Pompeo unveils PAC, demurs on possible 2024 presidential bid
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has become the latest former Trump administration official to launch a political action committee, but he's not disclosing any possible 2024 presidential plans.
“Only the lord knows where I will be in 2023,” Pompeo said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press, when asked about future electoral ambitions, including a run for the White House, and whether a potential run by his old boss, former President Donald Trump, would sway any plans.
He added: “But make no mistake about it: This fight for these things that I care so deeply about ... that we have worked on and done our best to serve, to deliver, is something that we’re just not going to walk away from.”
Pompeo spoke with AP two days after formally launching a political action committee he said he would use to boost conservative candidates across the country in 2022 races at the state and federal levels.
It's a move several other former Trump administration officials have made as Republicans grapple with their party's future following Trump's term. Trump himself has complicated those conversations, implying he could seek a second term and recently setting out a return to the large-scale rallies that became signature events of his 2016 run and years in office.
Pompeo, who also served as CIA director during four years in the Trump administration, has been making the rounds in some of the states with early voting contests, including Iowa and New Hampshire, fueling speculation he will seek the Republican presidential nomination. On Thursday, he said he plans to campaign in South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who is seeking his second full term in office next year.
Other former Trump administration figures mentioned as potential GOP hopefuls are...