Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched his book tour for Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love on Tuesday’s CBS Mornings and, in a sit-down with co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King, Pompeo calmly dismantled King’s arguments on gun control, trustworthiness, and how Democrats have exploited January 6 for political gain.
King started with guns as the first part block of the show was dedicated to recent deadly shootings in California, Illinois, and Iowa and how she’s too scared to go most places due to a fear of being gunned down. Asked “what do you think needs to be done,” Pompeo first pointed to the fact that California has “some of the toughest gun laws in the country.”
Pompeo added that some of the guns “were probably possessed illegally” (as was possibly the case in Monterey Park) and “some of this is cultural” in that families need to remain “intact” with “good mental health services available” so that Americans realize “every life matters and...support...law enforcement.”
King moved on, but not before more leftist nonsense a she insisted “nobody wants to take guns from responsible gun owners” while, in her reality, the Second Amendment only “talk[ed] about muskets.”
“The hardware that we see on the streets, we’ve got to figure out a way to do something,” she added.
After a brief back-and-forth about when he’ll decide on a 2024 presidential bid and why he wrote the book, King asked whether he would be “disloyal” for running against Donald Trump.
Pompeo brushed that aside: “Oh, goodness, no. When you run for president, you’re making the case to the American people. So, all the folks who decide to run on both sides of the aisle will be presenting their ideas, they’ll make arguments.”
King moved next to another attempt to put a wedge between leading Republicans with a revelation in his book that Nikki Haley allegedly wanted to replace Mike Pence as Trump’s running mate, which she has deemed “lies and gossips to sell” copies of his book.
The Obama family friend continued to press from the left, lamenting “there seemed to be a lot of fluid with the truth in the Trump administration.” When Pompeo said “politicians are prone to that too often,” that wasn’t enough as King wanted a full throated denunciations of “outright lies” in the past administration.
Pompeo hit the nail on the head: “No leader should do that, no leader at a church, in a faith institution, no leader at the PTA meeting or school board, and no leader in Washington, DC.”
The real heat came when King fretted that Pompeo “wrote very little about January 6,” but what he did say upset her: “[Y]ou described it as — calling it a day left wanted to exploit for political advantage. Do you really feel that? Just yesterday, people were convicted of January 6 seditious conspiracy.”
Pompeo fired back that those who “committed crimes...should be prosecuted” and “convicted,” which left King further flustered he would believe that Democrats are milking this: “I get that, but — but in the book, Mr. Secretary, you described it as a day that it was just exploited for Democrats.”
Pompeo wouldn’t budge, saying “it’s absolutely exploited by the left” and that he “believe[s] that fully.”
One reason Pompeo gave? The rioters didn’t prevail:
[W]e’ve had bad days in America before. That night ended in glory. That night ended in the United States of America completing its constitutional process and confirming President Biden as the dually elected President of the United States. We should — we should be proud of that.
He added that no one should resort to violence, whether it’s there or Minneapolis or Seattle, so King naturally had to cut that off and ask for his thoughts on whether 2020 was stolen (click “expand”):
KING: But the violence happened because the people that day that took over the capitol believed that the election had been stolen —
POMPEO: Yes.
KING: — and many people believed that they were urged to go to the Capitol to protest the way they did because of Donald Trump. Do you believe the election was stolen?
POMPEO: No, I don’t believe the election was stolen, Gayle, but I do think we have an enormous confidence gap with the American people. Secretary Clinton continues to talk about her election as having not been — we have — we have — we have two now — two consecutive elections — and by the way, in 2000, we had the hanging chads. You — you’ll remember that. We’ve got to fix this. We’ve got to run election processes that are transparent that — so that people can have confidence in them, Gayle.
KING: But Donald Trump is still saying that. Have you told him, maybe you should stop saying that?
POMPEO: I — I spoke with the President. He knows exactly what I think about the election. He knows where we got it right — where I think we got it right and where we got it wrong. And I’ve never talked about the election being stolen.
The interview ended with King briefly asking about Biden’s documents scandal with it meaning the last two Presidents were found to have taken classified documents (and hours before it became public documents were found at former Vice President Pence’s Indiana home).
Pompeo kept it short: “If you have classified documents, handle them correctly, and if you find you have them in the wrong place, take responsibility, take accountability, and turn them back in.”
King’s questions to the left were brought to you by advertisers such as Google and Swiffer. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcript from January 24, click here.
