CIA Director Mike Pompeo might get the Brownback treatment tomorrow when he appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Pompeo’s confirmation hearing for U.S. Secretary of State begins Thursday.
The former Congressman from Kansas sailed through the confirmation process to become CIA Director in January 2017. He garnered vote of confidence from 66 Senate members. However, it appears Pompeo will face choppier seas as he begins the Secretary of State confirmation process.
Republicans hold a narrow majority of 51 in the Senate, but one Republican Senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky voted against Pompeo’s confirmation for CIA Director. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats tell media Pompeo will need to work hard to get their votes a second time.
Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, told USA Today he opposes Pompeo’s nomination because he has shown a “casual relationship to truth and principle” as CIA director.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein voted for his confirmation to the CIA, but she told the paper that job didn’t require the diplomacy required in a Secretary of State. Other Democrats who voted for Pompeo 16 months ago, but may be reluctant to do so again include Sen. Tim Kaine, who attended Kansas City-private school Rockhurst High School, and Missouri’s Sen. Claire McCaskill.
McCaskill hasn’t said how she intends to vote on Pompeo’s confirmation.
“I’m still looking at that. They’re very different jobs and they have a much different role. One is running an agency that has a very clear definition of what its job is as it relates to national security. The other is much broader in terms of policy considerations that are represented on behalf of our country,” she told the Kansas City Star last month.
Should Pompeo face difficult head winds in this confirmation process, it won’t be the first time a Kansan struggled to attain the 51 votes necessary for confirmation from this Senate. Kaine was a vocal opponent of confirming then Gov. Sam Brownback to a state department post. Vice President Mike Pence broke a tie to confirm the former Kansas Governor, and Pence’s efforts may be needed again.