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DoS. 04/26/2018. New US Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo was sworn in as the 70th U.S. Secretary of State on April 26, 2018. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President's chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President's foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service, and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Biography
Secretary of State, Term of Appointment: 04/26/2018 to present:
Mike Pompeo was sworn in as Secretary of State on April 26, 2018. He previously served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 to April 2018.
Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Mr. Pompeo was serving in his fourth term as congressman from Kansas’ 4th District. He served on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee and House Select Benghazi Committee.
Prior to his service in Congress, Mr. Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace, where he served as CEO for more than a decade. He later became President of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturing, distribution, and service company.
Mr. Pompeo graduated first in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and served as a cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the US Army’s Fourth Infantry Division.
After leaving active duty, Mr. Pompeo graduated from Harvard Law School, having been an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Mr. Pompeo was born on December 30, 1963, in Orange, California. He is married to Susan Pompeo and has one son, Nick.
Wikepedia
Michael Richard Pompeo (born December 30, 1963) is an American diplomat serving as the 70th United States Secretary of State. Previously, he was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Kansas's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2017. He is a member of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party.[4] He was a Kansas representative on the Republican National Committee and member of the Italian American Congressional Delegation.
On March 13, 2018, Trump announced his intention to nominate Pompeo as the new United States Secretary of State, succeeding Rex Tillerson after March 31, 2018. Pompeo was confirmed by the Senate on April 26 in a 57–42 vote.
Education, and early career
Pompeo was born in Orange, California, the son of Dorothy (née Mercer) and Wayne Pompeo. His father was of Italian ancestry; his paternal grandmother was born in Caramanico Terme, Abruzzo. In 1982, Pompeo graduated from Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, California, where he played power forward on the basketball team. In 1986, Pompeo graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point where he majored in engineering management.
From 1986 to 1991, Pompeo served in the U.S. Army as an Armor Branch United States Cavalry Officer with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the 4th Infantry Division, reaching the rank of Captain.
In 1994, Pompeo received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where he served as one of 78 editors of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and on the 81-member Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, he worked as a lawyer for the law firm Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington.
Business career
In 1998 Pompeo moved to Wichita when he and three other West Point graduate friends, Brian Bulatao, Ulrich Brechbuhl, and Michael Stradinger, acquired three aircraft part makers companies in Wichita (Aero Machine, Precision Profiling, B&B Machine) and one in St. Louis (Advance Tool & Die) and renamed it Thayer Aerospace (named for West Point founder Sylvanus Thayer). Venture funding for the private organization included a 2% investment from Koch Industries as well Dallas-based Cardinal Investment and Bain Capital (Pompeo's friend Brechbuhl worked for Bain at the time). Brechbuhl and Stradinger left the company shortly after it was founded but Pompeo and Bulatao continued until 2006. In 2017, when Pompeo became head of the CIA, he named Bulatao as chief operating officer.
In 2006 he sold his interest in Thayer to Highland Capital Management. The announcement said clients of the firm included "Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream Aerospace, Cessna Aircraft, Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Raytheon Aircraft and others". It was renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace.
Pompeo then became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment company, which was also a partner of Koch Industries.
U.S. House of Representatives
2010
In the 2010 Kansas Republican primary for the 4th District Congressional seat, Pompeo defeated State Senator Jean Schodorf (who received 24%), Wichita businessman Wink Hartman (who received 23%), and small business owner Jim Anderson (who received 13%). State Senator Dick Kelsey also ran for the nomination, but ended his campaign before the August primary and endorsed Pompeo. Late in the primary, Schodorf began to surge in the polls, prompting two outside groups—Americans for Prosperity and Common Sense Issues, an Ohio-based political group—to spend tens of thousands of dollars in the final campaign days to attack Schodorf and support Pompeo.
In the general election, Pompeo defeated Democratic nominee Raj Goyle, a member of the Kansas House of Representatives. Pompeo received 59% of the vote (117,171 votes), to 36% for Goyle (71,866). During the campaign, Pompeo sparked controversy when his campaign's Twitter account shared, then later deleted, a blog post calling his Indian-American opponent a "turban topper" and then-President Barack Obama an "evil Muslim communist."
During the campaign, Pompeo received $80,000 in donations from Koch Industries and its employees.
2012
In his 2012 re-election bid, Pompeo defeated Democratic nominee Robert Tillman by a margin of 62%–32%. In his election Pompeo's campaign was supported by Koch Industries with $110,000.
2014
Pompeo won the general election, defeating Democrat Perry Schuckman with 66.7% of the vote.
US congressional delegation at Halifax International Security Forum 2014.
2016
Pompeo beat Democrat Daniel B. Giroux in the general election with 60.6% of the vote.
Committee assignments
Pompeo served on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the following three subcommittees: the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Energy, and the United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on the CIA. He was also on the United States House Select Committee on Benghazi.[39]
CIA Director
On November 18, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Pompeo to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 23, 2017, with a vote of 66–32, and sworn in later that day.
