Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Democratic opposition to CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s nomination as secretary of state is “driven 100 percent by politics” and rooted in the fact that Democrats are, in part, “still struggling to get over” the 2016 election.
Trump nominated Pompeo to replace Rex Tillerson as the nation’s chief diplomat last month. But Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas, has faced a historic rebuke from Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who will all oppose his nomination.
One Republican on the committee, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, won’t support Pompeo as secretary of state, making it all but certain Pompeo will receive a negative recommendation from the Foreign Relations panel.
While Cotton criticized the Democrats who oppose Pompeo as secretary of state, he took particular aim at those on the Foreign Relations Committee.
“The Democrats especially on Foreign Relations Committee are really engaged in shameful political behavior,” he said. “Fifteen of them voted for Mike Pompeo last year to be director of the CIA. Not a single one of them to my knowledge has said that he’s done a bad job.”
The Arkansas senator said Pompeo is committed to diplomatic solutions, and Republicans have said the country is in urgent need of a secretary of state as Trump prepares for his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the civil war in Syria continues.
“Ultimately the secretary of state is conducting diplomacy on behalf of the president,” Cotton said. “Most of these Democrats don’t have a problem with Mike Pompeo. They are still struggling to get over the election of Donald Trump in 2016 or, frankly, they face elections this year in 2018 and they’re afraid of scaring the MoveOn.org or Code Pink crowd. It’s really shameful behavior.”
Despite the opposition from members of the Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo’s nomination can still be brought to the Senate floor. He is likely to be confirmed by the full Senate.
