- The secretary of state sits down

with CBN News for a deep dive

on the administration'sfight for religious freedom

around the world.

- And he's addressingsome of the controversy

facing the White House.

Welcome to Faith Nation,I'm Jenna Browder.

- And I'm John Jessup.

Secretary Pompeo isdefending the president

after an incendiarytweet many call racist.

- Now Pompeo also says ProgressiveCongressional Democrats

are quote, "deeply troubling".

Today he sat down with CBNNews Chief Political Analyst,

David Brody, and David ishere now with us for more.

- David, much of thecountry has been looking

for a response from the administration

on these tweets.

Today you sat down Secretary Pompeo

and asked him about it.

- Right, we talked about the Squad.

We know all about the Squad now,

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all of them

and they said, at leastaccording to the president

and many others, troublethings about America.

And so I wanted to askSecretary Pompeo specifically

about that because afterall he is secretary of state

and he goes around theworld promoting America.

So what did he think aboutthe Squads recent comments

with the president, have a look.

I wanna ask you a little bit more broadly

about foreign policy.

I know Joe Biden has been critical,

I know that's politics, butJoe Biden's been critical

of this administrations foreign policy.

And then we have the Squadthat we hear so much about.

A lot of what the president has said,

anti-Israel rhetoriccoming from these folks.

What do you make of thatas secretary of state

and what that message sendsto folks around the world,

especially Israel and some of our allies?

- Look, when a handfulof member of Congress

say things that are in the tone

of the fact that they blame America

for so much of the trouble in the world,

that's deeply troubling.

As I stare at the problem set,

whether it's work that we'redoing in the Middle East,

or work we're doing to solve the problem

of HIV Aids in Africa,

or the reconciliation effort

that we're underway with in Afghanistan.

I watch America, I watch its motives.

We are a force for good in the world,

not a force for evil.

We are not the cause of these conflicts.

And I hear these members of Congress talk

about this as if Americahad generated this trouble.

And to blame Americafirst for these things

is deeply inconsistentwith not only our founding

and our tradition, but withthe facts on the ground.

- Of course, all of thisstarted with an original tweet

that many consideredracist by the president.

It's something I asked thesecretary of state about.

Have a look.

The president trusts you.

You have a good relationship with him.

He is shockingly underattack, let me think,

all the time by the media and his critics

especially this week withsome of the tweets we've heard

and the R word, the racist word is used.

We've talked to him about that.

What do you know about him as president

that can speak to this issueabout what we have heard

so far this week about some of the tweets

and some of the controversysurrounding this.

- So I've worked for the president now

for goodness, almost twoand a half years now.

And I've watched the work that we've done

first as CIA director andnow as secretary of state.

His guidance to me has been very clear.

Our mission is to buildout American security,

talks about Americanfirst in lots of contexts.

My mission, I'm theAmerican secretary of state.

So my mission is to keepthe American people safe

and each and every time we've talked

about a particularly difficult situation

or how to respond to athreat that's imposed on us,

it's been about data and facts.

Coming up with a set of policy options

that are achievable, thatis we believe you have

to be realistic, you haveto take the world as it is,

you can't pretend that something else

is going to transpire thatyou know is very unlikely.

And we've worked on that.

And he's done this in every country.

He's done this regardless of the race

of the individuals in thatcountry, the religion.

It is about deliveringthese good outcomes.

We've built out amazing alliances.

We've got the world to workwith us on North Korea.

We've had 60 countries helpus make the lives better

for the people of Venezuela.

All of those projectsthat we're engaged in.

We do this with othernations and the president

is fully supportive.

- And so you're saying racehas nothing to do with this.

- Never seen it.- Yeah.

- Not once.- Yeah.

So I mean clearly those arethe news of the day items

and there was a lot more we discussed

throughout the interview.

- David, one of those things,Pompeo recently announced

the new Commission on Unalienable Rights.

Tell us about that.

- Right, so there's accordingto Secretary Pompeo,

which you'll hear in a moment,

he talks about, there'stons of rights out there.

Well what are American rights?

So in other words what are human rights

and they go back to the founding of this

and so that's what they'retrying to figure out.

What are human rights?

Well the women's groupsand minority groups

have pushed back to say wait a minute,

are you trying to roll backsome of these human rights

that we've heard about before?

Secretary Pompeo addressedthat, have a look,

- I'm really excited aboutwhat we're going to do

with this commission.

It's been a long timesince the State Department

has taken a good hardlook at the foundations,

the rights where they're grounded,

how we think about thosethings that are essential

to every human being.

You know this David, when you start to say

that all thousands of things are rights,

it diminishes these mostfundamental freedoms,

it diminishes these essential rights.

The right to freedom of worship,

the most powerful thingsthat each create our dignity

as human beings.

And so we're gonna gotake a good look at that.

We're gonna ground it in thefounding fathers understanding,

we're gonna ground it in our constitution,

we're gonna go back andlook at what the last time

that the Universal Declarationof Human Rights did its work

and we're going to moor what we view here

as human rights in the United States based

on this historic fundamentalset of understandings.

We think this will improve,has the capacity to improve

human rights and theunderstanding of human rights

all around the world.

- It's a potential controversy out there

depending on how theydefine those human rights.

So we'll watch that.

- David, this is not yourfirst time interviewing Pompeo.

He talks a lot about his faith

and you've asked himabout this in the past.

It's something that'sextremely important to him,

it shapes him, it guides him,

and it influences whathe champions as a leader.

- Right, especially on religious freedom,

which of course is the reason

for the Ministerial this week.

And I talked to himspecifically about that

and some of his answerwas very interesting.

Because watch the firstpart of this answer.

I think a lot of folksmight have some issues

with what he says about his faith

and how he sees the Bible.

Have a look.

- Look, as a Christian,

we have these fundamental understandings

from the Bible thattalk about how you treat

other human beings.

So whether it's the capacityto practice your faith

as a Jew in a country around the world

or your ability to bea faithful practitioner

of Islam somewhere in acountry that you're a minority,

Christians believe that that faith right,

different from mine, but nonetheless,

your expression of your faith,

fundamentally has a right to be expressed.

And we want every country to do that

and so yes, it's connectedwith my understanding

of the world and I think onethat America has held dear

since its founding as well.

- When he talked about someof those Christian principles,

detention centers came to mind.

I think a lot of people will question him

if those are the Christianprinciples at play.

So watch for some potentialpush back on that.

Finally the Ministerial Conference,

it'll be going on all this week,

it brings all of civic leadersand faith leaders together

and here's how he explained it.

- It's an important gathering.

It's the second time we've hadthe opportunity to do this.

We bring in leaders fromall across the world.

Religious leaders, civil society leaders,

government leaders, all aimed singularly

at the focus of increasing the capacity

for human beings to havethe right to worship

in the way they want, the way they choose,

in every country in the world.

And we know we're blessed here.

It's our first freedom enshrinedin the U.S. Constitution.

But that's not the case everywhere.

And our mission set is tohighlight its importance,

to educate leaders around the world

about how important this is,

how it can make yourcountry better and stronger

if you'll allow people of every faith

to practice their faith,

or if they choose not to, fine too.

And it's a wonderful opportunity.

There's small groupsthat'll gather and talk

about particular issues,particular tactics,

and then we hope throughout the year,

just in this past year,they'll be groups meet

all around the worldto further this cause.

- Full report on the The 700 Club.

Wednesday morning, immigration, refugees,

a lot more in the interview.

We just don't have enough time here.

- That's always the case.Unless you wanna

give me a few.- Sure, we'll give you time.

- David, great interview, great job.

- Thanks David.- Thanks guys.