Mike Pompeo--the man who had his business funded by the Koch brothers and who went on to be the Kochs’ congressman (literally representing their Wichita district) and eventually the Kochs’ Secretary of State--doesn’t think climate change is a major national security threat.
In in an interview with Trump administration propaganda channel Fox News last week, which was helpfully summarized by the Kochs’ Daily Caller, Pompeo is asked where he ranks global warming in the top five threats to the country.
Pompeo responds he “wouldn’t put it in the top five,” because he “can count to five that gets you to things that present more risks to the people I used to represent in Kansas and citizens all across America.”
(Quick chronological note: this interview took place on Friday. By Sunday, one-third of Offutt Air Base in Nebraska was underwater due to flooding from a climate-change-amplified extreme weather event. Offutt is home of the US Strategic Command, making it a relatively important piece of our national security apparatus...)
What, then, are the five threats to national security that are greater than climate change?
In the interview, Pompeo talks about the “threat from China”, followed by “the nuclear proliferation risk that extends from Pakistan through all those folks who have these weapon systems, places like North Korea where they can sell these weapons, I think I’m at five already.”
Two threats, obviously, aren’t five, but hey, at least he didn’t say some racist stuff about an immigrant invasion! After all, Pompeo’s (nominal) boss, President Trump, is claiming that immigration is a national security emergency. But immigration is a rare example of an issue where Trump and the Kochs are split, and it seems Pompeo’s more willing to buck the President of the United States of America than he is to cross the Kochs.
So to reiterate, per Pompeo, national security threat #1 is China and #2 is nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to North Korea. Together these two issues somehow comprise the top five national security threats facing “the people [Pompeo] used to represent in Kansas.”
But judging by his record and performance here, it appears the only people Pompeo counts as constituents are the two brothers Koch.
In Pompeo’s defense though, two appears to be as high as he can count.
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