Tillerson at State closer; Pompeo in at CIA

WASHINGTON -- Rex Tillerson's bid to be secretary of state narrowly won approval Monday from the Senate's Republican-led Foreign Relations Committee, putting President Donald Trump's pick on a path to win confirmation before the full Senate.

Also Monday, S̶e̶n̶.̶ Rep.* Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., won confirmation from the full Senate for the post of CIA director. He was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence.

Members of the Foreign Relations Committee voted along party lines, 11-10, to back Tillerson after a contentious confirmation hearing nearly two weeks ago that stoked concerns about whether he would win the panel's recommendation. But hours before members cast their votes, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., declared his support for Tillerson, backing off from a challenge to the new president.

Rubio said that despite serious reservations about Tillerson, particularly over his views on Russia, he believed that a president is entitled to significant deference in assembling his Cabinet.

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None of the committee's 10 Democrats voted for Tillerson. They cited concerns that Tillerson would continue to view the world through the lens of a corporate executive, referring to his tenure at Exxon Mobil.

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat, said Tillerson "equivocated" during his confirmation hearing on questions about human rights, civil society and press and religious freedoms, and that the nominee repeatedly prioritized "narrow business interests ahead of these core national security interests."

Going back at least four decades, every nominee for the job has been approved by overwhelming votes from both sides in the Foreign Relations Committee, as senators have traditionally wanted to deliver a bipartisan display of confidence to the nation's top diplomat. No other nominee since 1977 has received more than two no votes from the committee.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee's Republican chairman, said he has "no doubt" that Tillerson is well-qualified, citing his leadership of the energy giant. Corker chided his colleagues who had demanded information about Tillerson's personal tax returns, saying the material had been used to ask "silly, silly questions."

Corker also criticized unnamed lawmakers who held Tillerson responsible for comments Trump has made.

"To me, Mr. Tillerson is an adult who's been around," said Corker, adding that Tillerson can be a "very good anchor" on issues that Congress cares about.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Rubio announced that he would vote for Tillerson.

"Despite my reservations, I will support Mr. Tillerson's nomination in committee and in the full Senate," said Rubio, who had come under pressure from fellow Republicans to back the nomination and avoid dealing Trump a setback in the early days of his presidency.

Rubio had clashed with Tillerson at a committee hearing earlier this month, bridling at his refusal to label Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" and at comments that were perceived as a failure to strongly condemn human-rights violations in Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. He chided Tillerson over the need for "moral clarity."

Rubio's statement came after Tillerson's nomination got a boost Sunday from two influential Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who also offered tepid endorsements. Like Rubio, McCain and Graham had voiced concerns in light of Tillerson's long history of personal dealings with Putin, his record of oil deals in Russia and his questioning of the U.S. sanctions against that country.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he was encouraged by several of Tillerson's public stances, including "his clear-eyed understanding of the threat posed by Putin's Russia" and his commitment to NATO. But Coons said the differences on key issues between himself and Tillerson outweighed the similarities.

"I believe that climate change is a pressing national security threat," Coons said. "I believe that advocating for human rights, a free press, and democracy around the world advances our own security and economic interests here at home."

Further roiling the debate is the U.S. intelligence agencies' assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.

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Even while announcing his support for Tillerson, Rubio laid out a series of concerns in his statement Monday.

"Despite his extensive experience in Russia and his personal relationship with many of its leaders, he claimed he did not have sufficient information to determine whether Putin and his cronies were responsible for ordering the murder of countless dissidents, journalists and political opponents," Rubio said of Tillerson. "He indicated he would support sanctions on Putin for meddling in our elections only if they met the impossible condition that they not affect U.S. businesses operating in Russia."

CIA's new chief

Pompeo on Monday inherited the helm of a global spying network at a time of escalating security problems such as renewed aggression from Russia, the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and the terror threat posed by the Islamic State extremist group.

Pompeo will lead an agency that has taken heat from Trump himself.

Trump skipped most of the daily intelligence briefings offered to him after his election victory. And he has criticized the agency's conclusions on critical issues, particularly its determination that Russia interfered in last year's election to help him win. At a Jan. 11 news conference, Trump, in response to information that was leaked to the media, accused U.S. intelligence officials of being behind a smear campaign against him.

The new commander in chief traveled to CIA headquarters Saturday in a trip intended to create a fresh start with the agency. Standing in front of a memorial for fallen CIA agents, Trump criticized Democrats and journalists but assured intelligence officials, "I am so behind you."

Trump has expressed confidence in Pompeo, a businessman who served as a tank commander in the Army and graduated at the top of his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

"Intelligence agencies are vital and very, very important," Trump said at a news conference earlier this month. He singled out Pompeo, saying that the administration was "putting in some outstanding people."

Senate Republicans had hoped to vote on Pompeo's nomination Friday, after Trump's inauguration. But Democrats succeeded in stalling action until they could debate. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Patrick Leahy of Vermont objected to what they said was a "rushed confirmation" and demanded more time for Pompeo's nomination to be "vetted, questioned and debated."

Pompeo, 53, was a prominent member of the tea party and is known for strident political views. He was a fierce critic of Clinton; a determined opponent of the nuclear accord between President Barack Obama's administration and Iran; and said at one point that he regarded the U.S. government's conduct in the attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, to be a political scandal that was "worse, in some ways," than Watergate.

But Pompeo has spent the postelection period seeking to reassure CIA officials and members of Congress that he is prepared to put aside that partisan persona and be an honest broker as director of the CIA.

"My job," Pompeo said during his confirmation hearing, "if confirmed, will be to change roles."

Senate Democrats formally requested a second confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, Trump's nominee for education secretary, arguing that they need an opportunity to further scrutinize her potential conflicts of interests and preparedness to lead the Education Department.

"Education is too important an issue, and the Secretary of Education is too important a position for the country and for this Committee, to jam a nominee through without sufficient questioning and scrutiny," they wrote to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., in a letter Monday. "This is not about politics, it should not be about partisanship -- it should be about doing the work we were elected by our states to do to ask questions of nominees on behalf of the people we represent."

The letter was signed by 10 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. They are all members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which is overseeing DeVos' confirmation.

Information for this article was contributed by Richard Lardner, Erica Werner, Eileen Sullivan, Deb Riechmann and Monika Mathur of The Associated Press and by Greg Miller and Emma Brown of The Washington Post.

A Section on 01/24/2017

*CORRECTION: Mike Pompeo, confirmed Monday as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was a four-term Republican Congressman from Kansas prior to his becoming head of the CIA. A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Pompeo as a U.S. senator.