The foreign relations committee in the US Senate is short of votes for the position of Secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo, who was appointed by President Donald Trump as a replacement for Rex Tillerson. On Wednesday, President Trump’s nomination encountered yet another hurdle as the foreign relations committee fell short of votes to deliver Pompeo a recommendation that was positive. A majority of the members of the Senate committee from the Democratic Party did not back Trump’s nomination of Mike Pompeo who served as the director of the CIA.
The concerns raised against the nomination of the former chief spy were amplified among the Democratic legislators on Tuesday. This was after it came out that Pompeo had made a secret meeting with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un earlier last month in Pyongyang. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that Pompeo had just left Pyongyang and that he delivered greetings from the leader of North Korea. The President added that the two got along very well and that Pompeo was the best candidate to serve in the state department.
Trump continued to say that he thinks Pompeo had extraordinary achievements including being top of his class at both Harvard and West Point military academy. Trump said that Mike Pompeo is a man of exceptional character and that he would go down as one the greatest US Secretary of State. The top-ranking senator in the Senate committee who hails from the Democratic Party, Senator Bob Mendez was critical of Pompeo for his failure to disclose his meeting with the leader of North Korea in Pyongyang last month. Mendez said that although diplomacy is not negotiated openly, it was expected that the US Secretary of State nominee should shed some light to the committee about his visit. The uncertainty of Pompeo’s nomination may force the conservatives to send his name for debate in the floor of the US Senate without having a favorable recommendation.
However, senior officials tried to argue in Pompeo’s defense on Wednesday. Kellyanne Conway, who serves as the White House counselor and Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas said that there was no reason why the former CIA director should not get the same bipartisan confirmation he got when he was nominated to head the CIA. Cotton and Conway expressed their confidence during a press briefing in the White House that Mike Pompeo will receive confirmation from both Republican and Democratic Senators.