RUSH: The confirmation hearings for Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state are underway. He’s already gone through confirmation to be CIA director. Now he’s going through it again. And he was just asked if… What was he…? He was asked if he would resign if Trump interfered with Mueller’s investigation. “Would you resign?”

And Pompeo said, “No. I’ve not even thought about that. Maybe I’d better think about it. I haven’t even given that any thought to it.” And here’s another one on climate change. Grab audio sound bite No. 24. This is Ben Cardin, who is a Democrat from Maryland. He’s asking Pompeo about diplomacy and the Paris climate accords.

CARDIN: (yelling) Your job is to work with the international community, our friends and foes alike, who try to get diplomacy to work, and yet the United States would be the only country saying we don’t want to talk to you about climate under the arrangements that every other country is dealing with? You don’t see a conflict with that position and trying to be the top diplomat of America, the leader of the world?

POMPEO: Senator, there are many times that we work with our allies, and there are many other times when we just don’t see it the same way. There will be places that our allies come alongside us and others that they don’t. And my task as the chief diplomat will be to get America’s position well known and to rally the world to the causes that benefit America.

RUSH: Imagine that. Now, let me translate this for you. So here’s this radical leftist Democrat know-nothing, Ben Cardin, saying, “How in the world can you be secretary of state? I mean, you won’t be work with the United Nations! We pulled out of the Paris climate accords. You don’t see a conflict with that position and trying to be the top diplomat in America — the leader of the world — and you won’t talk to people about climate under the arrangements that every other country is dealing with?”

So, you see, the United States is not special. The United States is not supposed to lead. The United States is no different than anybody else. And if the rest of the socialist-communist countries in the world who are broke and want to find a way into our back pocket come up with this mythical climate change thing and blame us for it — and then claim we gotta pay them and everybody else for the damage we’re causing — we just have to accept it. We have to agree with that. Because we’re guilty. The United States is evil.

The United States is mean-spirited, racist, and all of that stuff. And Pompeo is saying, “Senator, we work with allies and many times we just don’t see it their way. There are gonna be places our allies come alongside us. Other times they don’t. My job will be to get America’s position well known and to rally the world to the causes that benefit America.” You would never hear Barack Obama say that.

Barack Obama wouldn’t say that if he were under threat. That’s what got the world into trouble as far as the left is concerned. That’s exactly what got the world into trouble. To rally the world to America’s position? No! That would mean America is the solution to many of the world’s problems. And the left is not gonna go for that. They’re not gonna bind to that. To them, America is the problem.

And so if a bunch of left-wing commie SOB failing little tinhorn countries run around blaming us for the fact that they’re broke, that they have no future, we’re supposed to sit there and agree. Or at least acknowledge that our superpower status has made it really, really unfair for us. And we are supposed to sign on to these agreements to show that we’re good citizens of the world. But more importantly, we are supposed to subordinate our own national interests to the mobs.

And Pompeo is saying that is not what Make America Great Again is all about, Senator Cardin. And, I’m sorry, that’s not my job, to cut America down to size. “My job as the chief diplomat will be to get America’s position well known and to rally the world to the cause that benefits America.” Now, some of you might be saying, “Well, isn’t that a little bit braggadocios? Isn’t that a little bit arrogant, saying that we need to rally people — the world — to the causes that benefit America?”

If you consider America the good guys, if you consider America the last great hope, if you consider America to be exceptional, if you consider America to have the leadership position on freedom and liberty and democracy in the world — and that, therefore, as leader we are to protect it and spread it — then why in the world would we not? So Pompeo is clearly proud of America, thinks America is on the right path, thinks that more countries being brought to the American way would help them out of their problems, where they now exist as poor and broke with their people miserable, under tyranny with pretty much hopeless futures.

And that’s just so anathema to the Democrat Party. To the Democrat Party today — the radical left — America’s the problem. America is the cause. We’ve been through all the reasons for many, many months and years now. In their world, America owes many apologies — and therefore, we must acquiesce.

