chany, hardly moderates in the middle, seeking compromise in the middle, and they voted to condemn it as bad, it is. >> and echoing those sentiments, just like the president reversed the course on g7 after the criticism from his own party president trump must dramatically drastically re think his policy in syria which is far more dangerous. >> awesome first day of president's club. my name is martin gillespie and i'm very privileged to serve with our team of development officers in this entire country. boy, do we have an awesome lineup for you today. you know, if you think about it, how many conferences can you attend where on one day you start with the secretary of state and you end with the vice-president of the united states of america? that's pretty awesome. [applaus [applause] >> so i was thinking about why

do the really most important people in the world consistently come back to heritage? you know, is it our physical location on capitol hill, which many of you toured yesterday at our open house? is it the fact that since 1973 we've advised presidents, heads of state, congressmen, governors? that's an important part of our history, but the reason they're here time after time is because of you. the heritage foundation is made up of 5300 members across the country. that's over a thousand heritage members throughout the districts in the country. i'm not saying there's a thousand members in nancy pelosi's district, but i think you get my point. our average contribution is a little over 100 bucks, i can tell you if you're in the membership office you can see sometimes a $25 check that comes from a grandmother and

you can tell it's a note that she left with that check that it hurt her monthly budget to write that check, but because she wants to save this country, she's going to stay with hair aj-- heritage to do just that, it's very powerful to see, thank you. [applause] >> so policy makers know when you want impact, you come to heritage, we're the model that can play the inside game on the beltway and have an impact on main street throughout this great country of ours. as many of you know, we've been executing a really awesome strategic plan devised by our president and our leadership, in the development under andrew's leadership we've really put a thought of leadership coming up with a new vision statement for heritage development department. and we look far and wide, we looked at modern times, we went back hundreds of years that could find something that could

capture what it is we want to inspire our donors with and we finally settled on the words of mother teresa calcutta, larry, you'll appreciate this, the new statement for heritage development is simply this, give until it hurts. don't worry, i'm joking sort of. [laughter] >> she did say that. we do believe in sacraficial giving at heritage and that's why all of you are here, but we'd like to honor and thank those donors and thank those who leaned in extra this year and increased their giving to a higher level offer the past year to make the dreams of this organization possible. we have some wonderful patriots names that are going to be shown here on the screen. and these are the folks who over the past year answered the call and increased their giving level to make the dreams and hopes and aspirations of this organization and our great country possible. now, heritage members have a

pretty common trait and one of which is humility. i'm not going to ask each of you that see your names here stand, but i'd like to ask you all to do a round of applause for those who are making the dreams and hopes of this organization possible. [applaus [applause] >> and now i would like to ask our esteemed president to take the stage once again and introduce our speaker for this morning. thank you very much. [applausmorning. >> good morning. >> did everyone rest well? it is a great day to be an american. it is a great day to be a member of the heritage foundation and it's a super great day to be a nats fan.

[applause] >> if you're from washington, you understand and if you're not, it's just in our blood. so we're excited about the series. well, it is my pleasure this morning and i have the privilege of introducing to you not our a friend to me personally, but a friend to this country and a friend i'm sure you'll love, admire and respect as much as i. so a great day of programming ahead and we're starting off this morning in the high stakes world of foreign affairs, with the man at the center of it all, our secretary of state, mike pompeo. we're catching him in a small window between his travels around the world as he carries out america's foreign policy.

as you know, his has been an increasingly heavy portfolio with so many hot spots and emerging crisis around the globe and prior to becoming america's secretary, i want you to know a little bit about what he did in terms of service to our country. many of you may know he was trump's director of the cia and before joining the trump administration, he served as a congressman for kansas' fourth district. before getting into public life he had a very successful private career as well and he has served his country for all of his life and as a graduate of west point's secretary pompeo gave his service to this nation wearing the uniform of the united states army. are we grateful? [applaus [applause]

>> this morning, he's going to talk about some of the major foreign concerns in the world today and then meritage's own executive vice-president, kim holmes, will sit down with an interview right here on the stage with the secretary. many of you know that tim is a former assistant secretary of state and oversaw heritage's defense and foreign policy team for more than two decades. i can't think of a better person to engage our current secretary in a conversation this morning. and without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming my friend, and america's secretary of state, mike pompeo. [applaus [applause] >> thank you all.

