This is really a kind of ‘nothing-burger’ article from a policy wonk at the Brooking’s Institution attempting to influence the Far Left Dems to ask questions about refugees when Trump’s new pick to head the US State Department, Mike Pompeo, goes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today.
Here is a bit of it. We can definitely agree with Jessica Brandt‘s opener—the Trump Administration needs to staff-up at DOS. But, they must assure people loyal to the President and his policies are in those appointed jobs!
Tomorrow [today—-ed], former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s pick to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing is an opportunity for congressional leaders to question him on a broad range of consequential subjects. Resourcing the State Department should be first on the list. It is difficult, if not impossible, to craft and implement an effective set of strategies on any foreign policy issue without the personnel in place to do so.
But exploring Pompeo’s views on refugee policy should also be a high priority. That’s for three reasons.
First, Pompeo has a history of expressing deep distaste for refugee policies he views as lax. While in Congress, he cosponsored a bill calling for an immediate ban on the entry of all refugees, regardless of their country of origin. The measure would have gone farther than then-candidate Trump’s controversial proposal to bar Muslim immigration. Later that year, after returning home from a study tour focusing on the migration crisis in Europe, he argued in support of Trump’s instincts on these issues in the Wall Street Journal.
You can read the rest yourself by clicking here.
Then this closer made me laugh. These Leftists can’t help themselves. In an article at the venerable Brookings Institution, Ms. Brandt can’t resist the snark!
Pompeo’s answers to these questions could reveal a great deal about how he plans to approach a sensitive, consequential issue. I hope he plans to be more forward leaning than his predecessor. But given his record, I doubt it.
And, btw, what the heck is “forward leaning?” I think we know….