In day, Pompeo cleared as secretary of state, sworn in, off on 1st trip

In this April 12, 2018, file photo Mike Pompeo smiles after his introduction before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a confirmation for him to become the next Secretary of State on Capitol Hill in Washington.
In this April 12, 2018, file photo Mike Pompeo smiles after his introduction before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a confirmation for him to become the next Secretary of State on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday easily confirmed Mike Pompeo as the nation's 70th secretary of state, elevating the CIA director and foreign-policy hawk to be the nation's top diplomat.

Lawmakers approved President Donald Trump's nominee in a 57-42 vote. Earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Pompeo's main Republican antagonist, bowed to pressure from Trump to drop his objections. Ultimately, seven members of the Senate Democratic caucus -- five of whom face re-election this year in states that Trump won in 2016 -- joined a united Republican conference to support Pompeo's confirmation.

Pompeo was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito soon after the vote, then dashed off to Joint Base Andrews, where a plane was waiting to fly him to Brussels on his first trip abroad as secretary of state for a meeting of NATO allies.

His agenda is already packed, with deadlines in the coming weeks involving Russia, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. He must face those challenges while also working to repair a State Department that was reportedly impaired under his predecessor Rex Tillerson and where crucial alliances have frayed during the Trump presidency.

Senators were mindful of the need to get Pompeo in place, given the crush of work he faces. His confirmation seemed all but assured after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who is running for re-election in a state Trump won by a wide margin, said last week that she would support him.

Four other Democrats who are also running for re-election in states won by Trump -- Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Bill Nelson of Florida -- also voted to confirm Pompeo. A vote against Pompeo could have exposed them to attacks from Republicans, including Trump, eager to label them as obstructionists.

Pompeo also managed to avoid what would have been a rebuke on his way into the new post, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had seemed likely to not recommend his confirmation. But Paul, an outspoken foe of interventionist foreign policy, relented just before the committee's vote Monday.

Only six of the 14 Democrats who backed Pompeo to be CIA director last year voted for him to become the nation's top diplomat. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who joined the Senate earlier this year, also supported his confirmation.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of those who changed his vote on Pompeo since last year, said he was "disappointed" that Pompeo had not tried "to repudiate some of the extreme views he expressed during his time in Congress" -- such as criticism of Muslims and opposition to same-sex marriage.

Warner added that he hoped that as secretary of state, Pompeo would stand up for "American values ... like freedom, diversity, equality and tolerance" -- and said "if he does, he can count on my assistance and support."

Trump said he was pleased by Pompeo's confirmation, calling him a "patriot" with "immense talent, energy and intellect."

"He will always put the interests of America first," Trump said in a statement. "He has my trust. He has my support."

STAFFING MATTERS

Although a decided hawk and more socially conservative than much of his staff, Pompeo's expected arrival has been greeted with quiet relief in Washington, which has yet to recover from the tenure of Tillerson, who spent $12 million on a corporate-style downsizing of the State Department that drove away many of the nation's diplomats and left behind a demoralized and disorganized staff.

Eight of the nine senior staff positions at the State Department are unfilled, as are 60 ambassadorships and 10 of the 22 assistant-secretary positions. And, the department is the only agency in the Trump administration that still has a hiring freeze in place.

Pompeo has vowed to immediately address the staffing shortages and to end the freeze.

Last week, Pompeo also indicated to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would be open to more funding than the 30 percent budget cut the White House has proposed for the department, telling senators that even if Tillerson had said he wouldn't know what to do with one additional dollar in funds, "I'll take the extra dollar."

As secretary of state, Pompeo will have to navigate the rivalries within the Trump administration. At the White House, John Bolton, the administration's third national security adviser in a little more than a year, is presiding over another purge of top assistants. Pompeo must forge a working relationship with Bolton as he creates alliances with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly; Defense Secretary James Mattis; and the president's son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner.

Pompeo's early military career -- he graduated first in his class at West Point and became a tank commander before leaving for Harvard Law School -- could endear him to Kelly and Mattis, both former four-star generals.

But working with Kushner will be a delicate matter. Kushner's diplomatic assignments include forging a Middle East peace deal and safeguarding the relationship with Mexico even as Trump pursues his hard-line immigration policies and a wall on the southern border.

Pompeo's year of service as the director of the CIA has given him a running start. He forged an unlikely bond with Trump while giving the president daily intelligence briefings. The trust between them is strong enough that Trump sent Pompeo to Pyongyang, North Korea, last month on a secret trip to pave the way for a high-stakes summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, now expected to take place in June.

But first, Pompeo must address issues pertaining to Russia.

NATO BREAKFAST

Within hours of his landing in Europe, he will preside over a breakfast meeting at NATO headquarters to discuss new measures to counter an increasingly aggressive Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

U.S. intelligence officials say Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea; intervention in Ukraine; the hacking of the 2016 presidential election; and murders or attempted murders of numerous rivals, including a former Russian spy living in Britain. Putin also has maintained his military and diplomatic support for Syrian President Bashar Assad despite the massacre of civilians and the use of chemical weapons.

The Brussels gathering will thrust Pompeo into the core contradiction of the Trump presidency, which is staffed with hawks pushing for an increasingly tough line against Moscow but is headed by a president who hopes for improving ties while facing an investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election campaign.

On Russia, Pompeo has advocated for more punitive actions than the president has been willing to mete out.

The State Department said Thursday that no secretary of state had ever traveled abroad so soon after being confirmed. Originally, Deputy Secretary John Sullivan, who had been filling in as secretary since Tillerson departed, had planned to make the trip. With Pompeo's confirmation imminent, the plane was held on the tarmac until Pompeo could arrive and swap in.

After the Brussels leg, Pompeo is to head to Riyadh to meet with Saudi King Salman, to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah.

Heather Nauert, the undersecretary of state for public affairs, said the stops were chosen to reflect their "importance as key allies and partners in the region."

In a foreign-policy issue concerning Israel, it will fall to Pompeo to forge plans for Tel Aviv Embassy employees to move to Jerusalem, where a new embassy is to open May 14. The move, unilaterally decided by the administration, was overwhelmingly condemned in the United Nations.

In two weeks, Trump is set to announce whether he will exit the Iran nuclear deal, struck by President Barack Obama and the leaders of Russia, Britain, France, Germany and China. Leaving the deal would further fray ties with Europe, but failing to scrap the deal would violate a core Trump campaign pledge.

Pompeo was once a voluble member of the Republican chorus opposing the pact. But in his confirmation hearing, Pompeo promised to try to preserve the accord, one of several pledges he made that were at odds with his record as a four-term tea party congressman from Kansas.

Pompeo also will have to help forge a strategy to deal with a splintering Syria, something administration officials have openly acknowledged they lack; decide whether to open a trade war with China; and choose whether to impose new sanctions against Venezuela after the expected re-election of President Nicolas Maduro on May 20 in a campaign widely seen as undemocratic.

Information for this article was contributed by Gardiner Harris and Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times; by Karoun Demirjian and Carol Morello of The Washington Post; and by Josh Lederman, Matthew Lee, Lisa Mascaro, Mark Sherman, Deb Riechmann and Jill Colvin of The Associated Press.

photo

White House photo via AP

Mike Pompeo meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang during Easter weekend in this photo released by the White House. Pompeo who made the trip in secret as CIA director, was confirmed Thursday as secretary of state.

A Section on 04/27/2018

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