Maine senator: ‘I haven’t made my final decision’ on Pompeo

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) says he is still weighing whether he’ll vote to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), after a terse exchange during a hearing on Thursday.

“I haven’t made a final decision,” King told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Friday. “I must say, the exchange about the tweet was somewhat concerning, but I’m not going to make my decision on one answer to one question.”

King grilled Pompeo during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, asking the Kansas Republican if he believed WikiLeaks was a “reliable source of information.” When Pompeo said that he did not consider WikiLeaks a credible outlet, King recalled a tweet from Pompeo posted in July.

Need further proof that the fix was in from Pres. Obama on down? BUSTED: 19,252 Emails from DNC Leaked by Wikileaks https://t.co/QrAH1evqKC

— Mike Pompeo (@RepMikePompeo) July 24, 2016

“The fact that you used the word ‘proof,’ ‘need proof,’ that would indicate that you did think it was a credible source of information,” King said.

{mosads}Speaking to Cuomo on Friday, King voiced skepticism of Pompeo but refused to rule out voting for him. He said it was more important to consider whether Pompeo would speak directly and honestly to Trump on intelligence matters, indicating that it would be necessary in order to avoid any massive foreign policy mistakes.

Trump has developed a tense relationship with the U.S. intelligence community, accusing officials of leaking information to media outlets and casting doubt on key intelligence findings alleging that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.