Hutchison defends Trump over NATO
Texan praised during confirmation hearing, grilled about remarks
WASHINGTON — Former Texas U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s confirmation hearing Thursday as ambassador to NATO might have served as her first diplomatic mission for the Trump administration.
At times, she was basking in bipartisan praise from her former colleagues. But Hutchison also found herself defending President Donald Trump’s tough stance on the North Atlantic military alliance, while at the same time commending the efforts of the United States’ European allies.
She also gave qualified support for a legislative effort to impose new sanctions on Russia, which the Trump administration sees as an erosion of executive branch authority. The sanctions bill also has run afoul of some fellow Texans, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chief, who worry that the sanctions could hurt U.S. energy companies.
“I think Congress is doing the right thing to put sanctions in place,” Hutchison told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she and four other ambassador nominees answered questions for more than two hours. “I know there are disagreements on some of the language, and everyone is working to make sure it doesn’t have unintended consequences.”
The sanctions bill has been stuck in the House in a dispute over technical objections by some Republicans, prompting Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the panel, to tell Hutchison that “we’ll use your endorsement in the House to try
and get it passed.”
But despite some partisan jousting over Trump’s past remarks about the relevance of the NATO military alliance, Thursday’s hearing cemented the widespread impression that Hutchison could be one of Trump’s easiest nominations.
Republican Ted Cruz, who won Hutchison’s Senate seat when she retired in 2012, introduced her as a “friend and a true Texas legend.”
Senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn also spoke on her behalf, saying Hutchison, who served in the Senate for 20 years, “needs no introduction.”
Cruz contrasted Hutchison’s popularity on both sides of the aisle with his own reputation as a Senate gadfly.
“All of you I know respect Kay, and a great many I know were grieved when you saw her successor,” he said to laughter.
NATO ‘not obsolete’
Hutchison, 73, was frequently addressed familiarly by her first name. Cardin’s opening remarks made clear she will face little if any Democratic opposition, despite widespread skepticism over Trump’s professed admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s particularly a pleasure to have Kay Bailey Hutchison back before our committee,” Cardin said. “It must be a little different experience to be on the other side of the dais, but we thank you very much, and I know you’re going to do an incredible service to our country and NATO.”
Despite the good feelings, Democrats on the committee came prepared to use Hutchison’s hearing to question Trump’s foreign policy agenda, particularly the president’s commitment to NATO and its Article 5 pledge to a common defense of its 29 member nations.
New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez recalled Trump’s campaign pronouncement that NATO is “obsolete,” as well as his subsequent omission of Article 5 during a speech in Europe in May.
“Two quick questions,” Menendez said. “Do you believe NATO is obsolete? And secondly, do we have an unequivocal commitment to Article 5?”
“Absolutely,” Hutchison said.
“Which one is ‘absolutely’?” Menendez interrupted. “My first question or my second?”
“The commitment to Article 5,” Hutchison continued. “Well, first of all, NATO is not obsolete, and the president has acknowledged that.” She added that after meeting with Tillerson and top Pentagon officials “the president realized immediately that it is an important and successful alliance.”
Said Menendez: “Your role in reasserting that will be very important.”
Unprompted in her own testimony, Hutchison also endorsed Trump’s call for all NATO countries to meet their commitments to allocating at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product to defense.
“Our allies need to meet this commitment,” she said.
But she also praised Canadian, United Kingdom and European participation in joint efforts to protect the most vulnerable nations in the Balkans, particularly through a U.S.-led program initiated in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“We are beefing up defenses for an aggressive Russia,” she said. She added that “as NATO has said, there’s not going to be business as usual with Russia,” in regard to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Russian interference
Hutchison, who served on both the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, pointed to greater NATO cooperation in sharing information about the growing threat of cyberterrorism.
Menendez also pressed Hutchison and four other ambassador nominees for their views on whether Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections, in which Hutchison started out as a supporter of Jeb Bush.
“I think from what our intelligence communities have said and what has been in the newspapers and other media, that there is a good likelihood, yes,” she said. “I also think it is important that we know the extent and how it was done. That’s what the investigations are meant to do.”
Hutchison’s performance won a full-throated endorsement from Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee.
“Kay Bailey Hutchison, I’m so glad you’re the nominee,” Kaine said. “Your nomination sends a signal that the NATO relationship is an important one. I don’t think the administration would have asked somebody of your qualifications if they didn’t mean to send a signal, that whatever the earlier statements or thoughts about NATO, there’s now a commitment. … So I’m very, very happy to see you before this committee, and I’m very anxious to get you confirmed as quickly as we can.”
In an interview, Hutchison dismissed concerns that Trump’s equivocations on Russian hacking in the presidential election might undermine the United States’ credibility in NATO.
“I think the president has been very firm, and I think in his speech in Warsaw he was very firm about Russia keeping its commitments, and I think the Congress is of that mind, the secretaries of state and defense have said that, and I think the president has as well,” she said.
A call from Tillerson
Hutchison, who is widowed, said that if she’s confirmed by the Senate this summer she expects to take her 15-year-old son, a French speaker, along with her to Brussels. Her 16-year-old daughter will remain at a boarding school in Virginia, where she is a high school junior.
Hutchison said it was Tillerson, a close friend from Dallas, who came to her in February with the idea of joining the State Department as his envoy to NATO. She had been involved in helping Tillerson prepare for his own confirmation hearings.
“I’m very excited about the mission,” she said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to combine my love for our defense and my love for our country to do something that I think is so important for the future of America.”
“I never did think of coming back,” said Hutchison, who has been practicing law at Bracewell LLP. “I wouldn’t have ever thought about it until the Secretary called me.”