[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 64 (Thursday, April 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2292-S2293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Mike Pompeo

  Madam President, we now have the Director of the Central Intelligence 
Agency--a man who is clearly qualified. He is a graduate of the U.S. 
Military Academy, a person who has served this country in uniform, who 
has served his country in Congress, who has been successful in the 
private sector, and who has served as the Director of the Central 
Intelligence Agency.
  We have learned over the last couple of days that the President has 
significant trust in him, so much so that he was willing to send him 
privately to begin setting the stage for, perhaps, the most important 
short-term diplomatic engagement this country will have with North 
Korea. By the way, one of the most important things you want in a 
Secretary of State is for the President to have confidence in him. You 
have to have someone who, when he goes abroad and meets with people, 
the people know he has the President's ear and speaks for the 
administration. Mike Pompeo clearly has that. Yet we face the prospect 
of significant opposition to the point at which there are questions 
about whether it will pass in the committee. Although, I think it will 
pass on the floor.
  I hope people will recalibrate their thinking. I don't think you have 
to agree with Mike Pompeo. You most certainly don't have to feel that 
he is the person you would have picked had you been President. You need 
to recognize that you are not the President, and none of us here are 
the President. The President deserves to have a team of people whom he 
trusts and can work with and who are qualified. I do not believe anyone 
could argue that Mike Pompeo is not qualified. He is certainly as 
qualified--in fact, I would argue

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more qualified--as the person whom he would replace in terms of 
experience in his field. I hope people understand that and are willing 
to be a little bit flexible about this.
  I understand the interest groups are ginning up. Listen, we have the 
same thing on our side of the aisle. In full disclosure and candor, 
when President Obama was the President, there were interest groups on 
the right of center who constantly pressured Congress to oppose 
everything, not just legislation but also nominees. I assure you that I 
did not get a lot of love mail when I decided to support Senator Kerry 
at the time. But it was the right thing to do because he was clearly 
qualified, and that is who the President wanted. I hope that that is 
what we will do in this case in confirming Mike Pompeo, because this 
Nation faces some very significant challenges in foreign policy that 
need to be immediately addressed, and we simply cannot do that without 
a Secretary of State.
  For me, that became quite apparent this weekend. I happened to travel 
to Lima, Peru, for the Summit of the Americas. The Vice President 
attended on the President's behalf because of the situation in Syria, 
and the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Sullivan, was there and did a 
good job, but there is no replacement for a Secretary of State. We had 
no Secretary of State at the summit. The key issue--one that, I think, 
Director Pompeo, if confirmed as Secretary, could help with--is the 
situation in Venezuela.