Mike Pompeo—who previously served as Secretary of State under former Republican President Donald Trump—was widely roasted following a Freudian slip about a "bigger threat to America" during an appearance on Fox News.
When asked by Fox News personality Laura Ingraham why liberals "act as if conservatives are a bigger threat to America" than the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Pompeo uttered a slip of the tongue that actually concurred with Democrats' criticisms of the Republican Party.
He later spent the rest of his remarks evoking the specter of Communism, saying that conservatives understand it and acknowledge it as a threat to the American way of life.
You can hear his remarks in the video below.
Pompeo said:
"Because, in fact, we often are. It's been conservatives who understand the risks of Communists and what that means to the United States."
"The American left has apologized. They think that America is in decline. They think that [Chinese leader] Xi [Jinping] and our nation are the same. They don't see the difference. They are moral relativists."
American liberals have often been accused of aligning themselves with Communism, according to the right wing, so Pompeo didn't say anything that his Democratic critics hadn't already heard before.
Rather, it was his Freudian slip in which he essentially agreed that Republicans, who political scientists, historians, journalists, and policymakers alike have cautioned have evolved into a outright fascist political party, pose a larger threat to the American democratic experiment.
Many have mocked Pompeo as a result.
Pompeo is no friend to the Chinese government, with whom he has often sparred during his tenure.
In January 2021, China sanctioned Pompeo over “crazy actions that have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs,” according to a foreign ministry spokesman.
Pompeo was included on a list alongside 28 other Americans the country's foreign ministry "are prohibited from entering the mainland of China, Hong Kong and Macao."
