Mike Pompeo goes after Democrats in SC Republican Party speech, but stays mum on 2024
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touted successes of the Trump administration while taking jabs at the Biden administration in a 23-minute speech where he called himself former President Donald Trump’s most loyal Cabinet member.
The potential 2024 presidential candidate was the keynote speaker Friday at the South Carolina’s Republican Party’s Silver Elephant gala attended by more than 900 people in what organizers said was the Columbia Convention Center’s first full capacity event. No masks or social distancing was required.
Pompeo’s speech touched on the Trump administration’s Middle East policies, including support for Israel, how it dealt with Iran, North Korea and the shared border with Mexico.
Pompeo’s remarks received applause from a crowd in the state that holds the first-in-the-South presidential primary, where early visits can be key to gain support.
Pompeo’s visit to Columbia included a news conference at the South Carolina Republican Party’s headquarters to endorse Gov. Henry McMaster’s reelection campaign as well as a meeting with GOP activists.
“Together, we’ll push back against the radical socialist agenda,” Pompeo tweeted.
Pompeo took jabs at the Biden administration during his remarks.
“It’s been 189 days now since we left office,” Pompeo said. “It’s hard for me as it is for you to watch the change, the absolute change in the very conception of the United States of America.”
And he leveled criticisms at Democratic lawmakers, saying the opposition party wants to get rid of the filibuster, nationalize elections, make the District of Columbia a state, teach so-called critical race theory, take money away from law enforcement and add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“If you want to talk about who wants to destroy the very fabric of the United States of America, it is their party, not our party. We’re not going to let that happen,” Pompeo said.
But Pompeo, who has made trips to various early-voting states for months, stayed been mum on his own plans for 2024, saying he’s concentrating on 2022.
“I’m spending my time traveling around the country helping good common sense conservatives get elected in 2022, that needs to be everyone’s focus,” Pompeo said. “We get that wrong, the hole that will be dug in these four years will be staggeringly deep.”
One of those candidates he hopes to get elected to a second term, McMaster. He told reporters he’s willing to campaign for the Columbia Republican and raise money for his reelection bid through his political action committee.
He denied his visit was about trying to get support for a potential 2024 run for president.
“It’s about shoring up support for sure, for Gov. McMaster. That’s why I’m here. I’m here for 2022,” Pompeo told reporters. “There’s lots of questions about 2024 and I don’t escape them. But I’m so focused on 2022. If we don’t get the House and Senate control, governorships and legislatures all across America in 2022, the place that this administration will take America is some place South Carolinians want to be.”
McMaster touts state’s COVID approach
In a speech likely to be retold on the campaign trail, on Friday night Gov. Henry McMaster touted the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, cracked a joke about the country’s top infectious disease expert and aimed to give hope to Republicans hoping to make gains in the next elections.
McMaster, who is running for reelection in 2022, spoke at the dinner.
States led by Democats, McMaster said, closed everything.
“We took the opposite approach,” McMaster said.
“Other states are falling apart, we’re blasting off. They’re digging out of holes, we’re building again.”
McMaster also went after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden.
“He said you’ve got to wear your seat belt after you get out of your car, you gotta wear the life preserver after you get out of a boat. And you can (pee) in the swimming pool if you wear two bathing suits,” McMaster said. “I’ve never seen a public official go from such high credibility to the lowest in a short period of time.”
Beyond his approach to COVID-19, McMaster defended his actions that withdrew the state from the expanded federal unemployment programs, barred vaccine passports and signed a restrictive abortion ban now caught up in the courts. He also said the state would never teach critical race theory, which argues racism is embedded in institutions around the country, in schools, a comment which drew applause from the audience of more than 900 people.
The speech was aimed to rouse the party faithful ahead of the 2022 midterm election.
“I believe we are waking up,” McMaster said. “I believe that we’re going to stomp the other side in 2022. We’re going to stomp the other side in 2024.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
