Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday bristled at criticism of President Donald Trump for not talking about election meddling during a phone call with Vladimir Putin — insisting the United States takes Moscow interference “seriously.”
In a wide-ranging interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo declared “this administration has been tougher on Russia than any of its predecessor administrations.”
“So for you to suggest we haven't taken election …interference seriously, we do,” he insisted. “We continue to work on it and make sure every election is as safe as it can possibly be. … We take seriously the threat of election interference from every country, Russia included.”
Pompeo asserted Russia must stay out of the way in political and humanitarian turbulence in Venezuela.
“Every country must get out, including the Russians,” he said. “We don't want anyone messing around with Venezuela. We want them to be an autonomous, independent sovereign state, democratically elected officials.”
He also addressed a report of North Korea testing “projectiles” that may violate its current agreement, saying it’s still not determined if a violation took place — and pleaded for continued talks with Pyongyang.
“We've known it would be a long path, we know it wouldn't be straightforward but have extended our negotiating hand to the North Koreans… I extend my hand to continue those negotiations and we want to achieve a peaceful resolution,” he said.
And Pompeo strongly defended Israel’s response to rockets from Gaza.
“The Israelis have every right to defend themselves,” he said, adding the most recent rockets from Gaza “were fired with civilians around them.”
“This is terrible, the Israelis have every right to protect the sovereignty of their nation and hope that we can return to the cease-fire that had been in place for weeks and had been holding significantly before this.”
Pompeo also dismissed former Vice President Joe Biden as “disconnected” in his assessment that China isn’t a threat to the United States.
“Seems a little disconnected from the reality that is China today,” he said. “Maybe when he ran for president the first time this was the situation, but it certainly not today. China poses an enormous challenge to the United States of America. I agree with him ultimately America will prevail, I'm confident in that.”
Related Stories:
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.