thank you. well, good morning, everyone. so i've got a prepared speech and i've got some thoughts and i'll mix them in this morning. i want to thank kay and the entire leadership team from heritage having me here this morning. we were talking back stage about the gala tonight and i reminded them that i'd been to the gala a number of times when i was a member of congress. this was an important institution in washington d.c., on behalf of america and i value it and this administration values it and all the leaders across the united states government values it as well. it's great to be here, everybody remembers the bob dylan song, "shelter from the storm", and i know there are friends here, too, people i've known a long time for being here, too. i want to thank you for all supporting this institution.

heritage has schooled many generations of free market believers and i was on a think tank back in kansas, the kansas public policy institute. we would read heritage reports all the time to try to make sure we were getting it right and trying to get it right for the state of kansas, the same way you all here are doing that for washington. you know, the last time i had the privilege to speak in front of heritage audience was in may of last year. i've been secretary of state for a number of days. yeah, i was already missing the cia. it was much quieter. [laughter] >> much less public space. look, we had just pulled out of the iran nuclear deal. i'd laid out 12 conditions, including that iran end ballistic missile program, stop financing terrorism, you know, radical stuff, crazy stuff, shooting people in europe.

at washington post ran a headline, mike pompeo gives a silly speech on iran. the new york times reported in a hardline speech mike pompeo criticizes iran's behavior. that was actually partly true. i was criticizing their behavior, there's much more hardline and you've seen that. compare that to the headline from heritage org that says pompeo stands up for iranian people in major speech. if you go back and look at the remarks, that's what i was attempting to do. [applause] >> and indeed, that sets the tone for what i was wanting to say today. we were standing up for the iranian people and thank you for helping me tell the story that sometimes doesn't get told in other places and that was my first major speech as the secretary of state and as i said, a central idea the

principle that we set out. setting the stage for the work i've done in the last year and a half. it also sets the stage for the way that we've tried to conduct foreign policy. i've continued to deliver tough messages that recognize a set of basic facts about the way the world is, because we can't achieve good policy unless we recognize the reality of what's going on on the ground. to what vice-president did last week when he and i traveled to ankara and i'm sure we'll talk about the situation there when i sit down with kim. as for iran you've probably heard one version of that story, the story that didn't get told begins with the truth that our administration inherited a mess in syria. the previous administration allowed the caliphate to take root not only in syria, but western iraq, approaching the outward parts of urbiel. it was the help of the fighters

and nations that built a coalition, something that never gets talked about. the work that we did to build up that team united around the destruction of the caliphate in syria and iraq was important and effective. kurdish forces there, the arab fighters that were part of stf were great warriors and we're also mindful that our nato ally turkey has legitimate security concerns than the united states has designated pkk as terrorists for an awfully long time. and we're working along with our brethren to build a safe zone to try to mediate between the two. president trump urged them not to do, and president erdogan, you'll see the 120-hour window will arrive. i'll talk more about the status, but some progress has

certainly been made. the truth was, the truth was that it was not in turkey's interest as a nato ally to continue with that incursion. our invasion set back our shared fight against isis. we think now, we're in a better place, the truth was that president trump was prepared to cause and raise costs for turkey in the event that they continued their incursion. so the president used america's economic might, our economic power to avoid a kinetic conflict with a nato apply and as president trump treated, there needed to be tough love in order to get it done. [applaus [applause] >> it is a complicated story to be sure. the success of the outcome there is not yet fully determined. but it's a microcosm of what we do every day as department of state and i do as america's chief diplomate.

my responsibility for start to zoo help see the country for what it is and there is no shortage of truth to be told. iran is the ayggressor and not the aggrieved. china is a strategic partner at best to use his tools of statecraft. [applause] >> the truth is that we can't rely on failed strategies to convince chairman kim to give up his nuclear weapons, there's still much work to be done. and the truth is we won't achieve peace and reconciliation in afghanistan without every party at the table. the truth is that restoring democracy in venezuela is in our hemisphere and we should expend to achieve that. [applause]. and the truth is that every nation has a responsibility to share the burden of these global mission sets to achieve

security around the world. [applaus [applause] >> i know the vice-president is going to talk about that more tonight, but delivering these messages and many others sometimes isn't fun. i sat in a very cold room in brussels that was colder after my speech than before it. it certainly hasn't made me popular with the talking heads. you can just google pompeo and read all about it. but i must say as i stand before you today i'm confident that we're succeeding and we're awakening the world to these very threats that i just outlined and more, too. so today i wanted to tell a little of the story myself. it begins by showing up like we did last week in turkey. itch' been to some 55 countries many passed over by my predecessors. been to latin america, too often neglected by our senior leaders in government.

