A price for the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. His remarks were part of an interview he did with the hills k. Hello, and welcome. Im steve clemons. Before we got underway, the the chairman of the hill. Good morning. I am chairman of the hill. I want to welcome you all here today. We have a tremendous Program Throughout the day moderated by steve clemons. I want to thank the faculty. A great program. A special thanks to secretary of state, mike pompeo, who spent so much of his valuable time with us this morning. The secretary has a tremendous background, as most of you know, number one in west point. He was on the board of editors at the harvard law review. Was a lawyer at williams and connelly. A successful businessman. He was a captain in the army. He served in congress. He was head of the cia, and now he is secretary of state. Any one of these accomplishments would be a major accomplishment for anyone of us, but he has them all. So with that, i want to welcome you again and hand the program over to our great editor, bob cusack, who is now going to interview the secretary. Have a great day. Thank you, mr. Secretary, for joining us. I want to jump into the news. Recently, you said that the u. S. May ban tiktok and other chinese apps. Is it going to be a decision this summer . First of all, thank you for having me. Jimmy, thank you for that generous introduction. I made a comment about tiktok. We have to go back to first principles. The mission is to protect American National security. In this case, the information of american citizens. Whether it is tiktok or any of the other Chinese Communications platforms, apps, infrastructure, this Administration Takes seriously the requirement to protect the American People from having their information and up end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist party. So we are working through a process where all of the relevant agencies and the private sector are saying their piece. We hope to have a decision shortly, which will reflect the central understanding we have been working on. We are pleased to see the United Kingdom make its announcement it will pull out huawei. We watched Telecom Companies across the world from orange and others to say, no, we want to make sure our data flows that flows only across trusted vendors. That is really the mission set when it comes to applications that our kids may be touching. I got lots of notes from others saying, please, please, make it go away. Take it away. That is for the parents to decide. Their kids use it on their cell phones. It is our task to make sure that information of the children does not end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist party. You and others have said russia meddled in the 2016 election. You fault the Obama Administration for not doing more back then. Is russia meddling in the 2020 election . If so, are you being successful in stopping it . I am confident many countries will do their level best to have an impact on our election. This is not new. I was reading a book the other night talking about senator kennedy dealing with this issue back when he was running for president. Foreign efforts to interfere in american elections, something we constantly must contend with. We will contend with that here. We did a good job in 2018 during the midterm elections. I am hopeful we will do ive seen the work that is got in, largely from the department of Homeland Security, little work a little work done by the state department, as well, to make sure our foreign counterparts understand the cost that will be imposed if they choose to engaged in maligned choose to engage in maligned activity related to our elections. I think the American People should rest assured no matter interference, even nonstate actors who now have capabilities to try and middle in meddle in our elections, know this Administration Takes seriously its responsibility to make sure every american vote is counted, country properly, and foreign influence is minimized in its ability to impact the american outcome. You spoke with the Russia Foreign minister this week. Did the reported bounties on u. S. Troops come upand or and or russias support for the taliban . Of course. I spoke to my russian counterparts a lot. I spoke to them when i was the head of the cia and my two intelligence counterparts in russia. We talked about afghanistan a great deal and the need to achieve the outcome that President Trump has set forth, which is get americas role greatly reduced and get our combat forces out of afghanistan in a way that leads to a peaceful reconciliation among the afghan people. I was on the phone with the ambassador just yesterday talking about the progress were making. It is tough work, but i believe we are making Real Progress. I made clear to the russians we needed their support in that effort, as well. Theres a lot of history of russia in afghanistan. Those who remember all that took place when russia was forced to leave afghanistan, theres a lot of history, a lot of russian footprint, Weapons Systems there. We made clear to our russian counterparts we have to Work Together to get a more sovereign, more independent, peaceful afghanistan. We think it is in russias best interest and chinas best interest. We know it is in the afghan peoples best interest. President trump is working diligently to make sure we do that in a way that protects the market only and gets our boys and girls home. The American Homeland and gets our boys and girls home. Inshould russia be allowed the g7 in the wake of their activity the last few years, or should it be conditional . The president has made clear any the president the president has made it. Lear i agree. I have lots of conversations. There are places it is not a democracy. They have a different regime than our state. There are places where we can Work Together. We ought to do everything we can to maximize those opportunities to Work Together on behalf of the American People and in the places where we disagree. That is russias involvement in venezuela. The work theyre doing today in syria. We ought to make it clear to them as well and have conversations with them about how we can reduce the risk to america from the russian maligned activity. The last time we interviewed in person, you said you would stay on in the job as long as President Trump wants you. Should he win reelection, would you serve in a second term . It will be up to the president. I think the last time you were convinced was going to run for i was going to run for the senate in kansas, as i recall. [laughter] no one believed me last year when i said i wasnt. Perhaps, folks will have some skepticism about what i say here as well. I love what im doing. It is an incredible privilege to serve the American People and to do every day the tasks that increase americans to have the opportunity we have because of the exceptional coming unique nation. It President Trump asked me to serve a second administration, it would be truly an honor. What would be your second term agenda . You want to talk about what you have done now. Maybe the biggest thing since he joined the state, but going forward, what would you do in a second term . We talked about the Global Missions that secure american freedom. If you asked me what the biggest challenge is going to be for the second term from a National Security perspective, it is certainly going to be the Chinese Communist party. It is something we have been focused on since the beginning of the trump administration. It is something the Previous Administration allowed us to get just rolled by them in every dimension, whether it was to whether it was intellectualproperty theft, whether it was a massively unfair trade relationship, chinas advancement in the child south china sea, the Previous Administration simply refused to take the actions necessary to secure freedom for American People. President trump has told our team we need to do everything we can to