Democrats are navigating a political minefield as they weigh their support for Mike Pompeo’s nomination as secretary of State.
With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opposed and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) absent, Democrats have the power to block the Cabinet nominee on the Senate floor — something they haven’t been able to do since President Trump took office.
{mosads}Fifteen members of the Democratic conference, including Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), supported Pompeo to be CIA director last year. But a growing number of Democrats are coming out against his nomination this time, underscoring the pressure they are under from the liberal base to take a hard line against Trump’s picks.
Of the 15 minority members who backed Pompeo for CIA director, roughly half have now said they will oppose him for the State Department. Being the country’s top diplomat, they say, is vastly different from running a spy agency.
“America needs an experienced diplomat with a strong voice who will serve as a check on an impulsive, inexperienced president and undertake a sustained effort to rebuild the State Department and restore the morale of its dedicated public servants,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said on Wednesday, becoming one of the latest to oppose Pompeo.
Republicans hold 51 seats in the Senate. With Republican support for Pompeo capped at 49 votes, they’ll need at least one Democrat to cross over before he can be confirmed.
No Democrat has stepped forward to back him, though Pompeo has been courting their support assiduously.
It is unusual for a secretary of State nominee to face such a high level of opposition.
Pompeo, if he is ultimately confirmed, will likely set a record for the most votes ever cast against a secretary of State. That record is now held by Trump’s first secretary, Rex Tillerson, who was confirmed 56-43 last year.
“I think that at the beginning of Trump’s time in office, many Democrats were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt when it came to his nominees for Cabinet positions. However, given the trail of incompetence … we’ve seen out of these nominees since then, I don’t think that’s any longer the case,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist who worked for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
“Sure, some of these Democrats are voting against nominees partly for political reasons, but I think a whole bunch of them are sick of it,” he added. “The idea of [national security adviser John] Bolton and Pompeo together should scare any honest, God-fearing American.”
Of the Senate Democrats who supported Pompeo’s CIA nomination, seven have yet to say how they’ll vote now: Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Mark Warner (Va.). King has also not said how he will vote.
Pompeo met with Warner and McCaskill on Wednesday and had previously met with Manchin and Heitkamp.
“Still working on it. … We had a good conversation. We’re having more of them,” Manchin said on Wednesday.
Pompeo’s nomination could get a boost from the news this week that he took a secret trip over the Easter holiday to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. That trip was made to lay the groundwork for Trump’s in-person meeting with the North Korean leader, which is expected to happen early this summer.
While Democrats praised the administration for the outreach to North Korea, it didn’t immediately move the needle on Pompeo’s vote count.
“I think it’s positive that they are beginning to do some of the underlying work before negotiations begin,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), while adding it didn’t change her vote.
A slate of other Democratic senators also remain on the fence. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), who opposed Pompeo last year, indicated that he remains undecided.
“We’re still looking at that. I still have a long way to go in terms of reviewing his record,” said Casey, who is up for reelection this year in a state won by Trump.
And while Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told reporters during a White House conference call that he believes Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) will ultimately vote for Pompeo, Jones stressed on Wednesday that he has yet to make a decision.
“I’ve never been anything other than I’m keeping an open mind both ways. … No one should assume I’m voting one way or another,” Jones said.
Republicans want to confirm Pompeo before the Senate leaves for recess at the end of next week.
Democratic leadership isn’t publicly pushing the caucus one way or the other. In addition to Schumer, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) — the No. 2 Senate Democrat — has yet to say how he’ll vote. Durbin met with Pompeo on Wednesday.
Democratic senators are facing heavy pressure from both sides, with liberals demanding they block Pompeo and Republicans accusing them of playing politics.
“There is no way the Senate should confirm someone so vastly unqualified — and so deeply in the pocket of corporate special interests — to serve as secretary of state,” said Credo Action, a progressive group, urging its supporters to reject Pompeo, whom they describe as a “xenophobic, pro-torture, climate-denying war hawk.”
Scott Dworkin, a co-founder of the Democratic Coalition, urged supporters to call Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and tell him to oppose Pompeo, saying his indecision was an “absolute outrage.”
“The right is making it look like you are considering a yes vote. And people are outraged. If you are on the fence we deserve to know why, especially after his testimony,” Dworkin said in a tweet directed at Coons.
But Republicans are zeroing in on Democrats up for reelection in November, warning them that voters won’t take kindly to them blocking nominees after Trump won their states during the presidential election.
Cotton and White House adviser Kellyanne Conway held a call on Wednesday pressing vulnerable Democrats to support Pompeo.
“The only reason they’re not is because of their blind partisanship and the fact that they are still not over the results of the 2016 election,” Cotton said.
He added that if Democrats vote against Pompeo “and they’re up for reelection, they may suffer the consequences.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called the standoff over Pompeo a “low point.”
“Elections matter … when they win,” he said. “When we win, they don’t matter.”