i don t want to reduce vast swaths of people to say they think this way or that way. one of the things we are losing on the culture on both sides is the importance of persuasions and whole idea and that reason and facts is logic can convince someone to switch their position or be opminded. and if no one can change their positions. and that is a bipartisan problem and way upstream of washington. case in point the pompeo vote. thank you. and congratulations on the book. we ll be right back. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that s why there s otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it s a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, .
that said, it already sounds from our reporting over on the hill, she s going to have an uphill battle potentially had the how worried are you about that and what are you doing about it? the reality is that we re worried bull after our nam knees at this point when we have somebody who typically, again, is not a controversial pick to be head of nasa and the vote last week was 50 to 49. the polar ryezation inside congress has reached such extremes now that there s no longer votes based on person s cre department cals nt cals do sheer politics zplt dems will not approve hundred of good people including the ambassador to germany. richard gra nel got voted out of committee months ago. have you had a conversation about why he s not being brought to the floor? yeah, we have conversations about this all the time. because codo it. here s the challenge that we have. it would take more than nine years to get all of our nominees confirmed because the way the democrats are filla bustering
happening later on today. rand paul s office is telling us he s a no. you said earlier to white house reporters there on the driveway that you think there s a good chance he s a yes. what do you know that we don t. i just think it s incredibly hard for senator paul go back to kentucky and say that he vote ford john carrie to be secretary of state but wouldn t vote for mike pompeo. but it sounds like that s what he s going to do. have you spoken to him today? is he going to change his vote? the president s had a couple conversations with senator paul dating back to last week. at the ent of the day we know that mike pompeo is a great pick, he s done a phenomenal job at cia, number one in his class at west point, served admirably in the army, he s a terrific pick and we think he will end up getting the votes. all that said, it looks like when you say he will end up getting the votes, you mean in the full senate? correct. because right now it doesn t sound like he s going to ge
if the president is so concerned about his ambassador to germany, why wouldn t mitch mcconnell bring them to a floor vote. because we have 300 nominees sitting there that the democrats are not allowed to go through the process where you would gettee norm muss consent. the level of obstruction, 80 filibuster votes in the nominees. last year it was 32 the entire first term, 16 years was 32. in 16 months we ve had over 80 filla busters. the democrats are doing everything they can to make sure that we cannot put people inside our administration. is that mitch mcconnell s choice of who he prioritizes here? no. the reality is that is because democrats there s not enough time on the senate floor. if you burn 30 hours of debate on each and every one of our nominees, it would take 9.5 years to get our nominees confirmed. i don t wa to belabor this point. it is a function of prioritization here, the president s fwauk somebody specific, could you potentially put that person to a vote.
but think your information is well sourced and i think that it s it looks iffy for this afternoon but we do think they re going to still get the votes when we get to the full flor floo of the senate. what message does that stoned allies and frankly adversaries who are watching this from around the world, watching the next secretary of state not get voted out of this committee and, instead, having to go to the full floor vote and get confirmed that way? i think the message it sends sadly is that in a lot of our private meetings with even democrat and senators there s been an acknowledgement he s a great pick, great credentials but i can t vote for you. and the bernie sander northeasta crowd has gotten to a point that they feel beholden to that. but even in positions of national security there s that much political sway that you re not doing what s in the interest of the country. the cowardly vote has reached a new level. hillary clinton got voted out