Secretary of State-in-waiting Mike Pompeo never served in the Gulf War, even though media outlets and many of his colleagues have repeatedly said he did, and Pompeo has done nothing to dispute their claims.
Splinter News asked the CIA about Pompeo’s record, and the agency confirmed that while he was in the Army from 1986 to 1991, he never saw action in the Middle East. [...]
Splinter has a rundown of some prominent instances in which Pompeo’s war record has been cited incorrectly These include articles in The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal, a letter signed by 51 Republicans expressing support for Pompeo’s secretary of State nomination, and a Marco Rubio speech on the Senate floor. Throughout all this, Pompeo has said nothing to correct the record. It’s possible, though seems unlikely, that he has simply missed all the references to his nonexistent war history. He has been busy, after all. — nymag.com/...
Mike Pompeo is a pro-torture war-monger, and a racist bigot. He should never have been nominated to be Secretary of State. He is unlikely to receive a favorable recommendation from Senate Foreign Relations, something that has never happened for a nominee to the post.
Confirmation failures for cabinet level nominees are very rare, since they tend to have been vetted thoroughly. The Trump administration is unusual in that it has almost no “vetting” when the nominee matches the race and gender of the president.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo lacked the votes to be reported favorably out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be the next secretary of state Friday evening, as Sen. Chris Coons announced his opposition to the nomination. [...]
That decision means the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will not be able to favorably report Pompeo’s nomination out when the panel holds a vote on Monday evening, unless someone on the panel changes his or her mind. All other Democrats on the committee, along with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have publicly said that they plan to oppose Pompeo as secretary of state. — www.nbcnews.com/...
Since Rand Paul (R-KY) has said he intends to vote against Pompeo’s confirmation, if Democrats hold firm on the vote, Mike Pompeo could be denied confirmation (or require VP Pence to cast a tie-breaker). As of today, that is not assured since Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) has said she will vote to confirm Pompeo.
North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp became the first Democrat to announce she'll support Mike Pompeo's nomination to be secretary of state, ensuring his confirmation if all Republicans besides Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul vote to confirm him. — www.cbsnews.com/...
If you’re in North Dakota, please call/e-mail Heitkamp and encourage her to vote against confirmation. There are a thousand different reasons Pompeo should never hold as high an office as Secretary of State, but stolen valor has to be up there as well.
If you’re not in ND, sign one of the many petitions below and urge your Senators and Representatives to oppose Pompeo’s nomination:
— @subirgrewal