Senate panel endorses Pompeo after Trump’s intervention
COMMITTEE VOTES 11 TO 10 ALONG PARTY LINES TO ENDORSE HIM AS SECRETARY OF STATE
Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo narrowly eked out an endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday after President Donald Trump and a Democratic senator intervened at the last minute, all but guaranteeing that he will be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.
Pompeo had seemed unlikely to secure a majority of the panel’s support. But Republican Senator Rand Paul, who had pledged to oppose him, tweeted moments before the vote that Trump had talked with him and changed his mind.
Paul’s key concern had been that Pompeo, currently director of the CIA, would not support Trump’s campaign pledge to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
The senator also thought Pompeo disagreed with the president’s stated belief that “the Iraq War was a mistake.”
“Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next secretary of state,” Paul said.
The panel’s vote was largely symbolic, since Pompeo had secured enough votes to be confirmed by the full Senate earlier in the day when two Democrats facing difficult reelection challenges in 2018 — Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Joe Donnelly — announced they would back his nomination on the floor.
Quirk in the rules
But Trump’s supporters were determined to have Pompeo enter office without the mark of being the first secretary of state in almost a century to fail a committee vote.
The committee ultimately voted 11 to 10 along party lines to endorse Pompeo. But because of a quirk in the Senate rules, the panel could not send its recommendation to the full Senate, as one of those 11 Republicans — Senator Johnny Isakson — was not present for the vote. He was out of town delivering a eulogy at his best friend’s funeral, senators said.
A negative vote on Pompeo’s nomination would not necessarily have precluded the full Senate from taking it up. But for GOP leaders, time was of the essence: They want Pompeo to be confirmed in time to attend a meeting of Nato foreign ministers on Friday.
At the urging of panel chairman Bob Corker, a Republican, Democratic Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware volunteered to change his vote to “present” — making the vote 11 in favour, 9 opposed and 1 present, and enabling the committee to quickly push Pompeo’s nomination to the floor.
“Senator Isakson is one of my closest friends here ... and he’s been through an incredibly hard day,” Coons told reporters. He said it would have been “heartless” to shuttle Isakson off his return flight straight to a delayed committee vote when the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Floor vote
The gesture is an increasingly rare one in the politically divided Congress, where it is difficult for lawmakers to extend personal gestures without facing political scrutiny.
As Coons explained his decision to reporters outside the committee room, a protester yelled at him: “You care more about your friend than you do this country!”
Coons said that he still intended to vote against Pompeo’s nomination on the Senate floor. At this point, only three Democrats have committed to back Pompeo’s confirmation.