Pompeo moves to reassure skeptical Dems in bid to be top US diplomat

[DonViejo]

By Nicole Gaouette, Elise Labott and Jenna McLaughlin, CNN

Updated 10:27 PM ET, Wed April 11, 2018

Washington (CNN)Mike Pompeo's supporters describe a brilliant man, widely read on international affairs who has the ear and confidence of President Donald Trump. Critics say the CIA Director, the President's nominee replace Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, has questionable views on torture, a record of prejudice against Muslims and other marginalized groups, and little true experience that qualifies him for the job.

Ordinarily, the transition from one high-level position to another would largely be a rubber-stamp affair, but with Washington riven by political hostility and serious foreign policy challenges nearing a boil, Pompeo's Thursday nomination hearing is set to be as much a debate over his fitness for the job as it is over the Trump administration's handling of looming international tests.

In the next month, the US and its closest European allies face a May 12 deadline Trump has set to either change or pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. The President has also agreed to an unprecedented summit with North Korea's unpredictable leader in an attempt to defuse a potential nuclear standoff. And most urgently, Trump's threats to strike Syria mean Washington could be drawn closer to a clash with Russia or Iran, the powers backing Bashar al-Assad on the ground.

All this is happening as the administration's national security team is in disarray. A new National Security Adviser, John Bolton, has just arrived prompting a large staff turnover. Gina Haspel, Trump's pick to lead the CIA, faces her own difficult nomination hearing, while Pompeo would take the helm at a depleted and understaffed State Department after Tillerson's ouster.

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/11/politics/pompeo-state-nomination-curtain-raiser/index.html

[ck4829]

1. A white supremacist becomes secretary of state OR the Department of State continues being legitimate

We can't have both.

[BootinUp]

2. Dont trust him one iota

[Cha]

3. My Senator Brian Schatz' tweet on Pompeo

Link to tweet

[IADEMO2004]

4. Koch Brothers, Koch Brothers, Koch Brothers, Koch Brothers, Koch Brothers

No, No, No, No. Koch Brothers business buddy/congressman/Director of CIA and now the Koch Brothers Secretary of State? No,No, No.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pompeo

In 1998 Pompeo moved to Wichita when he and three other West Point graduate friends, Brian Bulatao, Ulrich Brechbuhl, and Michael Stradinger, acquired three aircraft part makers companies in Wichita (Aero Machine, Precision Profiling, B&B Machine) and one in St. Louis (Advance Tool & Die) and renamed it Thayer Aerospace (named for West Point founder Sylvanus Thayer).[15][16][17] Venture funding for the private organization came a 2% investment from Koch Industries[18][19] as well Dallas-based Cardinal Investment and Bain Capital (Pompeo's friend Brechbuhl worked for Bain at the time).[20][15] Brechbuhl and Stradinger left the company shortly after it was founded but Pompeo and Bulatao continued until 2006. In 2017, when Pompeo became head of the CIA, he named Bulatao as Chief Operating Officer (a position which Pompeo renamed from its earlier name of executive director).[16]

In 2006 he sold his interest in Thayer to Highland Capital Management. The announcement said clients of the firm included "Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream Aerospace, Cessna Aircraft, Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Raytheon Aircraft and others".[21] It was renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace.

Pompeo became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment company, which was also a partner with Koch Industries.[18]