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Senate Confirms Pompeo as Secretary of State

by Michael Bowman

   CAPITOL HILL --

   A sharply divided U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 57-42 to confirm U.S.
   President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, CIA Director Mike
   Pompeo, with all Republicans backing the nominee and all but six
   Democrats and one independent opposed.

   "That he [Pompeo] has both the character and the credentials required
   to be a successful secretary of state is absolutely clear," Republican
   Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said moments after the vote. "The
   man has what is takes for the job."

   Pompeo replaces Rex Tillerson, who was fired last month by Trump. His
   confirmation allows him to attend a NATO meeting in Brussels Friday as
   America's top diplomat.

   While Senate Republicans were united behind Pompeo, most Democrats
   bemoaned what they saw as the nominee's history of warmongering
   rhetoric and antipathy to Muslims and gay people.

   The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat, Bob Menendez of
   New Jersey, said he doubted Pompeo "would be willing to push back
   against the president's worst instincts" on world affairs.

   As an example, Menendez noted key American allies are absorbing
   millions of refugees, and asked, "What will he [Pompeo] credibly say as
   this administration slashes our own refugee program, once a crown jewel
   of our foreign policy?"

   Republicans, meanwhile, hailed Pompeo's resume and life
   accomplishments, from graduating at the top of his class at the U.S.
   Military Academy at West Point to studying law at Harvard to years
   representing Kansas in the House of Representatives.

   Trump recently dispatched Pompeo to hold discussions with North Korean
   leader Kim Jong Un ahead of a planned Trump-Kim nuclear summit.

   Montana Republican Steve Daines said Pompeo already proved his worth as
   part of an administration that helped engineer what could prove to be a
   historic diplomatic opening.

   "The administration's resolve and their diplomacy is what has brought
   Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table," Daines said. "The administration
   is moving toward a denuclearized North Korea, and Mike Pompeo has
   played a critical role in those efforts."

   Republicans repeatedly urged strong bipartisan backing for Pompeo,
   pointing out that only two of their members voted against former
   President Barack Obama's first secretary of state nominee, Hillary
   Clinton, in 2009, and only three Senate Republicans voted against John
   Kerry for the post in 2013.

   Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy insisted his decision to oppose
   Pompeo was not taken lightly.

   "I do believe in a substantial amount of deference to the president in
   the choices that he makes to serve him in his administration," Murphy
   said before giving his reasons for voting against confirmation. "You
   need a secretary of state who truly believes that diplomacy can be a
   viable path out of very complicated problems ... I do not believe that
   Director Pompeo measures up."

   Earlier this week, Pompeo risked becoming the first secretary of state
   nominee in modern times to fail to get a favorable recommendation from
   the Foreign Relations Committee. But Republican Senator Rand Paul of
   Kentucky reversed his opposition to Pompeo shortly before the panel
   voted Monday, giving the nominee narrow majority support.