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TheCount
04-23-2018, 11:19 PM
President Trump (http://thehill.com/people/donald-trump)’s nominee for secretary of State, Mike Pompeo (http://thehill.com/people/mike-pompeo), appears to be on a glide path to confirmation after a last-minute reversal Monday from Sen. Rand Paul (http://thehill.com/people/rand-paul) (R-Ky.).Paul’s surprise support helped push Pompeo over the top in an 11-9-1 Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote.

All 11 of the Republicans on the committee voted for Pompeo, while nine Democrats voted against him. Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) voted present after opposing Pompeo in an initial vote. Under Senate rules, Sen. Johnny Isakson (http://thehill.com/people/johnny-isakson) (R-Ga.), who was voting "yes" by proxy as he attended a funeral, couldn’t be used to clinch a majority for Pompeo, so the committee would have been formally tied at 10-10 unless a Democrat agreed to vote present. The outcome was dramatically different from what lawmakers, staffers and pundits had expected earlier in the day.

Pompeo, who is now Trump’s CIA director, was widely expected to become the first secretary of State nominee since at least 1925 to fail to win a favorable recommendation from the panel.

Paul had vowed for weeks to oppose Pompeo, citing his support for the Iraq War and his views on so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

“I’m perplexed by the nomination of people who love the Iraq War so much that they would advocate for a war with Iran next. I think it goes against most of the things President Trump campaigned on,” Paul said.

But Paul had been under intense pressure from Trump and White House officials to change course. In a statement about Pompeo just minutes before the vote, Paul mentioned fielding several calls from the president.

“After calling continuously for weeks for Director Pompeo to support President Trump’s belief that the Iraq war was a mistake, and that it is time to leave Afghanistan, today I received confirmation that Director Pompeo agrees with President Trump,” Paul said in a statement.http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/384530-rands-reversal-advances-pompeo

Swordsmyth
04-23-2018, 11:20 PM
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?521584-Rand-sells-out-and-flip-flops-on-Pompeo-nomination

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?521585-Rand-explains-his-vote-for-Pompeo