No wonder Donald Trump has been going berserk about the Mike Pompeo nomination
Last week Palmer Report brought you the story of how Donald Trump’s nomination of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State was already unraveling, and that it was likely to get even worse for him as the confirmation process went on. Since that time Trump has begun frantically defending Pompeo on Twitter, while whining about the confirmation. This came off as a sign that Trump knew the nomination was in even more trouble than we did. Sure enough, tonight it’s going splat.
It’s just been revealed that the Pompeo nomination doesn’t have the votes to get out of committee. Republican Senator Rand Paul is against him, and so is every Democratic Senator on the committee, which means that the committee is going to vote him down. It may end up getting even worse for Trump than a mere failed confirmation.
Committee chairman Bob Corker, who is firmly on Trump’s side one day and firmly against him the next, could still try to force a full Senate vote on Pompeo. Pompeo has a small amount of Democratic support in the full chamber, under the premise that someone has to be Secretary of State, and Trump’s replacement nominee could be even worse than Pompeo. But Corker might be doing Trump a favor if he kills the nomination before it reaches the Senate floor.
As we’ve previously spelled out, Mike Pompeo has used his role as CIA Director to help shield Donald Trump from his Russia scandal, even as the rest of the U.S. intel community has helped with the criminal investigation into the scandal. If the Pompeo nomination hits the full Senate floor, the Democrats can use it to drill Pompeo about this on live national television, which could help further expose Trump’s criminal antics.