been to colombia, abouter rue, ecuador, peru, back down to south america with the president in chile. i went to finland in may to bring real truth what's going on in the arctic, about chinese and russian land grabs and militarization in that region. and i traveled not just to australia, india, and thailand to present our free and open pacific, but i had the first opportunity to be a secretary of state to go to micronesia and when there i talked about the importance that micronesia people have with china which they're fully aware. i went to hungary, slovakia. macedonia, a pro american strong hold in the balkans.

i guess the number of americans that know about this work is few and far between and that's okay, but the truth is the story about what the trump administration is doing needs to be told. that's my job. that's why i'm here today. that's why i travel here domestically probably more than many secretaries of state have done so, too. i think it's important that the american people get a chance to see what it is their taxpayer dollars are being used for by the united states department of state. but showing up only matters if you're there for a purpose and that you're willing to tell the truth when it's tough and that you'll continue to speak to them about things that are hard. it's a lot of fun to go into a meeting and tell them what they want to hear and talk about what great allies you want to hear and toast and cheer and compliment each other on important work you do together. it's much more important to speak about the things that are difficult, where there are disagreements and truths that need to be told. we've apparently taken over the truth telling world from the

nba. [applaus [applause]. if you go back to look i knew when i was seven years old i knew i was going to be, that's just too bad. you know, take iran as a good example. i referenced in the beginning, ever since i gave that silly speech, the conversation's turned. hundreds of private companies are on board with our sanctions. there's a threat that the european companies would stay in europe. and i was told american sanctions won't work, you should ask the ayatollah if that statement is true. and after the regime bombed saudi oil facilities, britain, france, germany, released a statement, they believed it was clear, quote, clear to us that iran bears responsibility for this attack, and that the time has come for iran to accept negotiations on a long term frame work for its nuclear

program. that was a different position they were in before american diplomacy began to put pressure on iran and it's kleptocratic regime. [applause] >> the world is learning, too, that iran responds to strengths and not supplication. consider the instances america returning to multilateral bodies thanks to the bold strategy of this administration. we put together enormous coalition, i'm incredibly proud of the foreign service officers of the state department, put together a coalition, i'll call it the lima group, restoring democracy to venezuela. 50 plus countries acknowledge guaido as the leader of the venezuelan people.

this was diplomatic, hard-fought and done with the elan of the american state department. we've convinced 0sion to declare a rules based order in the indo-pacific as well. we've reconvened the quad, the security talks between japan, australia, india and the united states that had been dormant for nine years and this will prove important in the efforts ahead ensuring that china retains only its proper place in the world. and i'm very proud, too, we've hosted more than a hundred nations for the ministerial to advance human freemadoms, the largest ever held at the state department, two years running. [applause] >> it's underreported. if you google the trump administration and human rights, you are unlikely to see msnbc report on this amazing work. that brought leaders from ought

faiths to washington d.c. to talk about the critical nature of the fact that this first freedom, this freedom we have in the united states is powerful and important and sets the trajectory for nations all across the world. just recently 20 nations joined us at the u.n. in a letter that claimed that abortion is, in fact -- is in fact, just, excuse me, rejecting the claim that abortion is a human right. [applause] >> this is-- this is not to say it is then without cost, that we've awakened every sleeping mind or snuffed out every fake news story, far from it. and based on the news coverage that-- when i talk to folks back in kansas where our friends are, our family is, our church is, i don't fault them. sometimes they don't have the story right. sometimes they'll not see that america is in fact a force for good around the world. our job is to make sure we tell that story. when i say our, i mean mine and

yours. here is the other story, a few weeks ago, i had the opportunity to visit my ancestor home. there are a now people there and 50,000 on the street. it's a great experience personally to go back to where my grandfather was from, and my dad never had a chance to get there. but i was talking the cobblestone streets and there were kids waving american fla flags. i'm not going to read the text here it's not politically correct, but there were people here that had been on the planet for a while grabbing my hand and local officials eager to welcome me and they wanted america to be present and to help them and they knew we were a force for good. this was incredibly representative of what i see every day as i travel the world. all around the world people are happy to see the american secretary of state.

