sir . Mr. Secretary, my name is alexander. Im a student at the university here in washington, d. C. You were obviously secretary of state under President Trump. Secretary blinken under President Biden seems to be getting rolled by pretty much every adversary we have. What happen and how do we get it back to a point of being taken seriously and not essentially being laughed at . [laughter] mike oh goodness. In the end, what is the right way to put it . In the end, president s matter. Is blessed. Everybody has their view of President Trump. He is a walking rorschach test. I get it. I live the dream every day. [laughter] but he was a great president to work for and uh [applause] because, because he didnt come with the deep National Security background he was a real estate guy from brooklyn he did understand American Power, and he did understand the things america ought to use it on and ought not to use it on deeply. He understood that intrinsically so that gave me a lot of space to build and i was very fortunate. I had to build his trust as the cia director, most important thing you have as the secretary of state when you meet with a president of mexico or the Prime Minister of israel or the crown prince of saudi arabia, the only coin you have is the fact that they believe that you are speaking on behalf of the boss. Once you are not, secretary baker told me that once somebody believes you are not acting as the president s diplomat, you are just freelancing, you are just a dude on vacation. We never did that. And i watched with President Biden in that same level of leadership and capacity to translate to secretary blinken in the way President Trump allowed me to go out, i dont think secretary blinken has the benefit of that. I will give you one more challenge that secretary blinken has that i did not have. Are you ready . Two words, john kerry. [laughter] it is a little bit funny, but not good, when somebody walks around the state department and shouts mr. Secretary, and youre not sure if its you. It is really a mess, putting that envoy who is talking about the thing that is most important to this administration, what did they beat with . Climate change. Everything is through the prism of climate change. That makes the secretary of states role incredibly difficult, so i dont know. I dont know what change other than it is the case that leaders around the world on our friends, our worried we want to be with them and our adversaries are little more confident they can act in a way that will put america back on its back food foot. And that is a dangerous place to be and its why ive applauded him for what hes done so far in ukraine and frankly i am disappointed that he didnt do more faster, better and we would have this over today. Uh, but weakness begets danger. That is true every time. [applause] good evening, mr. Secretary. Thank you for being with us. I am a student. I had a question about terrorism. I was wondering if you could give me what you would define terrorism as and if you would label the mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations . Mike oh goodness. Terrorism is pretty easy, its like the use of force to achieve a political end, and it is no doubt these cartels are terrorists. There is no doubt. [applause] attorney general barr and i had begun to work on this problem. We had actually laid out here is another way to come at this problem set. What is the difference between a Cartel Leader and a jihadi . [laughter] its not a joke. The answer is almost none. One might put a little religion a little bit higher, at least for 10 to put religion a little bit higher, but they are both using kinetic force to subjugate people. They are using force to subjugate people and they are willing to kill people to achieve their industry and collecting taxes. They almost look identical from a security perspective and weve treated them differently for a long time. That can no longer be the case. And so, attorney general barr and i had begun to work to address the risk from mexican cartels in the same way that we addressed terrorism in afghanistan. Think about this. Everybody knows it is almost a truism, right the spaces that are ungoverned spaces, where there is no rule of law where there is no police force or Sheriffs Office or state police. Those ungoverned spaces for a long time have been 6,000 miles away. And now we have massive ungoverned space on our southern border. So that risk is very real, and a Mexican Government that doesnt have the capacity to take down these cartels for a host of reasons. And so, we are going to have to do it or demand that the Mexican Government does or work alongside the Mexican Government to achieve that. So the very same model that we used to do counterterrorism for so long, begins with intelligence collection, begins with Operational Excellence in the field to really understand what is going on, then goes to host nations and says heres what we know, how we know it and what we are expecting you to do. And tries to coach them onto the target, and was they dont, trying to be polite, we do help. We do selfhelp. We protect america and i think we are getting close to doing that at the southern border today. [applause] all right. Our next question, our next question is coming from a supporter. Good evening, secretary. Thank you very much for being with us tonight. Im an alumni from the university of buffalo and buffalo, new york. And i just wanted to ask you about the belt and road initiative. We hear a lot from african nations that there is not trust in america the same way the Nations Trust china. They want him to be there. They want their help. They want them to build their infrastructure. So, how do we get the african nations to trust us instead of china . Mike yeah. Um, i think i disagree with your question. I never met anyone who trusts china. Right . They may be on the take. They make get money from them. They may be given bridges for free, but this will all collapse. They dont trust china. They are benefiting from china and often its the leaders of those countries, not the people of the countries that are actually benefiting. Literally, i