In February 2017, Pompeo traveled to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. He met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss policy on Syria and ISIL. Pompeo honored the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Nayef with the CIA's "George Tenet" Medal. It was the first reaffirmation of Saudi Arabia–United States relations since Trump took office in January 2017.
In March 2017, Pompeo formally invoked executive privilege to prevent CIA agents, including Gina Haspel and James Cotsana, from being compelled to testify in the trial of Bruce Jessen and James Elmer Mitchell. In June 2017, Pompeo named Michael D'Andrea head of the CIA's Iran mission center.
In August 2017, Pompeo took direct command of the Counterintelligence Mission Center, the department which helped to launch an investigation into possible links between Trump associates and Russian officials. Former CIA directors[who?] expressed concern since Pompeo is known to be an ally of Donald Trump.
In September 2017, Pompeo sought authority for the CIA to make covert drone strikes without the Pentagon's involvement, including inside Afghanistan.
During Easter weekend 2018, Pompeo visited North Korea and met with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to discuss the 2018 North Korea–United States summit between Kim and Donald Trump..
Pompeo usually personally delivered the President's Daily Brief in the Oval Office. At Trump's request, Pompeo met with William E. Binney to discuss his doubts of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. At the suggestion of Tony Perkins, Pompeo planned to hire chaplains at the CIA to reduce officers' high divorce rates.
Secretary of State Nomination
President Donald Trump announced on March 13, 2018, that he would nominate Pompeo to serve as Secretary of State, succeeding Rex Tillerson after his departure on March 31, 2018.
On April 23, 2018, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 11-9 in favor of sending Pompeo's nomination to the full Senate, with Senator Chris Coons voting "present", and Johnny Isakson voting "yes by proxy." Coons decided to vote "present" as the vote would have been tied if he had voted no on the nomination, being that Isakson was not physically present, nulling his vote. The Senate floor vote took place on April 26; Pompeo was confirmed by the full Senate in a 57–42 vote, with several Democratic senators, running for re-election in states that Trump won in 2018, voting to confirm Pompeo.
Tenure
On April 26th, 2018, Pompeo was sworn in as the U.S. Secretary of State.
Political positions
Pompeo speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Pompeo speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.
Military and national security
- Surveillance - Pompeo supports the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, referring to the agency's efforts as "good and important work". Pompeo stated, "Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database. Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed. That includes Presidential Policy Directive-28, which bestows privacy rights on foreigners and imposes burdensome requirements to justify data collection."
- Terrorism and Islam - In a 2013 speech on the House floor, Pompeo said Muslim leaders who fail to denounce acts of terrorism done in the name of Islam are "potentially complicit" in the attacks. The Council on American–Islamic Relations called on him to revise his remarks, calling them "false and irresponsible". In 2016, ACT! for America gave Pompeo a "national security eagle award" for his comments on Islam. Pompeo has been a frequent guest on Frank Gaffney's radio show for the Center for Security Policy. As a congressman, Pompeo cosponsored legislation to add the Muslim Brotherhood to the United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
- Prisons - Pompeo opposes closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp. After a 2013 visit to the prison, he said, of the prisoners who were on hunger strike, "It looked to me like a lot of them had put on weight." He criticized the Obama administration's decision to end secret prisons and its requirement that all interrogators adhere to anti-torture laws.
- North Korea - In 2017 it was reported that Pompeo expressed desire for regime change in North Korea. In July 2017, he said "It would be a great thing to denuclearize the peninsula, to get those weapons off of that, but the thing that is most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over them today."
- Iran - Pompeo worked to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran that was supported by the Obama administration. Referring to the agreement, he stated, "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism." He also stated that a better option than negotiating with Iran would be to use "under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces." On July 21, 2015, Pompeo and Senator Tom Cotton alleged the existence of secret side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on procedures for inspection and verification of Iran's nuclear activities under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. Obama administration officials acknowledged the existence of agreements between Iran and the IAEA governing the inspection of sensitive military sites but denied the characterization that they were "secret side deals", calling them standard practice in crafting arms-control pacts and arguing the administration had provided information about them to Congress.
- Israel - In November 2015, Pompeo visited Israel and stated that "Prime Minister Netanyahu is a true partner of the American people" and that "Netanyahu's efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons are incredibly admirable and deeply appreciated". He also stated that "In the fight against terrorism, cooperation between Israel and the United States has never been more important" and that "[w]e must stand with our ally Israel and put a stop to terrorism. Ongoing attacks by the Palestinians serve only to distance the prospect of peace". He opposed Trump’s 2017 decision to move America’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
- Russia - During his confirmation hearing, Pompeo stated that Russia "has reasserted itself aggressively, invading and occupying Ukraine, threatening Europe, and doing nearly nothing to aid in the destruction and defeat of ISIS".
- Syria - Pompeo accused President Obama of inviting Russia into Syria.
