Pompeo faces Senate buzz saw over stance on Iran, Muslims

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead US diplomacy is in jeopardy because of his bellicose approach toward the Middle East.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the nominee for secretary of state, faced a barrage of criticism from Democrats during his Senate hearing today over his hawkish rhetoric on Iran and political Islamist groups. With Trump threatening to bomb Syria and pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran, lawmakers raised concerns that this week's arrival of the equally hawkish national security adviser John Bolton could precipitate US military action in the Middle East and other hot spots.

“A lot of people are paying attention to Syria and they’re asking the fundamental question, are we assembling a war Cabinet of John Bolton, Mike Pompeo?” asked Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “People want to know whether or not your views are close enough to Bolton’s in his advocacy of force in virtually every situation.”

Pompeo sought to assuage those concerns while defending Trump’s right to retaliate for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons without going through Congress. He insisted that as a member of Trump’s Cabinet, he had “watched it fully deliberate about all of those things and I can tell you every day at the forefront of our mind is how we can find solutions … to avoid us having to put a single American in harm’s way.”