have never seen anybody that said, man, was i am in trouble, i want the chinese to come save me. [laughter] might have been ten years from now, but it just, know who do you want to come help you when youre in trouble . When you have a flood, or an earthquake, or some alien invader coming to your country, who do you want to help you . Nobody says i think im going to fly to beijing and see if i can get the chinese marines to show up. [laughter] so when you say trust them, i dont think that is it at all. The real question is how do we convince them that america can be a reliable partner. And that is harder than it sounds because we are not going to show up with money in brown paper bags. That is not how we roll. And we should not role in that way. So, we say we are going to help you figure out how to make your crops drought resistant. Thats good and interesting, but if youre an african leader and you just want to maintain power, and you like your palace, ehh, maybe you choose something different. It takes time but im convinced our model works and of the chinese model they are using not only in africa but using in south america as well is in Southeast Asia as well. The mercantilist model of using their economy to gain political power in those places i think will fail epically, and it is just a question of time, and as we move through the we should do the things we can to convince the countries that america is a better partner. I will give you one more example from our time that is a good one, because it is frustrating. I see it too. I traveled to africa. I travel to these places and say, what on earth are you doing . They say the chinese gave us while they are in debt up to their ears and they know everything single thing back in beijing. Theres no gas, guess, theres nothing for me. By the way its not the government, its facebook. Or tiktok, worse yet. So, the answer is we have to play the long game. We were in that meeting with an african leader i wont say the country does President Trump, four or five above and same on their side including the finance minister. President trump said how much money did we provide you in assistance each year and he said, turned to the finance minister and said a million and the finance minister shouts 1. 1 billion, and President Trump and i kept thinking youre going to get fired, just be quiet. Im sorry, a billion. President trump knowing the answer to the questions of how much of your agriculture do you buy from us. He turned to the agriculture minister and the answer was none. I remember him turning to the secretary saying, we are chumps. We provide a billion dollars a year and dont ask a simple thing and return that they purchased their produce from american producers are not the least western producers if not us, the european sort our allies and friends. We have many tools which we could exert american influence in these places and we ought to use them in a way that is more robust than we have done for an awfully long time, and this is not political. Neither party has actually begun , had begun to challenge china in the way we had. This is how you push back and actually help these african countries get to a better place. Thank you. [applause] good evening, mr. Secretary. Thank you for being here. My name is parker. I go down the road to the university in virginia. I wanted to ask you are in a room with hundreds of conservative students here and if we havent heard of ourselves, professors, students that have said america isnt the best country to live in, socialism is the best way. A system that we can have as our government instead of capitalism, lets say that. You helped to answer this question, i should say. How do we go back to the campuses and answer this questions to peers, professors, everything, that says capitalism is the best way the best Economic System we could have in our country . How do we say that america is a shining light on the hill and best country we could ask for . Mike you know the answer to that. Say it. By the way say it full throat even though they are foolish, it is ok. You can love them. Look, capitalism has raised more people out of poverty [applause] the rule of law matters, it matters most frankly for the least among us. You can also say, and sometimes things get out of whack, and sometimes our political leaders have corporate capture, some of the Big Companies do, you dont have to describe the system is perfect, but there is nothing that compares to it. I must say, i too see this, young people that speak this way, and having had the chance to serve, there is no greater privilege than the blue passport that you have. And i cant tell you how many hundreds of millions of people in the world want that. You should ask them the same question, how many people they know that are trying to emigrate to shanghai . Right . If you are asking which system is best, i think human freedom flourishes and People Choose the place in which they live. We could all move to someplace else and they would probably take us and in many cases. What ukrainian today is trying to move to moscow . Putin tells us a story, he has this narrative, they are russians and want to be under leadership. Really . I know where people are moving. There are people leaving russia to try to get to europe. These are facts and we should be absolutely fearless speaking to these facts. And, as for americas place in the world, i cant imagine anybody seriously making an argument that there has been any nation that has sacrificed more of its own treasure and people to achieve good outcomes on behalf of others than the people in the United States of america. [applause] i uh i was last night, i was telling Governor Walker, my niece and nephew were in town so i played tourist in washington, which is a lot of fun, being a former secretary touring. It is hilarious. [laughter] we went out last night and walk the monuments, so we went up to see eisenhower, the new monument, then headed up the road and walked from korea to lincoln over to the vietnam memorial. Just ask them to go visit those places. Say, come on, we are all going to go see this. You cant walk