world still yearn to come here, to become americans. the rest of the world still looks to us for leadership and inspiration. just ask yourselves, even on our darkest days, where on earth would you rather live than the united states of america? [applause] americans are not tired of freedom and democracy. they are tired of failed leadership. they haven't given up on the values that make our nation great. they are just fed up with politicians who put their self interests before america. i can tell you this, i'm not about to give up on the republican party or on america. none of us can. i still believe that america's

best days are ahead of us and that there is a better path forward, if only we have the courage to seize it. thank you, god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. [applause] ♪ >> please welcome author of the upcoming book " never give an inch," secretary mike pompeo. ♪ secretary pompeo: well, good evening. nothing like a little bruce

springsteen to get everything going. it is wonderful to be here with so many friends. dank you, matt and the rjc for letting us be here. senator coleman, thank you for including me. mr. vice president, it is good to see you, great to be your warm-up act tonight. who knows, the next time together we could be on a stage, multiple podiums, who knows who else will be with us, who knows. and who knows what nicknames we might have. [applause] it is -- it is great fun to be with so many friends and to break bread with my jewish friends, although i do not eat as much bread as i used to. and i always learn something new.

i was talking to someone earlier tonight. we were asking about hanukkah and christmas, and they said don't forget the chinese food on christmas. i love it. they reminded me tonight of when i was a pretty junior member of congress. i was in jerusalem, i was invited to a shabbat dinner by a senior former idf general. he had four generations of his family there. my wife was with me. it reminded me that we draw common cause and share values even though we are of different faiths, and we have a lot more friends around us. indeed, that night i felt like his family, tonight i feel like we are family. he had spent his whole life defending his nation. think about these two experiments, two mighty bands of brothers, two audacious nations

that believed driven by consciousness and conviction, freedom loving people could make their own nations and people in the whole world a better. so the good news is i'm the former circuitry of state, so you get mike pompeo unplugged. let's have that conversation amongst friends. us talk about how we build on the things that matter to families all across our country. we did remarkable work for four years. i'm incredibly proud of that. but it's going to take real seriousness, real resolve, people of character to build on that. it will take a long time to reverse the things that are happening to our nation today. it may well take eight years to fix it. we should be determined to commit the time required to achieve that.

the enemies of democracy train their crosshairs on america. they are coming after our ideals, the centrality of our nation. we can feel it in the higher prices at home, we can feel our kids are not as safe in the neighborhoods, we can see what is happening at the southern border. it is indeed, as president reagan spoke of, it is time for choosing for america. we can choose to believe in values that help the immersion family or retreat from those foundations. i served as secretary of state and i can tell you firsthand the stability and security of the world are depending on america to be strong at home, courageous abroad, and to build a deep and abiding relationship with the nation of israel. this all begins with the core belief in america. we must have that. we have to be strong, united in

purpose. we need leaders who will show the way that conservatives get elected in america, leaders who will fight for them, not for ourselves or our own egos but for them. when we provide a clear and confident path, good things happen in america. strong families are guided by a shared purpose in common cause. to put aside self-promotion and petty differences in the name of doing good for the whole. i am confident we can do this. this is true whether we are talking about our own families, our communities, our nation, or even the family of nations. i remember one day when president trump called and asked me if i had read the washington post that morning because the headline had been, mike pompeo, president trump's most loyal cabinet member. i remember thinking, sir, i

stopped reading the washington post, my cardiologist made me. and then he said, sir, they did not mean that as a compliment. he said you are right, he hung up. this loyalty, this work we must do together is not to a person. this loyalty i executed alongside vice president pence for four years was to our nation, to a common cause. i was loyal. i worked hard. i did every day everything i could to honor and be loyal to the oath that i took when i raised my right hand to defend the country. it wasn't a loyalty to a person or party or a faction, it was to you in the promises we had made to the united states of america.

we are all focused on last tuesday. i'm proud of how well we did. i certainly wish we had done better. but it seems obvious to me, i ran for office four times, for congress in south-central kansas. the choices are really obvious. we have to find people who are putting themselves forward with character, commitment, and real competence. this will be the call of america. they need a vision for what has grounded our nation for decades. personality and celebrity are just not going to get it done. we can see that. the american people, the emergent people -- the american people did not want to look back, they want to look forward. they care about what happens tomorrow, not yesterday. they are looking for people who have to muster proclaims to have the level of excellence to deliver good things for themselves and their communities and their families. we want them to do the right thing because it is good, not

because it might help them get elected. we want them to do the right thing not because it makes them happy and people will applaud for them. our party at our country need new strong leaders now more than ever. i spent four years in the administration, first serving as the director of the cia. by the way, a great gig. no media. think about it. [laughter] but as you think about that world, we can see the line between things that happen abroad and things that happier is very blurry. the idea there is some notion of a secure america without a strong and prosperous nation at home or a strong and prosperous nation at home without an america prepared to defend its core values and protect itself from our adversary seems nonsensical. we could see that what happened in syria with isis, or what happened in beijing with china,

