Senate

Trump’s CIA chief clears Senate

by Jordain Carney - 01/23/17 7:47 PM ET

The Senate is poised to approve Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) to lead the CIA after a fight over surveillance delayed his nomination.

Senators voted 66-32 on President Trump’s nominee Monday evening, with only 50 votes needed to clear him through the upper chamber.

Fourteen Democrats, as well as Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), voted for Pompeo, who was expected to get bipartisan support despite concerns by privacy-minded Democrats.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only GOP senator to vote against him, writing in a rare op-ed that Pompeo’s “desire for security will trump his defense of liberty.”

“[Pompeo said] those senators who voted to release the torture oversight report were ‘quintessentially at odds with [their] duty to [their] country,'” he added. “I couldn’t disagree more.”

{mosads}The vote comes as Trump is drawing backlash for his first visit over the weekend with the intelligence agency.

Speaking next to a memorial wall for fallen CIA officers, Trump rehashed a rhetorical battle over the size of the crowd at his inauguration and accused the media of fabricating a rift between the CIA and the newly sworn-in president.

Pompeo is the third Trump nominee to clear the Senate. Retired Gens. James Mattis and John Kelly were approved last week to lead the Pentagon and Homeland Security Department, respectively.

Republicans on Monday blasted Democrats for delaying a “day one” vote for Pompeo, arguing leaving the top spot at the intelligence agency vacant over the weekend risked national security.

“We were willing to stay as late or into the weekend as we needed to in order to get Congressman Pompeo confirmed,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “But, no, [Sen. Ron Wyden] wanted to delay it until today so presumably there would be less competition for air time on the evening news.”

Senate Republicans are also accusing Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of going back on a deal. Six sources told The Weekly Standard that Schumer said his conference would agree to vote on Pompeo on Friday.

A leadership aide disputed that, arguing there was never an agreement and noting the Senate has never confirmed a CIA director on the same day as a president’s inauguration.

Democrats faced an uphill battle to try to block Pompeo after senators voted 89-8 on Friday evening to proceed to his nomination.

But Wyden (D-Ore.) argued that senators shouldn’t jam in a late Friday night debate, which would have overlapped with inauguration celebrations.

He also praised the effort to force an hourslong debate on the Senate floor, arguing it marked a rare time lawmakers discussed the CIA in an open setting.

“The Senate is doing something that doesn’t happen often around here,” he said. “Having an open debate about the future of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Democrats, led by Wyden, have raised concerns over Pompeo’s positions on mass surveillance. Wyden warned that confirming him without nailing down his position leaves lawmakers, and the American people, without an understanding of how he’ll run the agency.

“What troubles me … is if the congressman were to be confirmed as CIA director, the doors would close and he would operate in secret,” he said from the Senate floor. “Yet Americans do not know which position he would take in running the CIA.”

Tags Angus King Chuck Schumer John Cornyn Rand Paul Ron Wyden