Senate confirms Pompeo as secretary of state
WASHINGTON — Mike Pompeo took over as America’s top diplomat yesterday after being confirmed by the Senate and sworn in across the street minutes later. The new secretary of state immediately dashed off to Europe, in an energetic start befitting the high-stakes issues awaiting him from Iran to North Korea.
The hard-charging former CIA director secured support from 57 senators, with 42 voting no — one of the slimmest margins for the job in recent history. Every past nominee to get a roll call vote since at least the Carter administration received 85 or more “yes” votes in the Senate, with the exception of Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who got 56.
“He’s the perfect person to come in at this time and lead those efforts,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who chairs the foreign relations panel, said on the Senate floor moments before Pompeo was confirmed.
He was sworn in at the Supreme Court by Justice Samuel Alito, a fellow Italian-American, who said he was “proud” to officiate for the occasion. Pompeo, in a statement relayed by the State Department, said he was “delighted” to serve as America’s top diplomat.
“I am completely humbled by the responsibility and looking forward to serving the American people and getting to work right away,” Pompeo said.
Then it was off to Joint Base Andrews, where a U.S. government aircraft was waiting to ferry Pompeo to Brussels for meetings at NATO headquarters. State Department staffers, demoralized after a tumultuous first year of President Trump’s administration, gave a round of applause to Pompeo, who responded as he boarded the aircraft with a casual, “Hi, I’m Mike.”
Pompeo, a Republican and former Kansas congressman, is expected to guide Trump’s foreign policy in a more right-leaning direction than Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO fired by Trump on Twitter last month. He inherits a State Department that has lost relevance under Trump and a diplomatic corps deeply dispirited by the tenure of Tillerson, who pushed budget and staff cuts and eschewed public appearances while leaving key diplomatic positions unfilled.