Mike Pompeo defended his determination to settle for an appointment on Columbia College’s troubled campus — whilst an anti-Israel protest raged blocks away at Barnard School on Wednesday, ending within the arrest of scholars from the Ivy League college he admitted has “shortcomings” with regards to conserving “order.”
Pompeo, who was CIA director in President Trump’s first time period earlier than turning into secretary of state (the one one who’s held each posts), began a yearlong stint March 1 as a College of Worldwide and Public Affairs’ Institute of International Politics fellow.
“We’re nonetheless engaged on exactly what the function goes to be and the way we’re going to form it,” he advised The Submit in a Wednesday sit-down at his Columbia workplace. He’ll “lend my practitioner’s view” in “visitor appearances in different professors’ lecture rooms” and lecture sequence.
“I’ll find yourself with a category within the fall, however extra seemingly I’ll come to occasions, as I did at the moment,” he stated, following conferences with college after which a gaggle of 25 to 30 college students, who peppered him with questions. “It’s at all times, for me, energizing to be with younger people who find themselves curious and impressive and good and attempting desperately to determine reality from fiction.”
Differing viewpoints
Pompeo’s a busy man — he stays a businessman and “I’m nonetheless touring the world a very good quantity” — however he expects to be an everyday presence in Morningside Heights.
“I’m in New York nearly each week, however will seemingly be on campus two or thrice a month for a handful of days,” he stated.
Protesters have additionally been an everyday presence there since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, bloodbath in Israel. The varsity’s dealing with — or lack thereof — of generally violent demonstrations led President Minouche Shafik to resign final yr, months after she moved lessons on-line and canceled graduation.
Deborah Lipstadt, former President Joe Biden’s antisemitism envoy, declared within the Free Press final week that she gained’t educate at Columbia, after contemplating a visiting professorship.
Pompeo learn her piece.
“She didn’t wish to function a prop or fig leaf. She didn’t assume that safety could be ample. After which she didn’t assume she may make a distinction. And I simply disagree with all three of these,” he stated.
“It’s not that I don’t see the shortcomings of Columbia the establishment and the way it was unsuccessful with sustaining applicable order during the last year-and-a-half or two. I see that, and to assume I’m going to indicate up and alter all of it will not be my mission set. My mission set is to be sure that a set of voices which might be completely different from massive segments of the college right here are literally on campus.
“Her final one was she will’t make a distinction. Boy, that appears defeatist to me,” Pompeo stated. “I’ve seen small adjustments over time in a lot of establishments, and to the extent we will help push the rock up the hill, I’m prepared to try this right here and be a small a part of what I hope will make this establishment a greater place for studying.”
As for safety, Pompeo stated the college assured him it would uphold a “civil discourse right here on campus.”
Bullied into silence
Columbia’s issues had been actually within the highlight final week.
The Training Division introduced Friday “the speedy cancellation of roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia College as a result of college’s continued inaction within the face of persistent harassment of Jewish college students,” with extra cuts “anticipated.”
Workforce Trump had advised the varsity it’s reviewing $5 billion in federal funding.
“I feel Columbia ought to” tackle campus antisemitism, Pompeo stated, “whether or not they’ve been advised they need to do this to guard their federal funding or not. This looks like a baseline requirement for any establishment, to offer safety, particularly for the younger people who find themselves coming right here to be taught. Second, the very fact the Trump administration is utilizing US taxpayer {dollars} to leverage Columbia to do what it must do appears utterly applicable to me.”
Trump signed orders focusing on variety, fairness and inclusion packages his first week again in workplace. Columbia, in the meantime, lives in a world of woke.
“I feel most People can see this obtained out of hand. And once I say ‘out of hand,’ it’s not the concepts. Let a thousand flowers bloom, proper?” Pompeo stated. “What obtained out of hand was these with completely different views weren’t protected. They had been threatened, they had been bullied, they had been cajoled” — together with on-line. “I see those that are for extra voices and for tolerance of various concepts and securing the liberty for these concepts to be exchanged in a protected surroundings. I see that rising dramatically.”
Pompeo additionally has some private insights: Trump in January pulled his safety element, which even Biden had continued as Pompeo stays an Iranian goal. The murderous regime is especially piqued about America’s January 2020 killing of terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani.
“The speculation had been that safety could be offered as long as the risk remained, and that risk hasn’t modified. So yeah, I used to be shocked,” Pompeo stated.
He pays for “costly” non-public safety, “and I get assist from the native legislation enforcement right here in New York Metropolis, which I deeply recognize,” he stated. “It’s not about me, proper? If there’s an incident or one thing, it impacts anyone who’s with me.”
MAGA values
Pompeo nonetheless has loads of reward for his outdated boss. Trump introduced the arrest Wednesday of a terrorist who helped plan the August 2021 assault at an airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 13 service members.
“I might be unsurprised if the Pakistani authorities that apparently are those who detained and turned him over was far more ready to try this with President Trump in workplace than with President Biden as a result of they had been apprehensive concerning the ramifications of not really delivering this particular person to US custody for prosecution below US legislation. And so I credit score the Trump administration with really getting this completed,” Pompeo stated.
He additionally expressed optimism about Ukraine’s freedom fighters.
“They’re engaged in a battle on the entrance traces between good and evil, and it’s a laborious combat in opposition to a really succesful adversary with Vladimir Putin and the Russian navy. So yeah, I fear for them, and I fear that the entire world is watching to see if Putin’s aggression might be rewarded, and whether it is, what the second- and third-order implications of which might be,” he stated.
He argues that supporting Ukraine is a MAGA motion.
“Individuals who voted for President Trump perceive this most deeply,” Pompeo stated. They’re “rule-of-law individuals who consider in . . . the precise for folks to combat for issues that they care about, and the truth that you’ll be able to’t let lawless actors prevail. That’s MAGA.”
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