they want to know that america's there. they want to forcefully advocate for things they know that they believe in or know they ought to and their government ought to believe in and i believe firmly because we're doing the hard work of diplomacy many are seeing this with new eyes. for now that's the story and i'm confident that history will back that up as well. i wish you the best of luck. thank you for being here with me today and i look forward to taking questions. may god bless heritage and may god bless the united states of america. [applaus [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, joining the secretary on stage, the herridge vice-president tim holmes. >> thank you all. [applause] >> good morning, mr. secretary. >> good morning. >> good morning to all of you, it's really a pleasure and horn

to have all of you this morning and you as well, mr. secretary. we follow what you do very closely. we're very proud to have you here this morning and we only have a very little bit of time. and i want to use it as wisely and as efficiently as i can. so, i'm going to launch into a couple of questions. >> that sounds great, thank you, i appreciate that. i'll try to be efficient as well. >> good. >> and the first is that i've spent the last couple of years, as i mentioned to you in passing, just a minute ago, travelling to europe on a speaking tour, explaining to europeans mostly what the trump administration is doing and also, where america is heading in the world. and it's the question i most often get. where is america heading in the world. is this a new era that we're in? does the trump administration's foreign policy represent a change from the past? if so, what's new? and how is it adapting to the new conditions and the new era

that we're now in? >> yeah, so i get this question in europe, too. >> you do. >> and what i remind all the leaders with whom i meet is that the west, for an awfully long time since 9/11 has spent an awful lot of resources on the counterterrorism fight. we have done this collectively, incredibly well. we should be proud of that and we should not let our foot off the gas or our foot off the radical islamic terrorists' throat. the big challenges the world faces today are different from that or at least additive to that, and i remind them that a nation unprepared to speak to their people candidly about the risk that their nation faces is a nation that will ultimately succumb to those risks and america will never let that happen. president trump will never let that happen. you see it not only in defense budgets, but all the elements

of american power we're bringing to bear. i remind every one of these countries without a strong economy, without free markets and economic growth and well-being, a nation's capacity is limited, not just their capacity to field an army or to fly an airplane, but the capacity for the world to understand that this is a nation that has true, true ability to impact outcomes. we see this all the time and how the united states interacts. we use the economic tools to the benefit of the american people and i think to the benefit of the world and i remind them of that. so it has changed. the changes that have taken place in china is something that all of us sat on for too long. didn't do nearly enough. when i say all of us, i'm served in congress for a handful of years. didn't do enough. we want the world and including europe to see the risks and shorthanded way the way that huawei gets shouted a lot.

it's deeper and bigger, and we need to a line collectively to ensure that this idea we've had is a central tenet how the world should engage. set of rules and free trade and free commerce and all the central principles that animate needs to undergird the world for our kids and grandkids. for that since, i think the trump administration has taken a realistic view of the world, to call them like we see them, to push back against the threats that are real. we've been restrained, and i talked about this in some remarks i gave at claremont. we've recognized we can't be all things everywhere all the time. no nation has the capacity to deliver that. and that means, not that you abandon the field, but that you calibrate your resources to effectively address the relative risks. you do this in your business every single day. we do it in our families every

single day. we assign resources against problem sets to match the threat. i think that is a-- those two things undergird a set of changes that i think this administration has set in motion, but i am confident that the next administration will come and see these issues the same way because they're right, and i'm confident that american policy will go deliver american capabilities around the world to support our friends and allies and continue to ensure that america has a next century that is successful and prosperous for our people. >> do you think the old guard in europe is getting it? >> do i think the old guard in europe is getting it? europe's a big place. [laughter] >> that's why i asked. >> that was efficient. >> that was very efficient. [applaus [applause] >> good.

mr. secretary, you mentioned in your speech the importance of religious liberty. conservatives in this room, the heritage foundation, certainly, believe in the importance of protecting, preserving and advancing religious liberty, but as you know, not every country around the world values religious liberty the way we do and that certainly, if you go into international organizations like the united nations it's not valued as much as we would like it to be. can you say a little more about why this religious liberty is so important to you and to the administration? and what is ground breaking in the approach that you're taking? >> so i'll start with the first question is about why it matters. facts and data. there is a correlation between autonomy, human dignity, respect for every citizen, religious freedom as a component of that. and successful governments, the capacity to have stability, and

