Pompeo Is the Wrong Choice

Days before his  nomination for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said, "there will be no concessions made during ongoing negotiations with North Korea." Refusing to make any concessions in the normal process of negotiations is a sure way to doom the diplomatic process before it begins. Supporting withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal will dramatically undermine efforts to negotiate an agreement with North Korea. 

Pompeo advocated for military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities at the height of delicate (and ultimately successful) nuclear negotiations with Iran, arguing that it would take "under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity," which he characterized as "not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces." Pompeo also called for congressional action to foment regime change in Iran.

Last July, Pompeo implied that he supports regime change in North Korea, saying that Kim Jong-Un has to be separated from his nuclear weapons and that the people of North Korea "would love to see him go."

Mike Pompeo has a history of Islamophobia. He once said that Muslim leaders across America are "potentially complicit in acts of terrorism that they do not specifically condemn." He supported legislation that would have labeled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Presumably in response to reports that the Trump administration was considering making such a designation, CIA analysts released an internal memo in January 2017 warning that labeling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization "may fuel extremism," and noting that the Muslim Brotherhood has "rejected violence as a matter of official policy and opposed al-Qa'ida and ISIS."

Pompeo has strong connections to some of the most well-known anti-Muslim voices in the country such as Frank Gaffney, who has promulgated conspiracy theories about President Obama being a Muslim, and Brigette Gabriel, who believes that Muslim-Americans should not be allowed to hold public office, and has said that "a practicing Muslim... cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America." This record of Islamophobia makes Pompeo ill-suited for the task of working with leaders of Muslim-majority nations around the world, a critical responsibility for the Secretary of State.

While he was director of the CIA, Pompeo said that he couldn't remember if President Trump asked him to speak against the Russian investigation. He couldn't remember the conversation but he would surely remember if Trump had asked him to do something that was improper. Anyway, Pompeo would not reveal what Trump had told him in a private conservation. Pompeo joined several other high officials in the Trump administration who have refused to reveal conversations with Trump, even when Trump has not invoked executive privilege.