Senate Democrats have delayed the confirmation of Donald Trump’s nominee to run the CIA, saying that job was too important to be the subject of a “rubber stamp” hearing on the day of the presidential inauguration.

In the first skirmish between congressional Democrats and the White House over national security of the Trump era, senators Ron Wyden, Patrick Leahy and Richard Blumenthal said that they opposed a “rushed” confirmation for Mike Pompeo that Republicans had bundled with two other security-related nominees.

Wyden, Leahy and Blumenthal said that no CIA director had ever been confirmed on the day of a presidential inauguration, adding in a statement: “The importance of the position of CIA Director, especially in these dangerous times, demands that the nomination be thoroughly vetted, questioned and debated.”

The senators said: “Our constituents expect Congress to be a check and balance on the incoming administration, not a rubber stamp.”

Wyden was dissatisfied by answers Pompeo provided to the committee on two major surveillance questions: Pompeo’s Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing for the “collection of all metadata” to be assembled into “a comprehensive, searchable database”; and on the propriety of the CIA receiving information on Americans collected by foreign powers.



Our constituents expect Congress to be a check and balance on the incoming administration, not a rubber stamp Statement from senators

The Senate intelligence committee had been due to vote on Pompeo’s confirmation on Friday alongside that of retired marine generals James Mattis, tasked to run the Pentagon, and John Kelly, tapped to run the Department of Homeland Security.

According to an aide, Wyden is stopping short of blocking Pompeo’s nomination outright. Instead, Wyden aims to delay the vote until after the weekend to provide the Senate an extended period to debate Pompeo.



The votes on Mattis and Kelly will not be affected by the delayed vote on Pompeo, and both are expected to receive confirmation from the Senate.

Pompeo, a Kansas Republican congressman set to run an agency with which Trump has openly feuded, sought during his confirmation hearing last week to smooth over his more controversial proposals.

In written responses to Wyden, Pompeo backed away from his proposed hoard of metadata, repeatedly saying, “My op-ed was designed to provide general thoughts on the types of information that may be helpful in protecting the country. I did not propose a full legislative framework that would govern exact access to such information, the restrictions on searches and dissemination, or retention time frames.”

Additionally, Pompeo appeared to give a contradictory answer about the propriety of a foreign government providing the CIA with communications concerning Americans against whom there were no warrants.

Pompeo told Wyden at the hearing: “The same set of rules that surround the information if it were collected by the US government apply to information that becomes available as – as a result of collection from non-US sources, as well.”

But in correspondence with the committee, Pompeo wrote that it was “appropriate” for the CIA to receive such intelligence on Americans “without the same requirements that would apply if the CIA itself were to collect the information”.

Pompeo also repeatedly pledged to follow laws currently banning torture and bulk domestic phone records collection. But some Democrats worry that a justice department under Trump’s attorney general nominee, Jeff Sessions, would provide legal reinterpretations to reconcile both practices within current statutory prohibitions, similar to its behavior during the Bush administration.