- WikiLeaks - In a 2017 speech addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Pompeo referred to WikiLeaks as "a non-state hostile intelligence service" and described founder Julian Assange as a narcissist, fraud, and coward. ... we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now ... Assange and his ilk make common cause with dictators today. Yes, they try unsuccessfully to cloak themselves and their actions in the language of liberty and privacy; in reality, however, they champion nothing but their own celebrity. Their currency is clickbait; their moral compass, nonexistent. Their mission: personal self-aggrandizement through the destruction of Western values.
- Edward Snowden - In February 2016, Pompeo said Edward Snowden "should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence". But he has spoken in favor of reforming the Federal Records Act, one of the laws under which Snowden was charged, saying "I'm not sure there's a whole lot of change that needs to happen to the Espionage Act. The Federal Records Act clearly needs updating to reflect the different ways information is communicated and stored. Given the move in technology and communication methods, I think it's probably due for an update." In March 2014, he denounced the inclusion of a telecast by Snowden in the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, and asked that it be cancelled, predicting that it would encourage "lawless behavior" among attendees.
Energy and environment
Speaking about climate change in 2013, Pompeo said: "There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. There's some who think we're warming, there's some who think we're cooling, there's some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment." He has stated, "Federal policy should be about the American family, not worshipping a radical environmental agenda." He has referred to the Obama administration's environment and climate change plans as "damaging" and "radical". He opposes the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions by the United States, and supports eliminating the United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions. Pompeo signed the No Climate Tax pledge of Americans for Prosperity. He has called for the permanent elimination of wind power production tax credits, calling them an "enormous government handout". In December 2015, as a member of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, he voted for two resolutions disapproving of the Clean Power Plan implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration. On May 9, 2013, Pompeo introduced the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act. The bill would have required the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve or reject any proposal for a natural gas pipeline within 12 months. The bill passed the House of Representatives along party lines but was not voted on in the Senate.
Healthcare
Pompeo opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Pompeo has been criticized for saying that he supports funding for certain programs that are part of the ACA, yet he opposes them when they are a part of the ACA.
Social issues
Congressman Pompeo speaking at Freedomworks New Fair Deal rally outside the US Capitol. Pompeo has stated that life begins at conception and believes that abortions should be allowed only when necessary to save the life of the mother. In 2011 he voted for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would have banned federal health coverage that includes abortion. Also in 2011, he voted for a prohibition on funding the United Nations Population Fund. He opposes same-sex marriage and had sponsored bills to let states prevent same-sex couples from marrying.
Miscellaneous
Pompeo supported the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, blaming President Obama. He stated that he believed the shutdown was necessary to avoid a predicted "American financial collapse 10 years from now". He is a lifetime member of, and has been endorsed by, the National Rifle Association. Pompeo opposes requiring food suppliers to label food made with genetically modified organisms. He introduced the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 to block states from requiring mandatory GMO food labeling. He sponsored the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013.
Personal life
Pompeo married Leslie Libert in 1986[14] and later married Susan Pompeo. They have one son. Mike and Susan Pompeo are affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Pompeo serves as a local church deacon and teaches Sunday school.
MS NAUERT: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was just sworn in moments ago by Justice Alito at the Supreme Court not long after he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. No other secretary in recent history has gone on a trip as quickly as he has. Secretary Pompeo is now on his way to Joint Base Andrews, where we’ll be taking off. I’d like to provide you the details of his trip.
First, he’s heading to NATO and we will arrive there in the morning, and that’s when he will reaffirm the importance of our NATO alliance. A lot of meetings that he has planned, including a bilateral meeting with the foreign minister of Turkey, Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, and then also the Italian Foreign Minister Alfono. They’re going to talk about Afghanistan. They’re going to talk about Russian deterrence and NATO’s invaluable role in Afghanistan as well.
Next, we will head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, of course, is a key partner and longtime friend of the United States. The Secretary looks forward to meeting with King Salman and also the foreign minister. We will also stop for a meeting at our embassy with mission personnel. I know the Secretary looks forward to meeting our colleagues in Saudi Arabia.
After that, we’ll head to Israel, where our relationship has never been closer than it is right now with that country. There, the Secretary will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lastly, we will go to Jordan, our close friend and invaluable ally in the region. He there will meet with King Abdullah and also the foreign minister and visit our mission personnel.
After that, we will head back to the United States, and that is where the 70th Secretary of State looks forward to starting his first full day at work next week at the State Department.
QUESTION: Any decisions about --
MS NAUERT: Questions?
QUESTION: -- of how you picked the stops? I mean, NATO obviously was planned, but why the others?
MS NAUERT: NATO was, of course, planned. Acting Secretary John Sullivan now becomes the deputy secretary once again. He had been planning to go to NATO for that meeting. Now, Director Pompeo will go. The other trips, other locations were selected because of the importance of these key allies and partners in the region and all the events going on in the world today.
Okay, all right.
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LGCJ.:
