Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Biden’s leniency toward Iran is coming back to “haunt” the United States after Iran-backed Houthi militants put US Navy SEALs and warships in the line of fire.
During an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Pompeo lashed out at the Biden administration for deciding just yesterday to redesignate the Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist group three years after removing the label.
He called it an “unwillingness” on the part of the administration to “accept simple truths” as it is a “basic fact” that the Houthis are terrorists.
Former President Donald Trump had previously listed the Houthis as foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) and specially designated global terrorists (SDGT). But Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed them from the list in 2021 to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid to Yemen.
But Pompeo called the request for humanitarian assistance a “fraud.”
“All designated terrorists under the statute have exemptions for humanitarian assistance,” he said, so the excuse was that Biden’s team was “too cute by half.”
Pompeo said the Biden administration’s move to relist the group was a “half-measure” that was only designed to “provide domestic political cover instead of doing the things that will actually keep Americans safe.”
During an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Pompeo lashed out at the Biden administration for deciding just yesterday to redesignate the Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist group three years after removing the label.
Houthi fighters and their tribal supporters raise their firearms to protest US-led airstrikes.
A Houthi fighter holds his rifle in a ceremony celebrating the end of his training.
‘My main criticism is that you can’t take the world you want it to be. You have to accept the world as it is and then strive to lock your goals into it,” she told DailyMail.com.
Additionally, Pompeo blamed the administration’s “failed set of policies” for creating the conditions that led to hundreds of Houthi attacks on U.S. troops in recent weeks, as well as the deadly Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis. Hamas.
The former Secretary of State warned that there is a “very serious risk” when “you try not to look evil in the eye and recognize that it exists and then confront it.”
He said the Biden administration’s ‘quasi-designation’ is an example of doing just that when it comes to Iran.
Pompeo will speak Saturday at the Steamboat Institute Foreign Policy Summit.
He previewed his speech on DailyMail.com and said he will go over some of the key foreign policy challenges facing the Biden administration and how they can be resolved.
“All of this has a solution,” he said of the current challenges facing the nation. “We just have to muster the temerity as Americans to do it, and I’m convinced we will.”
Earlier this week, Houthi forces attacked a US-owned transport ship with a missile as it sailed through the Red Sea.
The group also fired an anti-ship cruise missile at a US naval destroyer, according to US Central Command.
In retaliation, the United States carried out four new strikes against Yemen on Tuesday against anti-ship ballistic missiles used by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
After putting the group back on the list of terrorist organizations, they launched a second US-operated ship in the Red Sea region early Thursday.
In addition, two US Navy SEALs are missing after conducting regular interdiction missions, in which they have intercepted weapons on ships headed to Houthi-controlled Yemen.
Conservative members of Congress also criticized Biden for not taking “real action” and waiting years to hold the terrorist group accountable.
House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner told DailyMail.com that Biden “should never have removed” the Houthis’ FTO designation.
The SDTG label that will be reimposed on the Houthis does not include harsher sanctions that come with being placed on the FTO list, such as travel restrictions.
“Designating the Houthis as ‘specially designated global terrorists’ only applies sanctions and avoids taking any real action,” Turner added.
‘President Trump designated the Houthi rebels as terrorists. “Joe Biden removed the designation in 2021. Now, Biden admits the Houthis are ‘terrorists’ after their repeated attacks in the Red Sea,” Texas Rep. Lance Gooden posted on X.
Houthi soldiers conduct drills against fake Israeli forces
A Houthi fighter is pictured aboard a cargo ship in the Red Sea.
‘Joe Biden continues his 50+ year streak of getting foreign policy wrong!’
New York Rep. Claudia Tenney posted on
Some lawmakers said Biden had originally removed the Houthis from terrorist lists to ease tensions with Iran.
“Biden gets no credit for reversing one of his first – and worst – appeasements of Iran,” said California Rep. Darrell Issa.
Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin posted on
“With hostile adversaries testing American resolve, American strength is essential to our national security and global stability,” the post continued.