Mike Pompeo: ‘Very Confident’ China ‘Will Pay A Price For What They Did’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night that he was “very confident” that the United States was going to make the Chinese Communist Party “pay a price for what they did” in handling the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

“China caused an enormous amount of pain, loss of life and now a huge challenge for the global economy and the American economy as well by not sharing the information they had,” Pompeo said. “Sean, you should know, we still don’t have full transparency from the Chinese Communist Party. I’m so concerned that there are things we don’t know. We don’t know the history. We haven’t been able to get our team on the ground to do the work that it needs to do.”

“How do we get them to make up for this, make good on this?” Hannity asked. “My feeling is we shouldn’t pay it back. Maybe that’s impossible.”

“Sean, I am very confident that the Chinese Communist Party will pay a price for what they did here certainly from the United States,” Pompeo responded. “I don’t know exactly what form that will take. Our focus today isn’t on that, it’s on making sure we keep America safe, take down the health risk, keep people healthy as we can and get this economy going back.”

“But I’m very confident,” Pompeo continued. “I talk to businesspeople all around the country. I talk to ordinary citizens. People who have put their lives at risk over the last weeks. They know that this is a result of this virus that originated in Wuhan, China and they know that the Chinese government didn’t do the things it needed to do.”

“There will be a cost associated with that,” Pompeo continued. “We need to focus on the here and now and there’ll be a time to make sure that we get this right to make sure that we’re not dependent on China for our pharmaceutical goods and all the things that we’ve seen that we just didn’t have right and that President Trump had identified early on as things we needed to fix in the relationship between the United States and China.”

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Tom Elliott@tomselliott

.@SecPompeo on Covid19: "The Chinese Communist Party will pay a price for what they did here, certainly from the United States.”

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5:02 PM - Apr 24, 2020

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TRANSCRIPT:

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Here’s our Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who joins us. You know, Mr. Secretary I’ve seen a lot, you know, I wrote a book “Deliver Us From Evil”, 2004. I talked about over 100 million people killed in the last century alone and I look at this, when they stopped travel from Wuhan to the rest from China, from China to Wuhan but they left that open internationally. Then they scooped up all of the protective gear and now profiteering and then they kept the virus and lied to the world and it hurt all of us and all these people dying when you said to me you would have helped them. I am so angry. Words cannot describe my anger.

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, Sean. That’s — that’s appropriate that you’re angry. I think many of us are angry. I know the president feels the same way. China caused an enormous amount of pain, loss of life and now a huge challenge for the global economy and the American economy as well by not sharing the information they had. Sean, you should know, we still don’t have full transparency from the Chinese Communist Party. I’m so concerned that there are things we don’t know. We don’t know the history. We haven’t been able to get our team on the ground to do the work that it needs to do. This is an ongoing challenge and the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organization have failed to do the things they have the responsibility to do. There’s a pandemic inside of the country.

HANNITY: OK. Now the question is, how do we — how do we get them to make up for this, make good on this? Now they do hold a lot of our debt. My, look, I’m not involved in what you do. You’re a lot smarter than me, number one in West Point. OK. So I will — I will seed this territory to you. My feeling is we shouldn’t pay it back. Maybe that’s impossible.

POMPEO: Sean, I am very confident that the Chinese Communist Party will pay a price for what they did here certainly from the United States. I don’t know exactly what form that will take. Our focus today isn’t on that, it’s on making sure we keep America safe, take down the health risk, keep people healthy as we can and get this economy going back. But I’m very confident. I talk to businesspeople all around the country. I talk to ordinary citizens. People who have put their lives at risk over the last weeks. They know that this is a result of this virus that originated in Wuhan, China and they know that the Chinese government didn’t do the things it needed to do.

There will be a cost associated with that. We need to focus on the here and now and there’ll be a time to make sure that we get this right to make sure that we’re not dependent on China for our pharmaceutical goods and all the things that we’ve seen that we just didn’t have right and that President Trump had identified early on as things we needed to fix in the relationship between the United States and China.

HANNITY: You knew — you knew pretty early and was probably the — the loudest critic of China. You probably can’t answer this, so I won’t waste a lot of time on it. Private conversations, how direct are you and the president being with China?

POMPEO: Very direct. They know precisely what it is that we’ve observed. We know what we’ve — they know what we’ve asked them to do to try and make sure that we don’t have an ongoing problem. Remember Sean, there are multiple virus labs inside of China. We need to make sure we understand what’s going on in all of those the one in Wuhan and elsewhere too. We have to make sure that we don’t have this problem yet again coming from China. It’s a very dangerous situation. We’ve made clear our expectation. I’ve seen the president do it.

HANNITY: Any update on Iran and the ships, these boats, these, you know, wreaking havoc. The president laid out his order very clearly.

POMPEO: This Administration behaves totally different than the previous one. You’ll recall when they took our Navy sailors, made them kneel down. Secretary Kerry apologized to get them back. This president has taken a completely different approach. He’s told the Iranian regime enough. We are not going to permit this. We’re going to defend our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, Marines. I think the Iranians understand that as well.

HANNITY: Last — any update on Kim Jong-un and the reports about his health that you can share. You probably can’t but I got to try. Give me credit I got to try.

POMPEO: I appreciate the question. I don’t have anything I can share with you tonight, but the American people should know we’re watching the situation very keenly.

HANNITY: All right. Mike Pompeo. We always appreciate you.

POMPEO: Sean, thank you. Have a good evening, sir.

HANNITY: Have a great evening sir.