Former US secretary of state says censorship on college campuses keeps him up at night more than the Taliban
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- Mike Pompeo in an interview said college censorship is scarier to him than the Taliban.
- "I met with the Taliban, I met with Chairman Kim. None of that scares me as much as what's happening in our universities and on our campuses today," he said.
- Pompeo said thinking about censorship on college campuses keeps him up at night.
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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he finds censorship on college campuses more disturbing than the Taliban.
"I get asked all the time, what keeps you up at night," Pompeo said in an interview that aired Friday. "What's the thing that worries you the most?"
Speaking to businessman John Catsimatidis on his radio show, "Cats at Night," Pompeo said he's "met with a lot of bad people" during his time as an official working under the Trump administration.
"I met with the Taliban, I met with Chairman Kim," he said. "None of that scares me as much as what's happening in our universities and on our campuses today."
"Wow," Catsimatidis said in response.
Pompeo continued, elaborating but not citing specific examples:
"I watch what's taking place there and the inability for us to speak our mind, the fact that people want to put pressure on people who have a conservative mindset, and just deny them the space to go speak," he said. "The fact that we now are accusing people who are just saying things that are common sense about how to treat everyone equally, fairly, are being accused of being racist - those are dangerous things in our democracy, in our republic."
Pompeo went on to say the country's founders "created a nation that depended on people with virtue and character and faith."
"If we lose those things," he said, "if we lose the bubble on those, you can send diplomats to 180 countries in the world and none of it will matter because if America is weak at home, our capacity to influence the world is diminished."
Colleges and universities all over the country have previously uninvited speakers like far-right commentator Ben Shapiro and trans activist Janet Mock.