[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 64 (Thursday, April 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Mike Pompeo

  Mr. President, I do want to make one additional statement as well. We 
are in the process of talking about the Secretary of State. It has been 
very interesting that there has been all this debate about Mike Pompeo.
  Mike Pompeo is a friend. He and I came to the House of 
Representatives together and served in the House beginning in 2011. I 
got to know him for who he really is.
  I have been amazed at the smears in the press and the attacks on his 
personal character. Every time I read one of those, I think, this is a 
person who has never met Mike Pompeo.
  The best way to evaluate Mike Pompeo is not just on his background--
small things like graduating first in his class from West Point, his 
military service, his time in professional business, his time serving 
as a House Member, the excellent work he has done over the last year 
leading our CIA, the cool hand he has been in the middle of the chaos, 
trying to deal with all of the issues right now in Washington, DC--when 
you look at him, those are all good marks.
  Quite frankly, one of the things I would want to come back to you and 
say is, meet him. For those of you in this body who doubt, who are 
willing to read a media story that has taken one thing he said at some 
point out of context, I would encourage you to meet him and actually 
have that conversation. You are going to find a fine leader who is 
dedicated to helping our Nation, who has done it on the battlefield, 
who has done it as a Representative, who has done it as the Director of 
the CIA, and who will do an incredible job helping us diplomatically 
and worldwide in the State Department.
  I am looking forward to supporting his nomination--not because I am a 
Republican and it is a Republican nomination but because he is a 
quality individual who genuinely wants to help the country and who I 
think will uphold extremely well the history of diplomacy we have had 
in the United States.
  I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, let me wholeheartedly agree with the 
Senator from Oklahoma on Mike Pompeo, as well as the comments he has 
made about  Jim Bridenstine.