Pompeo calls Biden’s ‘Armageddon’ remarks ‘reckless’

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said President Biden’s remarks last week warning of “Armageddon” amid nuclear threats from Russia were “reckless.”

Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream that Biden’s comments are “one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the last decade.”

“When you hear the president talking about ‘Armageddon’ as a random thought … at a fundraiser, that is a terrible risk for the American people,” said Pompeo, who served under the Trump administration. “He ought to be talking to us in a serious way.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing heavy losses in Ukraine, has said his threat to use nuclear weapons is “not a bluff.”

At a fundraiser in New York City last week, Biden said the country had not “faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” adding that Putin was “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.”

Pompeo on Sunday said the Biden administration should “push back against” its adversaries “by showing enormous resolve” rather than the comments he made.

It should be “making very clear to Vladimir Putin that the cost of him using a nuclear weapon will bring the force of not only the United States and Europe but of the whole world,” Pompeo said. “He should be doing all the things that are necessary to deter Vladimir Putin.”

Updated at 10:50 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.