Mike Pompeo heckled at Senate confirmation hearing: ‘No Pompeo! No more wars!’

The activists were allowed to stay, but committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., warned they risked arrest if they disrupted proceedings.

“Good to see you, thank you for waving,” Corker said. “We thank you for being here and being considerate and respectful of people who are here today besides yourselves.”

The first activist to shout during the hearing interrupted Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. The activist shouted against Pompeo’s stance on Iran and said “war on North Korea is a war crime” and that they would prefer “people that discuss and don’t kill other people.”

The group of activists were affiliated with the anti-war group Code Pink, which routinely heckles executive-branch officials for their involvement in military interventions, mass surveillance, and CIA drone killings. Their shirts were labeled “Pink Police.”

Pompeo sought to use the hearing to disavow his reputation as a “hawk” on foreign policy, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks, which were circulated by the White House.

“So when journalists, most of whom have never met me, label me—or any of you—as ‘hawks,’ ‘war hardliners,’ or worse, I shake my head. There are few who dread war more than those of us who have served in uniform,” Pompeo’s prepared remarks said. “And there is a great deal of room between a military presence and war. War is always the last resort.”

Pompeo oversees the CIA’s drone assassination program and once called for a “comprehensive, searchable” database of domestic personal records. His views on Mideast policy, particularly on Iran, are considered less conciliatory than those of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.