past those places. There is no equivalent of one of those and any other country of the world were so many people have done so much to make this world a better place. And so, i think, i think in some sense, um, you will not convince someone who is a stalwart who has decided to disbelieve reality, but for a lot of young people they are simply just uninformed. That task you have is to try and cheerily with love in your heart just deliver them the cold facts, and with the best humor of Ronald Reagan and the best smile and love in your heart is a person of faith deliver them the cold facts and over that period of time i think most people will get it. You will not get everybody at berkeley, but you will get everybody else. Thank you for the question. [applause] thank you for coming and speaking to us. And i would also like to think thank you and the former president for conducting the Abraham Accords. It means a lot to my friends and family, as a lot of them are in israel. They are living under a better situation. That being said, the Current Administration, and the Current Administration in israel are causing a lot of issues, and also on the palestinian side, they are causing a lot of issues and the tensions are becoming much more inflammatory, and peace is looking to be very difficult in these times. Do you see a path, do you see a viable path for a twostate solution . And if so, how do you see it growing . Mike oh goodness. Um, so i wont comment necessarily on the stuff going on today, other than democracies are rambunctious. In israel is a democracy, and they should be proud of this rambunctiousness. They will argue, debate, go to the streets. That is all good, right . We shouldnt walk away from that. I find it encouraging people care enough. And by the way, they are going out with israeli flags on both sides, trying to figure their way through this and then they will pass legislation. They will do what democracies do. I heard someone today on tv lamenting what is happening israel. Oh, they passed of this law by a slim majority. I remember watching the Affordable Care act pass. Onevote arm twists. You know . Careful, glass houses and all. Uh, as for how do you achieve peace for folks on the west bank and in israel, i know only this, there is no chance with the Palestinian Authority and control that you can never get a peace with those two groups. It will end up like hamas leadership. I pray the leadership will change and if it does it looks different from today. But the folks running the Palestinian Authority today are terrorists. They have no interest in finding accommodation. They have no interest in making life better for their own people. They are simply seeking to remain in power, and were any deal to be cut, and you can prove this, right . Four times they were offered reasonable deals. Four times they were rejected. They have no interest in finding an accommodation. Until that time, we are where we are. You hope you can keep a lid on it and you hope you can convince them. But not with these knuckleheads. It is great, by the way, not to be secretary of state anymore. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Mike yes, sir. [applause] good evening, mr. Secretary, my name is daniel, a student in preston. As a former director of the cia , i was wondering what your position is on the line between transparency versus secrecy and for protecting National Security. Mike yeah. I cant answer in the abstract where the line is. There are things you should not know. Now that i am out of government, there are things i should not know, that are apsley imperative to conduct National Security. That has been true since time and memorial. There are many things that are fine and ought to be transparently disclosed. It is too long a discussion about how we classify things. We get it wrong a lot, but i will say this in todays environment and many in the conservative movement might disagree with me, however that decision is made by the institution that makes that decision, it has to be respected. It cant be the case that everybody gets to decide, you cant just have some i was a young soldier in some young lieutenant said, you know, i think this would be appropriate if this was in the washington post. We have rules, institutions or processes. We can fight it out and make arguments. For classified information, all of those are fine, and if one violates the promise that they made, i cant tell you how many documents by sensing i would protect classified information, well when you violate that, by the way, if you do it in error, turn stuff back in and get on with your life but you cant, you cant choose, we cant have a million soldiers are 20,000 cia officers deciding which things should be public and which should not. The process has to work. [applause] yeah. Yeah. Here is the last thing i will say about this. I have been at the center of a lot of these. I was on the benghazi committee. It was the first time i met hillary clinton. I wish it had been the last. [laughter] she had classified information on her server and she did it knowingly and intentionally. That is just wrong for a Senior Leader to do that, and she walked away largely scotfree. That is equally wrong. What happened, it is not that anything on there created an enormous amount of risk, but it creates risk in your trust in these institutions. And this is the central risk for over classification not just in the intelligence, but more broadly, you have to have confidence that the decisions are being made in a way that is not political. Small p politico. You have to have confidence people were making these decisions about the things we do and how we do them in a way that is aimed at making america better. And when you lose that, my predecessor a fellow named john brennan, he deeply politicized that institution. In my mission set was not and might mission set was to not make the cia conservative and respond in kind. It was to make the ci excellent at running covert operations around the world. There are no politics in that. It doesnt matter if youre republican or democrat. In the risk that you all will take that authority