{"id":55559,"date":"2018-03-13T16:52:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T16:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/13\/replacing-rex-tillerson-as-secretary-of-state-looks-like-it-will-be-a-fight\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:03:13","slug":"replacing-rex-tillerson-as-secretary-of-state-looks-like-it-will-be-a-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/03\/13\/replacing-rex-tillerson-as-secretary-of-state-looks-like-it-will-be-a-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Replacing Tillerson as secretary of state with CIA boss looks like it will be a fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson<\/a> and will replace him with Mike Pompeo<\/a>, now the CIA director, but Senate Democrats are signaling a confirmation fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate Foreign Foreign Relations Committee\u2019s ranking member, Bob Menendez, ripped Trump as \u201ca commander in chaos,\u201d and said the move endangers global stability. He and Democrats elsewhere on Capitol Hill hammered the White House over State Department budget cuts and key diplomatic vacancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reality is that a time when diplomacy is so important to the national security of the United States, we have a president who undermines it in his budget, undermines it in his structure, doesn\u2019t appoint a series of ambassadors,\u201d said Menendez, D-N.J. \u201cThen he conducts high-wire diplomacy with North Korea without a safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest upheaval at the White House<\/a> means another fight for a Congress that needs to pass appropriations and is already grappling with partisan fights on immigration and gun control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate\u2019s No. 2 Republican, told reporters he was concerned with having two confirmation hearings, one for Pompeo and one for his replacement heading the CIA, considering Congress\u2019 legislative schedule for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith everything else we have to do around here, having the prospect of two additional confirmation fights perhaps is going to be a challenge,\u201d CNN quoted Cornyn, R-Texas, as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that Pompeo\u2019s confirmation hearing will be in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former congressman from Kansas, Pompeo served in the Army as a cavalry officer before training as a lawyer. He then entered politics in 2011. He could face Democratic opposition for support for keeping open the Guantanamo Bay detention center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate confirmed Pompeo to lead the CIA, 66-32.<\/p>\n\n\n\t