Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his final full day in office said that “wokeness” is equivalent with totalitarianism, and that “multiculturalism” is not “who America is.”
“Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they’re not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker,” Pompeo tweeted in what appeared to be a parting shot at the left as he leaves office.
Pompeo, whose ancestors came to the U.S. from Italy, also reupped a past statement saying “Censorship, wokeness, political correctness, it all points in one direction – authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness.”
The message comes at the tail end of a 19-day messaging blitz on Pompeo’s social media profiles touting what he views as the Trump administration’s greatest accomplishments.
Pompeo has drawn criticism during his stint as secretary of State for politicizing the department. Detractors have pointed to a number of instances, including when he addressed the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem and when he suggested in November that there “will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” even after President Trump was projected to lose the White House race to President-elect Joe Biden.
His remarks Tuesday also came the day before Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is set to become the nation’s first woman of color to be vice president.
“Talk about not reading the room,” fired back Lewis Lukens, the former deputy ambassador in London.
Pompeo is widely viewed as a potential contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and his remarks could be an effort to bolster support among conservatives as Republicans already begin jockeying for position in a post-Trump Republican Party.