Sen. Pat Roberts has said that Kris Kobach, a fellow Kansan Republican, would not get the U.S. Senate votes needed for confirmation as secretary of homeland security.
Roberts, 82, warned on Tuesday against President Trump nominating Kobach for the position. Kobach is a hard-line conservative who defeated incumbent Gov. Jeff Coyler in a Republican primary but lost to a Democrat in the 2018 general election. He confirmed Tuesday that he has been in communication with the Trump administration about the homeland security job.
“Don’t go there. We can’t confirm him,” Roberts told the Kansas City Star when asked about Kobach Tuesday. “I never said that to you.”
Kobach, 53, gained national notoriety during his failed gubernatorial bid for taking a hard-right stance on immigration. The former Kansas secretary of state has insisted that the department he wants to lead actively thwarted the policies that Trump ran on in 2016.
“He’s got an important decision to make,” Kobach said of Trump, in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “If he wants to have me serve in this capacity, and thinks it would be the best thing for the country, I would certainly do so.”
Anti-immigration groups such as NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, are backing Kobach.
Kobach has been mulling a 2020 U.S. Senate bid for the seat being vacated by Roberts, who said he will retire next year after serving in Congress since 1981, in the House of Representatives until 1997, and since then in the Senate.
[Also read: Trump says he is not ‘cleaning house’ even as more Homeland Security departures expected]