preserve the freedom and push back to make sure we have fair and reciprocal set of relationships with the Chinese Communist party. On china, it is a tense time with the south china sea, hong kong conflict, but what is the status of the u. S. China relationship . The u. S. China relationship . We are engaged in dialogue. I travel to honolulu two or three weeks back. Sadly, they want to talk about cooperation. They want to talk about being a global power that complies with the rule of law, yet every place we see their actions, their actions belie that. Examples, a promise they would not militarize the south china sea. In 2015. The rose garden. He militarized the south china sea. He made a 50 year commitment, agreement between china and the United Kingdom and hong kong that there will be one country and two systems, and he has fundamentally violated that. Every place the Chinese Communist party commit was under the paris climate aboard, not remotely close to complying with. This is a Chinese Communist party that is acting in a way that poses real threats to the world, and the United States will respond in each of those venues to make sure we preserve American National security and impose costs on the Chinese Communist party in order to achieve the change in behavior that will have a good outcome. We want a free and open in the pacific. The Chinese CommunistParty Continues to treat the body of water is its own maritime empire. As its own maritime empire. We are not going allow that to happen. There is Bipartisan Legislation in the house and the senate that would give certain hong kong residents refugee status. Is that legislation a good idea . The president has not made a decision on this yet. I am confident people coming from anywhere in the world that seek asylum, the United States has always been a place that welcomes those people. It has been a little slower. It is a little slowed down by the virus that emanated from china. The United Kingdom has graciously allowed them 3 Million People to come from hong kong. Some 3 Million People to come from hong kong. Australia is set up. The world democracies understand what the Chinese Communist party is doing. To those of us who believe in freedom and liberty. We will make sure to take care of those Freedom Fighters who want to travel who dont feel like they are safe and can continue to do good work inside hong kong or any other country, for that matter. On the coronavirus, how sure are you that it originated from a lab in wuhan . And what is the proof of that . What i can say is that we know this much, we know it began in wuhan, china. The Scientific Community is quite confident of that. We dont know precisely from where it imitated. Emanated. Theres evidence that it came from a laboratory and others that say it came from other places. Finally, we know this, the Chinese Communist party has prevented anyone from finding out the answer to that question. They denied access to the laboratory. Anyone who wanted to talk about it that was inside that laboratory, whether they were a journalist or doctor, has been precluded from talking about that. They have either been told they cant talk or worse. And indeed, the Scientific Community who desperately still needs to figure out where patient zero came from, has been unable to get that information. This is a result of the Chinese Communist party hiding the data. Countries that want to be global powers, countries that want to participate on the global stage have a corresponding obligation to comply to the promises they make. China made a promise to the who. There are a set of rules about disclosure. When you have any incident in your country that could potentially lead to a pandemic, you have an obligation to that and allow others to come in and help you talk about it. The Chinese Communist party coopted the World Health Organization that coverup most up the result today as with hundred of thousands of people have died angeles of dollars in global damage as a druze i direct result of the chinese commonest partys decision. Communist partys decision hiding their knowledge of what was happening and what on. Should china pay a price for that . I think the world will make them pay a price. Everywhere you go, they recognize what china has done to the world. Im confident the world will look at china differently and engage with them on fundamentally different terms than they did before this catastrophic disaster that could well have been mitigated had china behaved in a way that was consistent with the promises that they had made. There is debate on americans as far as voting this fall, debate among Election Officials and attorney general barr barr has indicated he is concerned about fabrication of ballots being mailed in. Is this something youre concerned about . Election Officials Say this is virtually in a possibility. Impossibility. That is not really my purview. Ill leave that to the department of Homeland Security and the attorney general. This year, will there be another north korea summit . And what have the prior ones accomplished . Were getting pretty close to the election. North koreans have given mixed signals. President trump fully was to wants to engage if we believe there is sufficient likelihood we can make Real Progress in achieving the outcomes that were set forth in singapore a couple years back. Have informedto discussions with the North Koreans. We believe the denuclearization of the peninsula and a resolution of the conflict is important. The peninsula is incredibly important. You have to have a willing partner. The North Koreans have chosen not to engage in a way that can lead to a potential solution. We hope they will change their mind. We look forward to engaging them with dialogue. They all want to achieve this. The chinese, too. We need to denuclearize and do so in a way that is completely verifiable. We still continue that mission. We have avoided having a longrange so fired. Now it is time to get to the harder problems and secure a better outcome, not only for the security of the American People, but for the people of north korea as well. The state department put out a report saying globally White Supremacy is on the rise. What is the state department doing to curb that . Go, wherever we think there are actors that pose a threat to the u. S. , we work on that. You saw the report that we put out. The Gold Standard with the set of issues. We work diligently to try to get other governments to conform to our conception of human rights. Not because it is solely in americas best interest, but we firmly believe getting this right is in those countries best interests, as well. On iran, you have been very critical. Is pressure on our side . On iran . I know youre pushing for more sanctions. Every nation, including russia, signs up on the security signed off on the Un Security Council resolution 2231, which imposed an arms embargo that denies iran the capacity to sell or buy Weapons Systems until october 18th because of mistakes made by the Previous Administration entering into the nuttiest agreement that i have seen. After just five years, the Worlds Largest states return to begin to freely engage in arms trade and not become only the latest large estate arms of arms dealers. Russian weapons. We are working and we hope alongside the russians to ensure that cant happen. Russia has a very different set of views with respect to their working alongside them in syria. We regret that russia has made that decision. We have had millions and millions of displaced people from syria, enormous starvation, the United States is the largest contributor to the humanitarian relief effort. Russia is working against those interests and alongside the interests of the Islamic Republic in iran. We have a few minutes left. You got a lot of people talking this week when it was announced youre going to be speaking on friday in iowa, which obviously is a key state. Is a president ial run a possibility in your future . I alway