Pompeo gets the Senate nod, but the headaches over confirmations may only get worse.
| | The Senate on Thursday confirmed Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, putting an end to what became a controversial process and delivering President Trump a much-needed win as problems continue to plague his Cabinet. Pompeo was approved with a 57-42 vote. The president, who strongly criticized Senate Democrats for “obstructing” Pompeo’s nomination, praised the vote in a statement. “Having a patriot of Mike’s immense talent, energy, and intellect leading the Department of State will be an incredible asset for our country at this critical time in history,” Trump said. “He will always put the interests of America first. He has my trust. He has my support.” Pompeo’s ascension to the State Department means the next step is for the Senate to confirm his replacement at CIA, Gina Haspel. Haspel’s confirmation is getting as much, if not more, opposition from Democrats and at least one Republican (Rand Paul). Meanwhile, Trump’s nominee for secretary of Veterans Affairs, Ronny Jackson, withdrew Thursday after a slew of allegations about his workplace conduct emerged from Senate Democrats. The White House seemed ill-prepared to defend Jackson and earlier this week the president even publicly suggested Jackson withdraw. A replacement nominee has yet to be named. Those are just the high-level appointments currently open. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, whose testimony on Capitol Hill Thursday did little to assuage concerns about his profligate spending habits and potential conflicts of interest, is on thin ice with President Trump, as is (perpetually, it seems) Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The spending scandals around Ben Carson at HUD and Ryan Zinke at Interior have faded from the news, but each of them could be one more revelation away from termination. Read more... |
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On the Podcast—My colleague John McCormack and I talk more about the implications of Trump's cabinet woes on the Thursday episode of the Daily Standard podcast. Listen here.
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| One More Thing—Immediately after his confirmation vote, Pompeo was sworn in and embarked on his first diplomatic trip, which will be a four-day excursion to a NATO meeting in Europe, then to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Jordan. The trip comes a few weeks after Pompeo, who had been serving as director of the CIA, traveled to North Korea and met with its leader, Kim Jong-un.
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Photo of the Day—Provided Thursday by the White House, from Pompeo's Easter weekend trip to North Korea: |
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| Trump TV—Here are just a few nuggets from President Trump’s freewheeling interview on Fox and Friends Thursday morning: On his professional relationship with Michael Cohen: “As a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny, tiny little fraction. But Michael would represent me on some things; he represents me with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, and you know from what I see he did absolutely nothing wrong.” On how the allegations against Cohen are unrelated to his work for Trump: “Michael is in business, he’s truly a businessman, a fairly big business as I understand it. I don’t understand his business. But this doesn’t have to do with me. Michael is a businessman. He’s got a business. He also practices law, I would say probably the big thing is his business. And they’re looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business.” On FBI corruption: “They break down doors for Paul Manafort early in the morning. His wife is in bed. Like, at five or six in the morning. They undo the lock for Michael Cohen early in the morning. And yet they walk into the DNC and they won’t give them the server . . . That’s not the FBI, that’s a fix.” On whether he may interfere with Mueller’s probe: “They have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on. I’ve taken the position—and I don’t have to take this position and maybe I’ll change—that I will not be involved with the Justice Department, I will wait until this is over. It’s all lies and it’s a horrible thing that’s going on.” On bringing Emmanuel Macron around to his way of thinking on Iran: “Well I think he really came to recognize, I can say from my standpoint, he is viewing I believe Iran a lot differently than he was before he walked into the Oval Office, and I think that’s important. He understands where I’m coming from with respect to Iran, Iran is a real problem for this country . . . And all they do is scream “death to America, death to America,” and by the way they’re not screaming it so much anymore. They were screaming it with [Obama], they don’t scream it with me.” On the allegations against Ronny Jackson: “For [Montana Senator] Jon Tester to start bringing up stuff like ‘candy man’ and the kind of things he was saying, and then say ‘well, you know, these are just statements that are made.’ There’s no proof of this. And he has a perfect record. He’s got this beautiful record, unblemished . . . I think Jon Tester has to have a big price to pay in Montana.”
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| On the President’s Schedule—German chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Washington Friday, where she will meet with President Trump and hold a joint press conference with him in the Rose Garden of the White House. Merkel’s visit comes at the end of a week that began with a state visit by French president Emmanuel Macron.
The Senate, meanwhile, voted Thursday to confirm Richard Grenell as ambassador to Germany. Grenell’s confirmation, long delayed since his nomination last September, came just a day before Merkel’s official visit to the White House.
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