MIKE POMPEO (FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE): Well, Maria, you went through in your opening a long list of things that are just troubling the American people. The biggest challenge we face in the immediate term is the fact that families are being impacted in ways that have been fundamentally reshaped their lives. Folks who thought that they were retired can see that their savings now are worth a half or 2/3 of what they were just a handful of weeks ago. And they may have to reenter the workforce after they'd already planned for their life for decades. Families who were trying to buy a home, now find their interest rates are at 6%. Grocery store shelves in stores are empty. This is deeply un-American. It is the result of failed policy from the White House. And this is all really taking place over the last 18 months since the administrations have changed out. It doesn't have to be, Maria.
This is failed leadership, bad politics, just a wedding to a climate agenda that has destroyed the American energy industry that is at the base of so much of these cost increases. We know how to fix it. We can secure our southern border. We can get affordable energy prices. We can get the economy going back again. But, the President of the United States is going to have to take responsibility and change directions, and he shows no signs of doing that. Rather, he'd rather, he'd rather lash out and tell the American people don't believe your lying eyes.
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POMPEO: They [Democrats] have been trying to cancel the ideas that we've been putting forward to build an American energy complex that includes all of the above, oil, natural gas, renewable fuels, hydropower all those things. They've been trying to destroy those opportunities. Instead they have this faith -- I call it a faith greatly intentionally -- it is a secular religion on climate change. And it is destroying the American people's lives. This isn't academic. This isn't about some IPCC report, this is about human beings who are trying to figure out how to afford to turn lights on in their home and fill the gas tank in their car. [White House National Climate Advisor] Gina McCarthy doesn't give a whip about that. And, she is destroying the American people's lives with the blessing of the President of the United States.