Pompeo launches political group ahead of possible White House bid

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is launching a political group dedicated to helping Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. 

Pompeo confirmed his plans to Politico this week, saying stymying President Biden’s agenda and regaining control of the House and Senate should be the top priorities for the GOP. 

“It is unambiguously clear to me that if we don’t get it right in the next 16 or 17 months, what will happen over these next four years will make it incredibly difficult for whoever is elected president in 2024. So that is my singular focus,” Pompeo said.

The former senator from Kansas said he told congressional leaders in both parties before starting the political action committee, which he is calling the Champion American Values PAC. 

Pompeo, a loyalist to former President Trump, is widely expected to be considering a bid for the White House in 2024. He has trips planned to California and Iowa in the coming months to participate in conservative fundraisers and speaking engagements. 

“We’re going to go out, and we’ve started this already, but we’re going to go out and expand to a greater degree, helping candidates all across the country,” Pompeo told Politico.

Trump has also said he intends to help Republicans loyal to him and his agenda win election next fall and has repeatedly attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other members of the GOP who have criticized him. 

Trump has not said if he plans to run for president in 2024 but is expected to begin holding political rallies again this summer. 

Pompeo, since leaving the State Department, has been sharply critical of Biden and his successor at State, Antony Blinken, specifically regarding policy toward China during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Biden is in Europe this week on his first international trip since assuming office, attempting, the president says, to send a message to other world leaders that “America is back at the table” after four years under Trump. 

“Well, generically, when I hear the administration talk about taking America back, they are talking about back to what President Obama did for eight years where America was weak,” Pompeo said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” “We might have been liked — a lot of people talk about how they are having this really fun time over at the G-7, everybody likes President Biden. What’s important is not that they like America, but that they respect us, that we deliver good outcomes for the American people.”

Pompeo has also spoken out on cultural issues seen as key to winning over Republican primary voters. 

“I get asked all the time what keeps you up at night,” Pompeo said during a recent radio interview, adding what concerns him most is issues of free speech on college campuses. “The fact that we now are accusing people who are just saying things that are common sense about how to treat everybody equally and fairly have been accused of being racist. … Those are dangerous things in a democracy.”