Tim Kaine will vote against Mike Pompeo for secretary of state
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Sunday confirmed he will vote against outgoing CIA Director Mike Pompeo's nomination to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.
"We have a president who is anti-diplomacy. And I worry that Mike Pompeo has shown the same tendency to oppose diplomacy," Kaine said in a CBS interview. "I don't want a secretary of state who is going to exacerbate [President Trump's] tendencies," he continued. "We need a secretary of state who's going to stand up for strong diplomacy, and I don't believe that is Mike Pompeo."
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who are on the Foreign Relations Committee with Kaine, have both indicated they will vote against Pompeo as well. Read The Week's Jim Antle on Paul's rationale and role in determining Pompeo's fate here.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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