[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 66 (Tuesday, April 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2380-S2381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Mike Pompeo

  Mr. President, the second nominee I would like to talk about briefly 
is one who has also faced some opposition from the other side of the 
aisle, to the point that he was reported out of committee last night on 
a pure party-line vote--an 11-to-10 vote. I wish that weren't the case. 
I want to thank Senator Coons for actually voting ``present'' so that 
Senator Isakson's vote could count.
  I think Mike Pompeo, who is the current Director of the Central 
Intelligence Agency, is extremely well qualified.
  When you look at what has happened historically with regard to the 
job of Secretary of State, this body has been able to support people 
who they may not agree with on every policy issue or may not agree with 
the President who appointed that person, but they realize that a 
President should be able to have his or her own person--particularly in 
that job--be the Secretary of State, be the diplomat to the United 
States around the world. As a result, with regard to Senator Kerry, who 
was a colleague of ours here, when he was up for his confirmation vote, 
the vote was 94 Senators out of 100 supporting him. With regard to 
Secretary Clinton, when she was nominated, she was confirmed by a vote 
of 94 Senators--94 out of 100 voted for her. That has been more or less 
typical. Colin Powell actually was confirmed by a unanimous vote of 
this body after he became the nominee for Secretary of State. 
Condoleezza Rice got an overwhelming majority; I think it was in the 
mideighties.
  I would hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would look 
at Mr. Pompeo's background and his qualifications. I don't think they 
can dispute the fact that he is qualified for this job.
  This is a man who has been successful in everything he has done. From 
humble beginnings, he went to West Point. He graduated at the top of 
his class. Then, as an Army officer, he was in Germany before the wall 
came down. He was an officer in Germany patrolling the Iron Curtain. He 
then went to law school after having served in the military. He went to 
Harvard Law School and ended up being an editor of the Harvard Law 
Review and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. That is 
pretty impressive. It is hard to do.
  He then went into business. He was successful there, including 
businesses that had to do with national security issues.
  He then ran for the House of Representatives and was elected. He was 
on the Intelligence Committee in the House, and so he has the ability 
to get well-versed on a lot of the classified information needed to be 
able to understand the danger and volatility we face in this world 
today. He is well-regarded in the House on both sides of the aisle.
  He was then nominated by the President to serve as CIA Director. By 
the way, he was confirmed by this same body as CIA Director by a vote 
of 66 Senators, so it was a nice bipartisan majority. I hope that 
happens again
  Again, I think it is very important that we get a Secretary of State 
in place at this critical time but also that we get one in place who is 
shown to have some of the momentum, trust, and confidence of this body. 
Certainly the President has a lot of confidence in him, or he wouldn't 
have nominated him for this additional responsibility.
  As CIA Director, he has become well-versed on all the issues. One 
issue I will mention that you have heard about recently is that he 
recently went on a secret mission to meet with the dictator of North 
Korea, Kim Jong Un, and he did that at the behest of the President to 
help prepare for a successful meeting between the President and the 
North Koreans. We all hope that meeting is indeed constructive and ends 
up making progress on the denuclearization--which all of us hope for--
of the Korean Peninsula. You need somebody like Mike Pompeo there to 
help direct that. So I think it is the right time for him to move 
forward on a number of issues, and that certainly is one.
  Another issue I will say I am very interested in working with him on 
is what is happening in Eastern Europe and Central Europe--the 
destabilizing effect that Russia is having with regard to what is 
called the hybrid war--in other words, disinformation and propaganda--
and also the military part of this, which is happening on the eastern 
border of Ukraine.
  Russia, as you recall, took Crimea away from Ukraine. In my 
discussions with Mike Pompeo, he understands that issue and he gets 
that issue. He has supported providing weapons to Ukrainians so they 
can defend themselves, lethal but defensive weapons. That was a big 
change from the last administration and, frankly, from the first year 
of this administration. It happened recently. Those materials are now 
being delivered, and the Ukrainians--having been there over the Easter 
break--are feeling a renewed sense of support from their Western 
allies, particularly from the United States. I think Mike Pompeo is the 
right guy to be there with regard to that issue also.
  I have taken the leadership role on this issue of pushing back 
against the disinformation, including the meddling in our own election 
here, which I believe happened and I believe will happen again unless 
we are smarter about pushing back. That is why I have joined with my 
colleagues--Senator Murphy on the other side of the aisle and others--
to promote this idea of a center at the State Department that 
coordinates all the U.S. Government efforts here, which are needed, and 
particularly focuses on the online effort and the need for us to be 
more aggressive and robust in our response. It is called the Global 
Engagement Center. Again, I have had the opportunity to speak with Mr. 
Pompeo privately but also in public testimony about this issue, and he 
has expressed his strong support for that Global Engagement Center and 
for having a more effective and robust response.
  I think Mike Pompeo is the right person at the right time. I think he 
is qualified for this job as well as anyone out there I can imagine. 
Again, in talking to my colleagues, some of them have said that they 
disagree with President Trump's positions and that is why they are 
opposing Mr. Pompeo. Their favorite person--who would probably be in 
the other party and have different views--is not going to be nominated 
by President Trump. President Trump is going to nominate somebody who 
supports him on most of his basic approach to foreign policy and 
someone he trusts. That is just how it works.
  Again, when we supported John Kerry with 94 votes in the Senate--I 
think it was 94, 95, or something like that--it is not that we agreed 
with all the policies from President Obama; it is that we believed 
President Obama should have the right to have a Secretary of State who 
he thought was going to best represent him, and we thought that Senator 
Kerry was qualified. I think the same was true with regard to Hillary 
Clinton, who got 94 votes. The same was true with Condoleezza Rice. The 
same was true with GEN Colin Powell. And the same should be true here 
because certainly Mike Pompeo is extremely well qualified.
  The other thing I have heard from my colleagues--and I have talked to 
a number of them on the committee and off the committee about seeing if 
they could possibly join us in supporting Mr. Pompeo so he can have a 
little more of a bipartisan momentum here as he goes into this job--the 
other thing I have heard is that they are concerned, given his 
background in the military and given some of the things he said as a 
Member of Congress, that maybe he will focus more on military power 
rather than soft power--in other words, less on diplomacy and more on 
kinetic or military activity.
  I don't think that is consistent with anything I have heard from him 
either

