Executive Session

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, yesterday, after some drama and a rare act of civility on the part of Senator Coons, for which I applaud him, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the nomination of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. This is despite Chairman Corker repeatedly pointing out how qualified for this appointment Director Pompeo actually is, but, apparently, it fell on deaf ears.

This sort of treatment is unprecedented, in my memory certainly, for a Secretary of State. Director Pompeo was, in fact, first in his class at West Point and led the Harvard Law Review. He served his country in the military and served the people of Kansas in Congress, not to mention the fact that Mike Pompeo already serves in one of the most sensitive and important positions in the Trump administration as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

I spoke yesterday about the confirmations of some of the most recent Secretaries of State, not just Secretaries Clinton and Kerry. Secretary Kerry got all but three votes in the Senate, and Secretary Clinton lost only two votes in the Senate, but I also spoke of Secretary Powell and Secretary Rice. All were confirmed overwhelmingly because the Senate has always had a tradition, until now, of showing some deference to the President when confirming nominees to positions like this that have national security importance. The world needs to know that this President has confidence in this nominee, and he does. That is the key to his effectiveness in international diplomacy--knowing he has the President's ear.

Our Democratic friends once upon a time acknowledged that, in the words of the senior Senator from Delaware:

The President, regardless of what party they are from, needs, for the most part, to have the team they want to put in place. They have been elected to lead. Let's give them a chance to lead.

The opposition we are seeing breaks with this longstanding tradition in a shameful and partisan way. Of course, our Democratic colleagues have been slow-walking and obstructing qualified nominees since the President was sworn in, just to hinder progress for hindering progress's sake alone. This is the kind of hyperpartisan approach to foreign policy that threatens to harm our national security because this is an important national security post. Not only should we confirm Mr. Pompeo so the President can have the support of his full Cabinet, but also so the American people can have the assurance that our national security is not being treated like a pinata that our Democratic colleagues are whacking with a stick.

The American people can see through this kind of concerted effort to prevent the President from filling Cabinet roles that deserve to be filled. In fact, that seems to be the approach: wherever, whenever, however to block President Trump from accomplishing anything he seeks on behalf of the American people, even though he was elected President of the United States.

Several editorial boards have already pointed out the importance of filling this position and have urged our Democratic colleagues to allow Director Pompeo to be confirmed expeditiously. USA Today editorial writers penned a piece saying:

Unless a nominee has clear ethical or competency failings, presidents should be accorded wide latitude to select top aides whom they trust and agree with. Pompeo passes that test and merits approval.

The Washington Post writes: ``Mr. Pompeo should be deployed to Foggy Bottom in the hope that he will fulfill his promise to revive and reassert U.S. diplomacy.''

The Chicago Tribune writes: ``Pompeo knows well how to work with both Congress and the president--who trusts him so much he sent him on a secret mission to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un'' in advance of the President's meeting with him in a few weeks.

It doesn't stop there. There are nearly a dozen editorial boards that say the same thing these newspapers have--that Mr. Pompeo is undoubtedly qualified and the President trusts him, and on these two points, the Senate should confirm him.

The flip-flop our Democratic colleagues are doing from last year, when 15 of them supported Mr. Pompeo's nomination to the CIA, should be a source of embarrassment. To say that somehow the job of the Secretary of State is more important or more sensitive than that of the CIA Director--both of them are extraordinarily important. If they had the confidence in him to vote to confirm him to the CIA and are now searching for reasons to support a ``no'' vote for Secretary of State, it is pretty clear what is happening. Some of the most radical activists in the Democratic base are clearly getting to some of these Senators.

There is still time to put country above politics, national security over the next election, and principle over posturing. I urge all of our colleagues to give this nominee the same treatment the Senate gave Secretaries Powell, Rice, Kerry, and Clinton, and confirm Mr. Pompeo as our next Secretary of State.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source