If the world believed that we are destroying the planet, damaging the climate, then it’s our responsibility to accept that allegation and join them in showing them that we will try to fix it. And trying to fix these things generally means Americans lose a little freedom here, a little freedom there, via new regulations over there, new legislation. Americans lose a little money because their taxes go up. That’s generally what all of that means.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Mike Pompeii going through confirmation hearings for his appointment to be secretary of state. He’s already gone through the confirmation hearings to be CIA director, so this is largely pro forma, but their taking their shots at the guy.

Cory Booker, who, in his mind, is the natural heir to Barack Hussein O as the next African-American to be president of the United States. Senator, New Jersey. He’s asking Pompeo about his views on homosexuality.

Question from Booker: “You said in a speech that, ‘mourning an America that endorses perversion and calls it an alternative lifestyle,’ is your words.” What are you talking about, Pompeo! “Is being gay a perversion?”

POMPEO: When I was a politician, I had a very clear view on whether it was appropriate for two same sex persons to marry. I stand by that.

BOOKER: So I do not believe it’s appropriately for two gay people to marry?

POMPEO: Senator, I continue to hold that view and it’s the same view —

BOOKER: And so people in the State Department that are married under your leadership, you do not believe that that should be allowed?

POMPEO: Senator, I believe it’s the case we have married gay couples at the CIA. You should know I treated them with the exact same set or rights —

BOOKER: You believe that gay sex is a perversion? Yes or no.

POMPEO: Senator, if I can —

BOOKER: Yes or no. Do you believe gay sex is a perversion, because what you said here in one of your speeches… Yes or no. Do you believe gay sex is a perversion?

POMPEO: Senator, I’m gonna give you the same answer I just gave you previously. My respect for every individual regardless of the sexual orientation is the same.

RUSH: You know what the left cannot…? I don’t know. It’s either understand or accept. You have a guy like Pompeo, and he has said in the past that homosexuality is a perversion that has all of a sudden become a legitimate alternative lifestyle, and he’s not taking it back. You heard him say, “When I was a politician, I had a very clear view on whether it was appropriate for two same sex persons to marry, and I stand by it.”

What they don’t understand — or maybe they do and they’re just defamatory — is Pompeo clearly abides by the law. He may believe homosexuality is what it is, but gay marriage is now the law of the land. He’s not gonna deny it to people that work for him at CIA or State. And he’s not gonna discriminate against them. But he’s being honest about what he believes. The left thinks of conservatism as this bunch of judgmental autocrats that’s gonna go hunt down and fire and wipe out and eliminate and stigmatize all these people, and they’re gonna break the law to do it.

It’s the other way around. Pompeo is not forcing anything on anybody. Pompeo is not demanding anything of anybody. It’s the left that’s doing all that. It’s the left that’s forcing what they believe on everybody. It’s not enough that it be named legal. You have to accept it. You have to love it. You have to embrace it — and if you don’t, the left is gonna come after you. You have to do much more than just accept it because it’s legal.

You have to embrace it; you have to acknowledge it. You’re a bigot in your past, and you have to end up promoting it, otherwise they are going to get you. Pompeo is not the guy to fear. Pompeo is being honest. (translated) “Yeah, I got a problem with it but talk to anybody at CIA who’s gay and married and ask ’em if they’ve ever had a problem. In fact, I don’t even know who they are, probably, unless they tell me.” That’s another thing. I’d venture to say that most people, when they learn somebody is gay, are surprised by it.

‘Cause it’s not something they run around asking. But the left does. The left wants to know every identifiable thing about somebody in order to judge them. It’s not Pompeo. It’s not us. The left is who is judgmental. The left is who forces things on society and people, and it’s the left who then seeks punishment for people who don’t see it their way, people who don’t think their way. And Booker exemplified that with this interrogation-type question.

And Pompeo could have easily said, “You know, I’ve revised my thinking on this, Senator. After years and years of careful consideration, I have now concluded that I was wrong in my previous…” He didn’t. He stood by it during confirmation hearings to be secretary of state. He could have taken the usual cheap way out, begged for forgiveness, said he’s changing. But you know what he knows? They’re not gonna stop coming after him no matter what he says. They’ll go after him no matter what he believes simply because he’s secretary of state and supports Trump — and that alone, in their mind, is what disqualifies him.