Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. be equally divided in the usual form; and that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate vote on the nomination with no intervening action or debate; further, that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, we have just voted to confirm Mike Pompeo to be the next Secretary of State for the United States--an essential member of the President's Cabinet.

There has been a tradition of sorts in this deliberative body to give some deference to the President on his pick for chief diplomat, recognizing that foreign governments view the chief diplomat or Secretary of State as being the personal representative of the President himself, the thought being that whoever wins the election deserves the ability to assemble their own team and build a Cabinet with top brass whom he respects and can work well with. That is how the system has worked. The party that lost the election accepted Cabinet nominees--absent some glaring or egregious reason not to--and agreed to leave ongoing political battles for another day.

This is not just some ancient history, by the way. In fact, this week I have discussed at length many modern-day instances of it. For example, Condoleezza Rice passed with 85 votes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton passed with 94 votes. Secretary Colin Powell sailed through the process, needing only a voice vote--not even a rollcall vote--to be confirmed.

All of these men and women were confirmed because all of them had the qualifications to do the job, and so does Mike Pompeo. It is absolutely clear that he has both the credentials and the character required to be a successful Secretary of State. I won't recite all the lines of his stellar resume because you have heard them before, and we have just confirmed him.

The point is simply that the man has what it takes for the job. That is why the ``no'' votes by our Democratic colleagues rang so hollow. All of their statements have been lacking in any real, substantive critique. It is clear that their ``no'' vote is primarily a way to lash out at President Trump because anybody President Trump chooses, they instinctively and reflexively oppose. It was disappointing, but in today's environment, it is not all that surprising.

Their obstruction was not only a sad break from the tradition that I mentioned a moment ago but was also a sorry continuation of the hyperpartisanship that they have been engaging in with so many of the President's Cabinet nominees since he took office. Not long ago, Mike Pompeo was one of the exceptions. Fourteen Democrats and one Independent supported his confirmation as CIA Director. Yet now, 1 year later, after his unblemished service as CIA Director, only three are voicing their support for him. Nothing has changed about the man, about Mike Pompeo himself, but everything has changed about the way Democrats view their responsibility in this Chamber, not just to their constituents but to the Senate as a whole. What has changed is their disdain for the President himself. It has grown, and they have decided to take it out on his nominees, which is unfair, of course, but it is also unwise. Any frustration they have is all the more reason why they should support a man like Mike Pompeo, who throughout his career has shown his capacity to exercise good judgment. He is no mere lackey or political shill--anyone would tell you that--and his experiences speak for themselves in that regard.

The worst part of this whole debacle is that those who have suffered the most while we get our act together are the American people. They are aware--more so, maybe, than some of us--of what is happening across the world: threats posed by Russia, China, and North Korea, the unravelling of Syria. They are right to wonder why in the world the Senate would dawdle and politicize the confirmation of a well-qualified person and leave the rest of the world in doubt as to who is going to be representing us as our diplomat in chief. The American people understand how precarious our situation is in North Korea, which Admiral Harris of the U.S. Pacific Command has called ``the greatest threat we face.'' This is not a time for partisanship, for hyperpartisanship, or for voting reflexively against everybody the President has proposed as a nominee.

The next Secretary of State will play a vital role in the negotiations with North Korea. In fact, as we now know, Mike Pompeo has already taken the initial steps, laying the groundwork and the foundation for what we all hope will be a successful negotiation on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Those are some of the reasons I strongly supported Mike Pompeo's nomination to lead the State Department, and I hope our colleagues will somehow find a way to overcome this reflexive opposition to everything the President has proposed and their hyperpartisan response every time the President proposes either a nominee or some policy provision.

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Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

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