<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A small bipartisan gesture at the end of a fiercely partisan fight Monday has put Mike Pompeo on course to Senate confirmation as the nation\u2019s next secretary of state.<\/p>\n
During a day of wild parliamentary back-and-forth in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the former congressman from Kansas and outgoing CIA director secured the crucial vote of lone Republican holdout Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, only to face rejection from the panel because fellow Republican committee member Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia missed the Monday evening confirmation vote to attend a funeral back home.<\/p>\n
But Sen. Christopher A. Coons, Delaware Democrat, volunteered to vote \u201cpresent\u201d on the nominee, resulting in a party-line 11-9 vote \u2014 Mr. Isakson\u2019s proxy vote in favor counting because of Mr. Coons\u2019 gesture \u2014 recommending that the full Senate approve Mr. Trump\u2019s pick to replace the fired Rex W. Tillerson.<\/p>\n
With at least three moderate Senate Democrats on record in support of Mr. Pompeo, the full Senate appears poised to confirm Mr. Pompeo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pompeo nomination has now been reported out of the Foreign Relations Committee, and there are sufficient votes in the Senate to ensure that he will be confirmed this week as our nation\u2019s next secretary of state,\u201d Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said minutes after the Senate panel wrapped up its work.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Paul\u2019s change of heart and Mr. Coons\u2019 \u201cpresent\u201d vote spared Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo an unprecedented rebuke at the committee level for one of the government\u2019s highest posts.<\/p>\n
As Republicans complained repeatedly Monday, past secretary of state confirmation battles had never been so partisan. President Obama\u2019s choices \u2014 Hillary Clinton and John F. Kerry \u2014 received more than 90 favorable votes.<\/p>\n
The vote also represented a rare lobbying win for President Trump on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo talked repeatedly with the libertarian Mr. Paul in an effort to win his vote.<\/p>\n
It appeared for much of the day that Mr. Pompeo would have to win his nomination fight without the backing of the committee, but minutes before the vote, Mr. Paul announced that he had received assurances that Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo had heard and understood his reservations about the Iraq War, overseas adventurism and the perils of a foreign policy focused on \u201cregime change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving received assurances \u2026 I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State,\u201d Mr. Paul Tweeted on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
During a White House event with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Trump said Mr. Paul \u201cnever let us down\u201d and is \u201ca good man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours before the committee vote Monday, Mr. Trump slammed Democrats for opposing Mr. Pompeo, including a number who supported the West Point graduate for the CIA post just a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHard to believe obstructionists may vote against Mike Pompeo for secretary of state,\u201d Mr. Trump said in a tweet.<\/p>\n
Marc Short, White House legislative affairs director, suggested to reporters that the senator from Kentucky could change his position.<\/p>\n
A vote against Mr. Pompeo from the Senate committee could have forced Senate Republican leadership to take the unusual step of sending a top nomination to the full Senate without a favorable recommendation, which has not occurred since 1989.<\/p>\n
That year, the Armed Services Committee voted against John Tower, President George H.W. Bush\u2019s pick for secretary of defense. The full Senate later rejected Mr. Tower as well.<\/p>\n
Despite the risk of a committee rebuke, Mr. Pompeo was on track to receive approval from a full Senate vote this week.<\/p>\n
On Monday, two Senate Democrats facing tough re-election bids, West Virginia\u2019s Joe Manchin III and Indiana\u2019s Joe Donnelly, announced their support for the nominee. Other centrist Democrats, including Virginia\u2019s Mark R. Warner and Alabama\u2019s Doug Jones, have not declared their positions.<\/p>\n
Those votes, along with previously announced support from Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota Democrat, who is also up for re-election \u2014 looked to make the confirmation almost certain.<\/p>\n
Hawks and doves<\/strong><\/p>\n If confirmed, Mr. Pompeo will be fourth in line to the presidency.<\/p>\n His nomination battle has been blamed on election-year political partisanship. Democrats questioned Mr. Pompeo\u2019s stands on gay rights and other social issues in his confirmation hearing this month.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the climate we are in,\u201d Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker told reporters Monday. \u201cI understand the polarization we have as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tennessee Republican said Mr. Pompeo was one of the most qualified nominees in history to be tapped as secretary of state, one who had proved his diplomatic skills with a secret mission to Pyongyang over the Easter weekend to help prepare for a proposed summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.<\/p>\n But several Democrats who backed Mr. Pompeo for the CIA said his comments as a hawkish lawmaker in Congress made him less-suited to be the nation\u2019s top diplomat and the face of American foreign policy.<\/p>\n Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concerns that Mr. Pompeo, who has a much closer personal rapport with the president than Mr. Tillerson did, could be a yes man to Mr. Trump\u2019s worst instincts.<\/p>\n During his rocky tenure at the nation\u2019s most influential diplomatic agency, Mr. Tillerson presided over a major budget cut, staff cutbacks and an overall demoralization of the diplomatic corps. Numerous senior positions remain empty. Senate Republicans argued Monday that Mr. Pompeo\u2019s successful record managing the CIA would translate well to rebuilding staff and morale at Foggy Bottom.<\/p>\n As CIA chief, Mr. Pompeo cultivated a close relationship with Mr. Trump by briefing him frequently in person on the world\u2019s most sensitive matters and taking a small office on an upper floor of the Old Executive Office Building, just a short walk from the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has a very good relationship with the president,\u201d Mr. Corker said Monday. \u201cThat is somewhat different from the last three secretaries of state we have had.\u201d<\/p>\n Since his election, even Mr. Trump publicly blasted the FBI and Justice Department for their roles in investigating Russia election meddling, Mr. Pompeo has largely shielded the CIA from the president\u2019s wrath.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A small bipartisan gesture at the end of a fiercely partisan fight Monday has put Mike Pompeo on course to Senate confirmation as the nation’s next secretary of state. A small bipartisan gesture at the end of a fiercely partisan fight Monday has put Mike Pompeo on course to Senate confirmation as the nation\u2019s next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[497],"tags":[264,34,500,39,475],"class_list":["post-2905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-donald-trump","tag-politics","tag-rex-w-tillerson","tag-senate","tag-united-states-senate-committee-on-foreign-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}