[ad_1]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday dismissed former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ criticism of the Trump administration’s “America First” foreign policy approach as “completely wrong.”
“I have a lot of respect for Jim, but he’s just plain wrong about it,” said Mr. Pompeo, “Special Report” host Bret Baier. “America First” was at her heart, a recognition that when America is safe at home, when America does good things for our own economy, for our own prosperity, that America will be a force. for the good.
MATTIS SAYS HE HOPES BIDEN to remove ‘AMERICA FIRST’ from national strategy
Pompeo was responding to an editorial in Foreign Affairs magazine titled “Defense in Depth”, and co-authored by Mattis, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute Kori Schake, fellow of the Hoover Institution and former commander of the US strategic command Jim Ellis, and Joe Felter, member of the Hoover establishment.
The authors said they hope Biden “quickly revises the national security strategy to remove ‘America First’ from its content, restoring in its place the commitment to cooperative security that has worked so well. served the United States for decades “.
“In practice, ‘America first’ means ‘America alone’,” they wrote. “This has hampered the country’s ability to resolve problems before they reach US territory and thus compounded the danger posed by emerging threats.”
Pompeo said he took “great umbrage” at the suggestion of “America first” meaning “America alone.”
“I would tell you that our Japanese colleagues, our South Korean colleagues, our Indian colleagues, our Australian colleagues all know that the [Obama administration] pivot to Asia was a joke, but that the United States under President Trump actually gave them real benefits, ”he replied.
“Whether this is the work we did to build a huge coalition to go after the [Venezuelan] socialist [Nicolas] Maduro, to attack the Cubans, they are real coalitions, real things – it was not America alone, ”Pompeo repeated.
“It was we who were doing it with our friends and allies on the basis of shared interests and a reality that recognized the central facts about what is and not by pretending that things are as we would like them to be. “
BIDEN PICKS BLINKEN, MAYORKAS, SULLIVAN FOR KEY CABINET POSITIONS
Pompeo also confirmed that there had been no communication between his team and Antony Blinken, Biden’s choice for secretary of state, but that “we will do whatever is required by law. We will do this job. “.
Asked about his biggest foreign policy concern about the next administration, Pompeo made it clear: “I know some of these people, they took a very different point of view, they lived in a world that was a little bit of a fantasy. They led from behind, they calmed down. I hope they choose a different course. “
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Pompeo touted Abraham’s historic accords of the Trump administration that normalized relations in the Middle East, their efforts to defuse “a very tense situation when we came to power” in North Korea, and “central recognition of the Chinese Communist Party as a real threat to jobs all over America. “
“If they keep these things at the center and center of mass,” he said, “I think America’s course will be one that is safer, more prosperous, and more secure.”
Fox News’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link