WASHINGTON — CIA Director Mike Pompeo starts off a crucial week in his journey to Senate confirmation as secretary of state facing a Monday committee vote that's likely to be an unfavorable one, and a razor-thin margin of support in the full chamber.
All Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as committee member Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have announced their opposition to Pompeo's nomination. If all stick to that position at Monday's 5 p.m. ET vote, the nomination will not have enough support to be reported favorably to the full Senate.
Despite that lack of support at the committee level, Republican and Democratic leadership aides say that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can still bring up his nomination for a floor vote and is expected to do so later in the week — regardless of the committee vote — after jumping over some procedural hurdles.
The last Cabinet-level nominee to be reported unfavorably by a committee and still confirmed by the full Senate, according to the Senate Historian’s Office, was Henry Wallace, who was confirmed in 1945 to serve as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s commerce secretary.
Most Republican senators are rallying behind Pompeo and urging Democrats to confirm him, especially as the Senate prepares to consider two other critical Trump nominations: Gina Haspel's already-troubled bid to be the next CIA director, and Ronny Jackson's to be the next head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Amid tough committee questioning of Pompeo last week, the White House looked to burnish his credentials to serve as the nation's next top diplomat by highlighting the revelation that he had met in secret with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in advance of a potential summit between him and Trump.
“I realize my Democratic friends in many cases feel like that in supporting Pompeo, it's a proxy for support of the Trump administration policies, which many of them abhor. I understand that,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee last week on the Senate floor.
The Trump factor hasn't been the only sticking point for Democrats, who have argued that Pompeo’s previous statements regarding Muslims and LGBT rights and his hawkish views should disqualify him from serving in a key diplomatic role.
“I believe our nation’s top diplomat must be forthright, and, more critically, his past sentiments do not reflect our nation’s values, and are not acceptable for our nation’s top diplomat. The American people deserve better,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., ranking member on Foreign Relations, said in remarks last week announcing his opposition to Pompeo. He also expressed frustration that Pompeo had not previously mentioned his visit to North Korea in conversations with him.
In Pompeo's recent confirmation hearing, he dismissed the criticism that he has hawkish tendencies, and the charge that he had made anti-Muslim statements.
"My record is exquisite with respect to treating each and every faith with the dignity that they deserved," he said, adding that he has worked closely with Muslim leaders and Muslim countries and would continue to do so as secretary of state.
The Senate previously confirmed Pompeo, a former member of the House, as CIA director in January 2017 in a 66-32 vote, with 14 Democrats backing him, including Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted for Pompeo.
Of those, only Heitkamp — a red state Democrat facing a tough re-election bid — has so far said she plans to support him. Other Democrats facing the same 2018 calculus include Donnelly, Manchin, and McCaskill. Seven of the 14 Democrats who supported Pompeo's 2017 confirmation as CIA director have said they won’t support Pompeo as secretary of state and six have not yet revealed their position.
If Pompeo receives support from 49 Republicans, excluding Sen. Paul and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who remains absent due to brain cancer, he would only need one Democrat to be confirmed — which means Heitkamp’s support could be decisive.
Pompeo went on a goodwill tour ahead of his nomination hearings, reaching out to several senators and all living former secretaries of state, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Henry Kissinger.
In West Virginia on Friday, Sen. Manchin praised Pompeo’s job as CIA director, calling him “extremely competent, qualified, but also straightforward.” He said he hasn’t made a final decision, however, on whether to back him as secretary of state.
“I’m very open-minded about Mike,” he told NBC’s Ali Vitali. “I haven’t made that final commitment, but I’m very open-minded towards him and we’ve had great discussions. We’re going to have another one next week.”