you can see nations that have more religious liberty tend to view the world much closer to the way the united states views the world. so we have a selfish interest that's wholly apart from the human rights aspect. we have a geo strategy interest in religious freedom. data there are people with either no religious freedom or religious freedom is limited in some significant way. our approach has been, and you can see this in the remarks that nearly every cabinet member gives, you can see it in the ministerials and we've invited leaders from around the world goodness of nearly every faith to washington to talk about this. if you travel to visit a u.s. embassy and meet someone on our team, an ambassador, whomever, i would have failed as a leader if they don't understand that this is a priority for this administration. they do. it's the way we're trying to

deliver foreign policy around the world, too. we've done our best to call out the absence of religious liberty in countries across the world. even from our friends, if you read the human rights report every year, there's a conpe conpendium. we've find some violation of human rights, we call our friends immediately and say, what the heck are you doing? but it's about creating a catalog so the world will know where this is taking place and we watch countries around the world. they're watching how we're doing this, america is doing this, how the president draws a set of issues. i'm convinced the work we're doing will enhance religious freedom for millions and millions of people around the world. >> thank you. [applaus

[applause] >> thank you, one last question. i know in july the commission for human rights is was released, and i know this is a commission and cause important to you personally. -- took some time to get it up and running and not every person sees human rights in the tradition of natural law and human rights that you, and i, and the founders and many people in this world do. can you say a few words why that commission is important? >> personally this is something i've cared about for a long time since i was a young soldier and studying just war theory and the central idea is how human beings had an obligation to interact with each other and rises, i'm an evangelic evangelical christian and i see this in my faith life as well. when i came to congress, too,

people throw around the words rights awful lot. and bad actors couch their evil behavior in the words of rights. and the state department not with clarity about rights, there wasn't a standard how we would think about as we sent our amazing young americans out to the field to interact with their counterparts all across the world. i wanted to make sure that they had a grounding in what were these rights, the ones that truly mattered and were real. and so i started thinking about this early in my time and it took me too long to get going and we're in a good place now, we'll kick it off tomorrow with our first public hearing. and by people, there will be those who think we're all wet. so be it. we'll have a good candid discussion, but the idea is to take and reground the rights that we talk about in the traditions of america, what was in our declaration of

independence and our constitution and take a look at them. we all know about the human rights declaration of 1948. the state department was very involved in that. we want to lay down with clarity not only what these human rights are, these fundamental rights are, but from what it is they are derived, how we got there because i think that's very important to understand as well. we'll put out a document that i think will be a true marker for the world to talk about human rights in the right way. when you see venezuela get on the human rights counsel at the u.n., it cries out for a reexamination of these fundamental first principles, and it's not about policy, it's about understanding the first principles in a way that are consistent with the american tradition, that's the mission set that i've asked the unalienable rights. and we've brought them across the political spectrum, they'll think, they'll talk, they'll write.

>> mr. secretary, thank you for your time this morning. i understand that you get to go home, kansas, for the first time in how many weeks? >> it's been too long. >> have a safe trip back and thank you for coming this morning. let's welcome and thank the secretary of state, mike pompeo. [applaus [applaus [applause]. >> thanks, everybody. thank you all. [applaus [applause] >> thank you, mr. secretary for that outstanding speech and for the discussion we had and it's our sincere appreciation that you were here with us today. and thank all of you and thank the secretary for sticking to the tried and true policies to use ronald reagan's old world, peace through strength. we believed then when reagan was president and we believe

now that america is strongest when our policies protect our national interests, preserve our alliances of free people, vigorously counter threats to our security and advance prosperity through economic freedom at home and abroad. now, that is an exact quote from the heritage foundation's true north principles that mrs. james spoke of yesterday. these principles guide us through the confusing thickets of politics, they allow us to answer why, when someone asked us why we do what we do. they provide guidance what it means to be a conservative, not only today, but through generations. we at heritage didn't make up these principles, we didn't invent them. we inherited them. we're stewards of the great americanism that have been

called on to cherish and protect. now, obviously, changing times require that we adapt our policy to these changing times and we do that every day in our research and policy analysis, but we will never compromise our principles. never. [applaus [applause]. our true north principles are taken from-- >> moving on from this event at the heritage foundation from remarks from secretary of state mike pompeo. the senate is about to gavel in at 10 eastern this morning, live coverage on c-span2, and the top of the embassy at ukraine, taylor. we spoke earlier about impeachment. >> joining us on the phone is billy house, corre