In a comic twist, the power went out in the room at the beginning of the confirmation hearings for President-elect Trump’s nominee for CIA director right as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee began talking about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kans., tapped by Trump to run the spy agency, was set to begin his testimony Thursday morning. He was flanked by two veteran Kansas Republican lawmakers, Sen. Pat Roberts and former Sen. Bob Dole, who were there to introduce him.
Lights out @ Senate Intel hearing for @CIA nominee Pompeo just as @markwarner talks on #Russia hacking.
Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/d7cFmWG1vc— Kim Dozier (@KimDozier) January 12, 2017
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the panel, was laying out some of his expectations of what he wanted to hear from Pompeo before the power cut out.
“That Russia, at the direction,” Warner began, and then everything went dark.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., temporarily recessed the hearing until power can be restored.
