Coloradans got a taste of what the likely issues will be in the 2024 presidential election Friday, when potential Republican candidate Mike Pompeo rolled into town to campaign for Rep. Doug Lamborn.

And the threat posed by China might be at the top of the list.

“The Chinese Communist Party is the singular external threat,” warned Pompeo, President Donald Trump’s former secretary of state, in an exclusive interview with The Gazette.

“This is the hardest problem we’ve had to face in a couple hundred years,” he said. “Economic, military, cyber, all of the above.”

The threat the Soviet Union posed in the Cold War pales in comparison because the Soviets had nowhere the economic power the Chinese have, he added.

“We all talk about the history from Nazi Germany. We say we will never let this happen again, never again,” he saidce in reference to widespread accusations the Chinese have detained more than 1 million Uyghurs against their will in “reeducation camps.” Human rights groups accused China of committing genocidsenow in the camps.