This year’s annual Ashbrook Memorial Dinner welcomed keynote speaker, Mike Pompeo, the .
Pompeo was 70th US Secretary of State during the Trump administration. and Pompeo gave a speech titled “A Freedom Agenda.””.

Pompeo started off the speech with a bit of humor saying that his biggest achievement was him and his wife teaching Sunday school to fifth graders.

He then spoke about looking at the list of past speakers who have spoken at the memorial dinner in years past and focused on 1983 when Ronald Reagan spoke at the first annual Ashbrook Memorial dinner.

“When I was a young cadet many years ago at West Point, Reagan was my commander in chief,” said Pompeo.

He continued with the lessons he learned from West Point, which were the virtues of truth and wisdom and what it means to be an American.

Pompeo mentioned that during his time a West Point of how everyone is on the first day was given the three same things: a uniform, a rifle, and a copy of the Federalist.

Pompeo , later in his speech, focused heavily on education in America, and highlighted on the 1619 Project, how classes in America are teaching on racism and privilege, and critical race theory (CRT).

When he mentioned his time as Secretary of State, he said how he had been all over the world and said America “is the least racist country in the world.””.

During his speech, Pompeo referenced his faith in God and how our country was founded in Judeo-Christian principles and that the “state provides moral authority” to the people.

Following the speech, there was  a question-and-answer session. f

A range of questions were asked from American energy to the conflicts in the Middle East, and to his time as director of the CIA.

The most interesting question asked was a simple question about the 2024 race. “2024?”.

Pompeo answered that his wife and him have been praying about this and deciding whether to do this or not, and said it does not matter who is also running in the race if he decides to run or not.