it s the issue of getting it out of committee. we woke up this morning thinking the nomination would not advance because kentucky senator rand paul was going to vote for democrats and it wouldn t be enough. there was a change in that, and then we thought maybe he would get out of committee with what s called a favorable recommendation. then one republican senator is absent, senator isakson is in georgia attending a funeral. now they are deadlocked at at 10-10. this happened right before this meeting. having received assurances from president trump and director pompeo that he agrees with the president on these important issues, i have decided to support his nomination to be our next secretary of state. he joins democratic senators heidi heitkamp, joe donnelly, and joe manchin and supported the nomination. likely enough to confirm. the president tweeted:
vest. but he hasn t in any way indicated that he would vote no. most of what we heard from him over the last couple of days is he has had some additional questions to be answered but with this last tweet from rand paul in which he says having received assurances from president trump and director pompeo that he agrees with the president on these important issues, in this case talking about what he believes the u.s. role should be in iraq and afghanistan. he has decided to support his nomination to be secretary of state. so, katy, what was a ran paul siding with the democrats, potentially causing an embarrassment here, although not a stop to pompeo, this would have essentially made pompeo the answer to a trivia question 20 years from now, somebody who didn t get a favorable recommendation but did get a vote on the senate floor. now he will squeak by with a favorable nomination. let s be clear. what were rand paul s concerns?
first, i ll talk about the syria question. den, certainly something that will come up. the president is committed to defeating isis. that is our primary goal and function of being there. we want to see that happen. the president also wants the see the partners in the region step up and do more. both militarily and financially. that s going to be something that i can imagine will be raised and we ll keep you posted on that front. when it comes to director pompeo, it is absolutely outrageous that he would not move through quickly. he s extremely qualified for the position. the washington post, a number of other outs that certainly aren t typically the biggest advocates of this president have said, confirm him already. i think you have to look back at history. specifically, to secretary of state confirmations and bipartisan votes. john kerry was confirmed 94-3. hillary clinton was confirmed
not to let the president down on this vote. halle, we heard the president campaign that with a, i m not going to be the world s policeman. but you tell me if i m wrong about this, but the presidency has looked a little bit. i mean, he s striking syria. yeah. est he s keeping some troops in syria at least for as long as they need to be there. s that an open-ended aspect to it. how did the white house go about convincing rand paul that they are going to change course? or was it something else that they convinced him of? i can tell you this, ten second ago i got off the phone with a source inside the administration. apologies if there were some microphone bleed on that in the garrett live shot but the president did speak with rand paul several time today. more than once. director pompeo spoke to him over the weekend as well. the white house here s the deal, we don t have public reaction yet from the white
the scenes. what will you be looking for here? what would, in your mind, make this trip a success? i think we should listen carefully to how president trump talks about his discussions with president macron and perhaps tweets about them as well. to see if there is some softening of the ground and, of course it could well relate to director pompeo s nomination and certainly his tenure as secretary of state, if he is confirmed, because the iran deal is one of the real central points, as you know, in terms of many democrats opposing director pompeo. so i think in terms of watching this, i think the body language and chemistry will be good. the first state visit. that sends a strong, positive signal to macron ra sip precipr noted as the visit to paris of president trump. the optics are very good. we have to listen carefully what