[[Page S2381]]

in our private meetings or in his public testimony where he addressed 
this issue head-on. He said that as a former Army officer and someone 
who went to West Point and graduated at the top of his class--did I say 
that earlier? Anyway, he went to West Point, and he is someone who 
actually believes very strongly in soft power and believes that 
military actions ought to be the last resort, not the first resort. I 
think that is true with almost anybody who has been in the military--
certainly people who have been in combat. I made the comparison to what 
Colin Powell said when he was nominated, which was very similar to 
that. What General Mattis says today is very similar to that.
  I believe Mike Pompeo has the opportunity not only to help with 
regard to these crisis issues we are facing around the world--North 
Korea, Syria, what is happening in Iran, what is happening in Ukraine--
I think he is someone who has the ability to improve the morale at the 
State Department at a critical time. In fact, I am convinced of it. 
Having talked to some people at the State Department--as you know, many 
of the career civil service people have been feeling as though they 
weren't being consulted. Mike Pompeo is a listener, and he has talked 
about what he did at the CIA. He talked about the fact that God gave us 
only one mouth but two ears. In other words, we are supposed to be 
listening and taking in the input and then helping to lead as a servant 
leader listening to people. I think that is the kind of leader Mike 
Pompeo is.
  My hope is that he will be confirmed and that he will earn the trust 
some of us have shown in him by doing exactly that at the State 
Department--getting the diplomats in the State Department engaged and 
empowered, making sure that we are taking every step possible with 
regard to diplomacy before turning to military action anywhere in the 
world, and working with our military and with the White House and with 
the Congress to have a U.S. foreign policy that is effective in keeping 
the peace.
  Yes, we need a strong military because by having a strong military, 
by having a strong defense, we maximize the chance for peace, but we 
also have to have a strong diplomacy arm that is out there ensuring 
that we take every measure we possibly can to use soft diplomacy. I 
think diplomacy is something that Mike Pompeo has shown that he is 
committed to.
  So my hope is that we will have positive votes on Rick Grenell as 
Ambassador to Germany and Mike Pompeo later this week, that we can have 
bipartisan support for these two, and that they, in turn, will earn the 
trust this body has shown in them.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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