Of all the former secretaries of state under Democratic and Republican presidents, only one is taking to cable news and social media during a moment of peril in Europe to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin and chastise the Biden administration.
Mike Pompeo has lauded the Russian strongman over the past month as a “talented,” “savvy,” “capable statesman,” offering his praise during a slew of interviews after his political action committee spent $30,000 on improving his performance in media appearances.
“He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts,” Pompeo told Fox News in January. “He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that.”
On Monday, Putin declared two regions of eastern Ukraine as “independent” after supporting a violent separatist movement there over the past eight years.
Since the fall, he has steadily amassed nearly 200,000 troops along Ukraine’s east, north and south – nearly 70% of Russia’s entire ground force – and in recent days placed battalions in tactical positions for an imminent, full-scale invasion, according to U.S. officials.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers have traveled to Ukraine in recent weeks to express a unified American voice of support, and are working on legislation that would provide President Joe Biden with new sanctions tools to punish Russia if it further invades the country.
Few other former secretaries of state have weighed in on the crisis, and those that have avoided politics. Condoleeza Rice, former secretary of state under President George W. Bush, called Putin “megalomaniacal” in a CNN interview over the weekend.
There have been eight U.S. secretaries of state since Putin took power in 1999, including four under Republican presidents — Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Rex Tillerson and Pompeo — and four under Democratic presidents — Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and the current secretary, Antony Blinken.
To the contrary, Pompeo has targeted Biden as exemplifying “enormous weakness,” leading “an America on its back, an America that apologizes.” He asserts that Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and response to a ransomware hack of the Colonial pipeline last year contributed to Putin’s confidence.
Putin is “very shrewd. Very capable,” Pompeo said in another recent interview with the Center for the National Interest. “I have enormous respect for him – I’ve been criticized for saying that.”
In the past, former President Donald Trump’s secretary of state has privately dismissed Ukraine as insignificant in U.S. domestic politics. After an interview with an NPR reporter in 2020, Pompeo, then still secretary, pulled the reporter aside to curse at her for her questions, and demanded she identify Ukraine on an unmarked map. “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” he asked her.
Pompeo has been visiting key primary states ahead of a potential run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He has worked to increase his media profile since leaving office, losing 90 pounds in six months, joining Fox News as a contributor and staying active on the speakers circuit.
His praise of Putin comes amid a debate within the Republican Party over whether Russia is a friend or foe. Major figures in the GOP, including Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have for years defended Putin and criticized Ukrainian leadership.
In yet another recent interview, Pompeo explained that respecting Putin “doesn’t mean we should love him, like him, or bend a knee to him.”
“But we shouldn’t treat him as the JV,” Pompeo said. “He is a credible, capable statesman. And that’s why the mistake of not putting deterrence in place over the last year has led to this moment that we’re suffering from today.”
On Monday night, after Putin delivered a speech describing Ukraine as a Russian invention, Pompeo did assign blame for the current crisis to the Russians.
“Vladimir Putin is the aggressor,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Ukrainians are the victims. We should never shy away from that.”
