Pompeo: Back and Forth Between Putin, Biden 'a Bit Childish'

(Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)

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The back and forth between Russia and the United States after President Joe Biden said in an interview this week that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin to be a "killer" "all seemed a bit childish," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. 

But if Biden and his administration would "put America first" and back up "language with real deeds and not just rhetoric and name-calling, you are seemingly far more likely to be successful," said Pompeo on Fox News' "America Reports."

"We tried to stop them from building a pipeline that was going to (make) Europe beholden to Russian energy, and the (Obama) administration, they had allowed the Russians to take Crimea," said Pompeo. "We were strong and tough."

Russia has demanded an apology after Biden agreed with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview that Putin was a killer and said that his Russian counterpart would ''pay a price'' for alleged meddling in U.S. elections.

Putin fired back at Biden’s accusations, saying that ''it takes one to know one'' and insisted the U.S. will have to take Russia’s interests into account despite insults.

Pompeo on Thursday also discussed the escalating immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it "devastating and heartbreaking" and noting it poses a danger for national security. 

"We put in place a set of policies, a set of understandings with the Mexican government, the governments of El Salvador and Honduras and Guatemala, and you pull the pin on that, you create an incentive for these people that live in very difficult economic conditions," said Pompeo. "You put that incentive in place, they will come. You see the outfall and you see the fact that we can't manage this process."

The situation, including the thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the border, poses a "humanitarian crisis on top of the sovereignty challenge" across the United States, he added. 

"Remain in Mexico which is something I worked on with the Mexican foreign minister, and to pull the pin (and have) no plan for how to stop these folks with coming across the border and avoid this humanitarian and national security crisis, I simply can't understand it," said the former secretary.

The Trump administration, he added, had the border situation under control and it was a "diplomatic success (and) a success from a security perspective."

"The tragedy that is befalling these people that are now stuck in horrific conditions in Mexico and on our side of the border, it didn't have to be," he said. "Ask yourself if America was better off under the Trump administration policy and if the people who try to make this transit were better off under our policies and I think the answer is 'yes.'"