QUESTION: One of the people who is key to those achievements is the man who is serving today as the 70th Secretary of State. Former director of Central Intelligence, a good friend of the show, a great patriot, he is Secretary Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, welcome back to America First.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Hi, it is great to be back with you. I hope you're doing great today.
QUESTION: We are. We are, indeed. So much to discuss. We have to discuss the incredible peace deal with the UAE and Israel. But first things first, I just want to remind people - because this is why I entered the Trump administration, to do counterterrorism issues. How is it possible, Mike, Secretary Pompeo, how is it possible that ISIS is no longer a headline story like it was for years and years and years under Obama?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Focus and President Trump would be my two answers, and they are related. We want after it with the vigor and energy that said this is a serious matter. You remember this; when the administration began, they were beheading Americans. You remember the videos?
QUESTION: Yes.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Killing people in cages. They controlled a huge piece of real estate the size of the United Kingdom. And President Trump just said, "Enough," and unleashed our capabilities, our military, our intelligence capabilities, all of our diplomatic efforts to get our partners and allies. We built a coalition of 80-plus countries, and we crushed the caliphate. And counter - the terrorists still exist. There's still work to do. It's the state of nature, in some sense. But that risk, the fact that it's not in the news every day, is a direct result of the good work that's been done under President Trump's leadership.
QUESTION: Focus and leadership from the Commander-in-Chief and his team. Okay, let's talk about the news that really the mainstream fake news industrial complex, the legacy media doesn't want to talk about. Had a historic flight and also an historic deal. I'm a cynic; I've traveled through the Middle East and I've said there are unsolvable problems there. Maybe I was wrong. Talk to us about the significance of the deal that has been brokered by your good offices, the President, and his envoys.
SECRETARY POMPEO: So the President set about fundamentally upending the policies of the previous administration with respect to the Middle East. The previous administration said, "We're going to make the Islamic Republic of Iran the anchor tenant in our mall." President Trump said, "That doesn't work. The deal you struck was a mess." And we immediately began to build out a coalition between our good longtime allies in Israel and the Gulf states, who had a shared threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terror.
That worked. That coalition that got built ultimately led to comfort levels that put us in a place where the Arab states have now said, "Look, we know that Israel's going to be there. It's appropriate that we have dealings with them." And we've now had the first country come across the line and - in 26 years and acknowledge Israel's right to exist and normalize that relationship. The Emiratis have done yeoman's work in that respect, and their nation and their people will benefit from that.
We hope there's more. We think this upends the traditional model which says until there's a solution to the problem presented by the Palestinians nothing good can come, and we've shown that that's not true. And we hope one day that the leadership inside of the West Bank will move forward and recognize that the world is passing them by. We can all work together to make the lives better for the Palestinian people too, but they've got to come to the table. They've got to be serious.
And I think what you're seeing from states all across the region, including Arab countries outside of the Middle East and Sudan as well, saying, look, we want to recognize Israel as a proper Jewish homeland and knowing that this will benefit the people of their country when they do so.
QUESTION: How much of a result was it in terms of who was in the White House, in terms of when Jerusalem looked at Washington, when the UAE looked at Washington, the fact that it was Donald Trump in the White House that made that deal possible?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Absolutely. Absolutely the case. It was certainly the language and the plan but also the execution. You'll remember what the world said when we moved the embassy to Jerusalem. They said the streets will riot all over the world. That didn't happen. It was a - reflecting the reality on the ground when the Golan Heights was formally recognized as being part of Israel. These were fundamental decisions that President Trump made and led, and I think it gave the Emiratis the confidence to say that the United States will be there. They'll continue to be a good friend and partner. And it enabled this really important historic outcome for the Middle East.
QUESTION: He's Secretary Mike Pompeo. Follow him right now - SecPompeo - on Twitter, 2.3 million followers. Secretary Pompeo, in the last few minutes we have with you, we're coming out of the coronavirus nightmare, the Chinese virus. As a child of those who escaped, who'd suffered under communism, do we have to do business with this country at all, the biggest communist country in the world? You have discussed so eloquently unalienable rights as a universal right. Why are we dealing with this country today?
SECRETARY POMPEO: We have 40 years of history that we're trying to overcome and at least 15 to 20 years where we turned the other cheek and we could - we saw the data that suggested that the Chinese were simply ripping us off. President Trump was the first president to call that out and acknowledge that we had to respond. And the ship's begun to turn. There's still more work to do for sure. We're starting to see other countries join us in that - the Australians, the Japanese, the South Koreans - countries all across the world, even the EU. Even the leader of the EU yesterday or the day before made some statements in recognition of the challenges that the Chinese Communist Party and the threats it imposes on the people of Europe.
I don't know what the end state ultimately looks like, but I know this much. I know President Trump is committed to making sure that we hold China accountable for this virus now destroying hundreds of thousands of lives all across the world and billions of dollars in wealth. We will hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for that. And then more broadly, we need to recognize that China is going to have to deal with the United States that is demanding that they behave in a way that is transparent, it is fair, it is reciprocal, and honors the most important human rights values that the United States has and has held dear for so long.
QUESTION: You've heard it here. The world would be a much, much more dangerous place if the President isn't re-elected and people like Mike Pompeo aren't in his team. Follow him right now, @SecPompeo. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Secretary. This is America First.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you.
