April 23, 2018

Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo narrowly eked out an endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday after President Trump and a Democratic senator intervened at the last minute, all but guaranteeing that he will be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.

Pompeo had seemed unlikely to secure a majority of the panel’s support. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who had pledged to oppose him, tweeted moments before the vote that Trump had talked with him and changed his mind.

Paul’s key concern had been that Pompeo, currently director of the CIA, would not support Trump’s campaign pledge to pull troops out of Afghanistan. The senator also thought Pompeo disagreed with the president’s stated belief that “the Iraq War was a mistake.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pompeo-likely-to-fail-committee-vote-but-is-all-but-assured-senate-confirmation/2018/04/23/f4dd0a28-470b-11e8-9072-f6d4bc32f223_story.html?utm_term=.9d1494771415