or what happens in tehran. this matters to people all across the country, families are impacted from oregon to arizona come from new york to nevada. if we don't get it right abroad, that our nation will be weaker. if we don't do the things we know are right at home, the capacity for the 72nd, 73rd, 74th secretary of state will be tremendously diminished. we can see that everything was in place for conservative wave. i've seen candidates blame others, point the finger. i ran four times. we are each responsible for our own destiny, along with our maker. my admonishment to all is what is really required as we present the conservative case, as we make the argument, which is what matters, we make the argument and with the argument we do so with joy and a smile, that we work our tails off. that we don't simply rail against the machine. that we don't civilly go on fox

news or send tweets, we actually do the hard work of making the winning argument about why the conservative ideas deliver good outcomes for every single american. [applause] i was reminded by my son the other day when i first ran for congress, 2009, there were seven people on the ballot, my name id was 2% of the first poll i took. i said that's my family, and i know them, i'm only getting half of those votes. we have much work to do. it is simply not enough to own the libs. it is simply not enough to complain. one has to mix a case. i take we had too many folks who were not out there actively presenting solutions the merc and people can count on. -- the american people can count on. i saw this in my time as secretary of state. we had timothy argument around the world. when the president made a

remarkable decision to move the american embassy to jerusalem, the rightful homeland of the israeli people, we knew this was important because it was real, it was right, it was decent, and we also knew it was good for the united states. it was the foundation of what became the abraham accords. when i think about the abraham accords, we often think about the remarkable leaders that put it in place. that is true, but i thing about the outcomes, outcomes we cannot have dreamed of six years ago if i stood here and told you that when the united arab emirates jet scrambled into the air that today it is scrambling not to attack israel but to fly in formation with israeli pilots. that is remarkable. as we stand here today there are aircraft traveling to tel aviv, to doja, that's remarkable.

and i think about what that means for us here in the united states. by creating more prosperity and stability and recognizing negotiating with a terrorist was a fools errand. by getting that right we reduce the risk that our young men and women in service might ever have to go and fight and risk their lives in that place. it is under big wesley good to the american people the abraham accords continue to thrive and build, and this momentum is never lost -- it is unambiguously good for the merc and people. i get asked from time to time, would ukraine have been invaded if we were still there? i can't answer that question because we did not get four more years. but i can tell you this, it didn't happen on our watch. and i think about the model. it was a model that was a realist model. we understood the world as it is and we deterred the bad guys. it was not about words, it was

actions we do some strata -- it was actions we demonstrated we were prepared to take. we were bathing to lose containment dense the islamic republic of iran. they fired a shot down two american uav's, they launched cruise missiles into saudi arabia. we knew we had to get back the deterrence. we had to convince the bad guys we were serious and we did. [applause] family, we protected american families. not only did iran change its behavior from that point forward, but so did gigi paying -- president xi and china, -- in china. vladimir putin understood that

we were serious about protecting america. when we said we were friends and partners to israel, we were friends to the zionist project. we delivered real outcomes not for today, but for tomorrow. [applause] i worry about american institutions. these institutions, our churches, synagogues are under attack. post-covid, attendance remain down. these institutions are essential to our well-being, to protect what matters to each of us. this administration has chosen a much different path. it will take true leadership, not tweets to fix those institutions. [applause]

i think of the military that i served in now, too long ago, back when i could fit in an m1 take. [laughter] i watched a military that lost focused on -- focus on its mission and is now training officers and noncommissioned officers on diversity and inclusion. they are no longer -- they are talking about being carbon neutral by 2030. these are not the things of serious military leaders, because this is not a serious military. i can tell you right now that the chinese military is not practicing diversity equity and inclusion training. this is an idea that is essential to our country. my first tank gunner, came from

syria, i didn't choose him because he was a diversity candidate, i chose him because he was a very good gunner and i wanted to live. i wanted hard work, excellence and merits, all of the things that are essential to delivering for conservatives all across america as we put candidates forwards for city school board races all across the country. i see, like you do, i can see we live in an age ribbon by celebrity. -- driven by celebrity. around early percent of our children would rather work on a youtube video then practice with a teacher or become an astronaut. our core institutions need to remind young people that there are things bigger than themselves. if they would spend more time thinking of our founding

document, the constitution, if they spend more time reading the 1619 project, then good things will come to america. [applause] each of these things serve a higher purpose. i remember, when i trained and practiced and was ready, but we had just had an american return as a result of the harm inflicted on him in a north korean prison. we still have three americans out there. but the hard work, the seriousness with which we approached it gave us a brilliant opportunity, and on my second visit i was able to return with my aircraft holding three more americans than when we arrived in north korea. [applause] that second meeting also marked a turning point in my life, i also passed dennis rodman as the

recordholder for the most visits to north korea. i told my son i would rake nba records, and there you go. [laughter] we can laugh, we can bring joy, we can pursue our movement and conservative ideas with the spirit with which are creator understood human dignity. this is a serious business but we need not be angry. we need not be mean, we need not call names. i am deeply confident that not only will be relationship with the united states and israel continue to flourish, but this remarkable nation will live for 250 years. i bless you, and god bless the united states of america. [applause]