Pompeo confirmed; mission now is mending bridges between CIA, Trump

Mike Pompeo was confirmed as CIA director by the Senate on Monday, putting the conservative Kansas congressman in charge of an agency that is bracing for its most contentious relationship with the White House in decades.

The Senate vote was 66-32, with Rand Paul of Kentucky as the only Republican to vote against Pompeo. He joined 30 Democrats and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, an independent.

As CIA director, Pompeo will be responsible for managing a global spying network at a time of escalating security problems, including renewed aggression from Russia, the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and the splintering terror threat posed by the Islamic State.

But, at least initially, Pompeo’s most vexing task may involve finding a way to establish a functional relationship between the CIA and President Trump.

Trump skipped most of the daily intelligence briefings offered him after his election victory. He has dismissed the agency’s conclusions on critical issues, particularly its determination that Russia interfered in last year’s election to help him win. Most recently, Trump accused intelligence officials of orchestrating a Nazi-like campaign to smear him.

Trump has expressed confidence in Pompeo, a Wichita 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 this month. He singled out Pompeo, saying that his administration was “putting in some outstanding people.”

His comments signaled that his hostility toward the agency might subside when his designated director is in charge. But CIA veterans say that Pompeo may face more fundamental challenges, including whether he will be listened to at the White House and be able to insert hard information into debates presided over by a president who has suggested he sees information on WikiLeaks as more reliable than the contents of intelligence briefs.

Special election

Pompeo’s confirmation will vacate his seat in Congress.

Under the U.S. Constitution, a House vacancy can only be filled with a special election. That will leave the Wichita-centered 4th Congressional District without representation for about three months.

Over the past week, the state Legislature rushed through a bill setting the terms for the election to be held.

Once Pompeo’s resignation from Congress is official, Gov. Sam Brownback will have five days to proclaim an election and set a date for it.

That election day doesn’t have to be a Tuesday, as in a regular election, but it must be held 75 to 90 days after the governor’s proclamation. There will be no primary election.

The Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties will be allowed to hold conventions of their district committees to choose their parties’ nominees. Independent candidates will be able to qualify for the ballot if they can collect 3,000 signatures of 4th District voters within a 25-day period after the governor’s proclamation.

Key challenges

Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA and a supporter of Hillary Clinton during the campaign, said he has “come to admire” Pompeo after the two engaged in a series of conversations since Pompeo was tapped for the job.

Morell said he expects Pompeo to arrive at the CIA without any preconceived notions, putting off any decisions until he has had a chance to survey its work.

“Pompeo has two key challenges: winning over a workforce a bit skeptical of him … and making the CIA’s voice heard at the Trump White House,” Morell said.

“I know Pompeo, and he will succeed at the first challenge. The second will be the defining issue of his tenure as director.”

During his confirmation hearing, Pompeo vowed he would defy Trump if ordered to direct the agency to resume brutal interrogation measures on terrorism suspects. He described the consensus view of U.S. spy agencies that Russia hacked the election in part to help Trump as a “sound” judgment.

He also said that he would “speak truth to power” once installed in the CIA director’s office.

Pompeo, 53, was a prominent member of the tea party in Congress, known for strident political views. He was a fierce critic of Clinton, a determined opponent of the Obama administration’s nuclear accord with 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, a political scandal that was “worse in some ways” than Watergate.

But Pompeo has spent the post-election 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.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2017 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Pompeo confirmed; mission now is mending bridges between CIA, Trump."