away from the next cia director because it has been politicized, that is very real, so as leaders we have to make sure we are handling this transparency issue in a way that justifies the continued existence of these institutions that have to operate in the dark. Does that answer at least in part . Yes, sir. Mike thank you. [applause] this is going to be our last question. It is coming from a supporter. Ok. Hello, mr. Secretary. Mike hi. I am an old american for freedom. [laughter] my question is, was the iraq invasion mistake . Mike i dont spend time thinking about that. Mr. Secretary, that was three train dollars. It is also 3 trillion. Mike it is also history. I must say i cant tell you what was in the moment. I try not to second guess because i wasnt there. I dont know what they know about what was going on in the world at that time. From the outside, yeah, it was probably mistake, and we certainly got the execution wrong in 2011 and 2012 as well. Fair enough, but the only reason to ever think about Something Like that is to take a Lesson Learned away from it, right . That would be a reason. But mostly how do you take care of an iraq today where the iranians are largely in control and you can say that doesnt matter i dont want anything to do with it. There are some on the left who believe that as well. I will tell you that if iran gets control of its entirety, you will have Nuclear Proliferation through the region that will threaten your life and that of your children and grandchildren. These things, you know, somehow there is this notion that what happens in kyiv stays in kyiv. That is not my experience set. My experience set is that these things actually has a second and third or implications maybe not for tomorrow, next week or even next year, but they are very real. It is quite we were so careful. I am trying to think, i cant think of a place we deployed large numbers of troops during our four, and i also cant think of a place we didnt enhance deterrence you can do both of those things at the same time. We are pretty successful at that. Im proud of the fact we didnt send 101st everywhere and always is our first line of defense, but i will say, you know, i have read all the history. The 1963 war, the 1967 war, the war in israel. I know the history of south korea. I was a student and still remain a so. But what we should think about is tell me whats taking place in the environment today that could cause us to not have the capability to protect america from the very real threats that we have today . So, you have this kind of parlor game about some of these, well, do you think we made the right decision in world war ii not to get in until japan bombed pearl harbor . Right . They are interesting questions and that they can help us think about problem sets, but i hope we are spending. 04 of our time thinking about those and 99. 99 thinking about, how is it that i make sure we never have to go deployed our forces anywhere again. That is victory for american security. [applause] last thought. So, thank you. That is a great question the end on. I want to end on this note. My wife jokes time to time. She says dont worry theres still five more elections before you are joe bidens age. [laughter] but she will also say, mike, you get in front of an audience like this and people get down because you talk about hard problems and bad things and risks in all the dark corners of the world that you spend time in so they walk out of the room like they have to pop a xanax or something or have a stiff drink or worst case both, bad idea. [laughter] bad idea. You should know i look out in this room and i am very confident that no matter what problems we talk about, we are going to fix them and get them right. Im not confident of that because of who the next president will be. Uh, im not confident of that because the next senator from your state. Im confident because in the places that really matter in the churches and synagogues, i watch in our schools, i watch the young people of america taking back our. These are the places that have made america great. We have had some fantastic president s, but what has really delivered for america for 250 years didnt happen in washington, d. C. It happened in the quiet places. It happened where the little platoons exist, boy scout troops, Little League fields, and somebody who cooked a dinner at church, whatever it might be, those of the places that make america so unique and so special, and to your point about talking with folks about what makes america so unique, there is no place in the world where communities come together in the way that those in america do. And i see groups like this tonight coming together, coming to washington, and i am more convinced than ever that america will stay at that, we will win, they will lose, and america will get its next 250 years. Thanks for giving me this chance governor. Thank you for letting me be here tonight. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] live sunday on end up with, a bestselling author and historian joins to talk and take calls about native american history, the civil war, and more. He has published several books. His latest, his majestys airship about a british blimp that went up in flames in 1930 killing more people than the hindenburg did seven years later. Join in the conversations with your calls, facebook comments, and texts. End up with, live end up with , live sunday noon eastern on cspan two on book tv. Cspan is your next, testimony from former military pilots and a former defense employee regarding their accounts of unidentifie aerial phenomenon before a house subcommittee. Then, a discussion on rural voterutreach with the chair of the next democratic chair party, who happens to be the under state party chair individually. Later, and discussion on the evolution of Artificial Intelligence with the elegy reporters hosted by the washington post. Next, testimony from former military pilots and a former Defense Department employee regarding unidentified aerial phenomenon. They appeared before a house subcommittee to give

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