As a sharply partisan Republican member of Congress, CIA Director Mike Pompeo tormented former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her response to the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which Pompeo called “morally reprehensible.” He also once liked a tweet that branded her successor, John Kerry, a “traitor.”

But now that Pompeo faces a tough confirmation process to become secretary of state himself, he has reached out to Clinton and Kerry, as well as every other living occupant of the office, to ask for guidance. Clinton, for one, has been willing to help.


“These were lengthy calls seeking advice” from the former secretaries, a person familiar with Pompeo’s prep work told POLITICO. “He understands the gravity of the challenge before him.”

While juggling his day job at the CIA, the person said, Pompeo has been participating in briefing sessions at the State Department, reading thick stacks of material, much of it country-specific, and participating in mock Q&As to prepare for a sure-fire grilling before U.S. senators. He’s also talking to a range of people at the State Department, including career civil and foreign service staffers who felt sidelined under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

It’s part of Pompeo’s mixture of crash course and charm offensive as he prepares for a Thursday confirmation hearing before a closely divided Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Although no one thinks Pompeo has had a political conversion, he seems determined to gain some Democratic votes — and demonstrate more respect for his predecessors and future employees than did Tillerson, who never spoke at length to either Kerry or Clinton and who alienated his department’s rank and file.

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Former U.S. officials say that — in both his confirmation hearing and in the job, if he is confirmed — Pompeo will have to find a way to get along with both Donald Trump and a diplomatic crew that the Republican president disdains.

“Pompeo’s most challenging task is to keep the trust of the president while also earning the trust of the State Department bureaucracy,” said Ilan Goldenberg, who served at State in the Obama administration. “If he is too hard-line and ideological, he will not earn the trust of the diplomats and won’t be an effective negotiator and spokesman on the international stage. But he also has to avoid the perception that he has been co-opted by the ‘softies’ at Foggy Bottom or he’ll lose influence in the West Wing.”

Pompeo has managed to stay in Trump’s good graces for more than a year — something a shrinking number of other presidential aides can say. And by all accounts, he also is eager to serve as secretary of state, despite the largely painful experience of Tillerson, who clashed with the president and never earned his department’s trust.

Pompeo, a former Army officer who graduated first in his class at West Point and has a degree from Harvard Law School, actually began quiet preparations for the job well before Trump fired Tillerson in mid-March — seeking advice about the position while sizing up potential deputies.

During their talk, Clinton advised Pompeo to stem the flight of career diplomats who quit under Tillerson, according to a person familiar with the call.

But standing between Pompeo and Foggy Bottom are dozens of hostile Democratic senators, and at least one Republican — raising questions about his ability to win majority approval from the Foreign Relations Committee, which is divided 11-10 in favor of Republicans.

Democrats say Pompeo is too eager to please Trump, and they fear that he will encourage Trump’s hawkish instincts on sensitive issues like North Korea’s nuclear program and the Iran nuclear deal — an agreement that Kerry considered a crowning diplomatic achievement of his tenure but which Pompeo and Trump appear poised to scuttle. On Monday evening, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran against Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, announced that he would oppose Pompeo. (Sanders is not on the Foreign Relations committee.)

Even more problematic for Pompeo: One Republican on the committee, libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has declared he will oppose Pompeo’s nomination over his support for the Iraq War and George W. Bush-era “enhanced interrogation,” or torture, methods. As a result, some expect Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might take the highly unusual step of bringing Pompeo’s nomination to a floor vote without committee approval, although Paul has hinted that he might filibuster Pompeo’s nomination.

Hoping to compound Pompeo’s headaches, and possibly derail his nomination altogether, liberal groups launched an offensive against him this week. American Muslim and human rights activists held an event Monday on Capitol Hill highlighting what they called Pompeo’s “anti-Muslim record” and “the consequences of nominating an Islamophobe to serve as America’s top diplomat.” Such critics note that, as a GOP congressman from Kansas, Pompeo argued that American Muslims were “complicit” in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings because, he said, they had not denounced it — despite the fact that many U.S. Muslim groups and activists had loudly condemned the attacks.

Also on Monday, the liberal Center for American Progress issued a press memo declaring Pompeo “too hawkish and too extreme” for the job, noting that he opposes same-sex marriage, has called for “regime change” in Iran and has “a sordid record of anti-Muslim bigotry.”

Although many of the same criticisms arose when Pompeo was nominated to be Trump’s CIA chief last year, he was confirmed relatively easily in a 66-32 vote. Pompeo has since had a relatively smooth tenure at the spy agency, despite some concerns that he still views some issues, including Iran, through a partisan lens.

The person familiar with Pompeo’s preparation would not address criticisms of his record but said Pompeo hopes to meet every senator on the Foreign Relations committee this week ahead of Thursday’s hearing. Pompeo has already met with committee Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee, and he sat down Monday evening with Corker’s Democratic counterpart, Robert Menendez of New Jersey. Pompeo has also spoken with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

“He is a very humble guy, particularly when it comes to serving his country,” another person, who is close to Pompeo, told POLITICO. “He will not be taking a single vote for granted and is working to address any and all issues or concerns from even the most left-leaning Senate offices. Failure is not an option for Mike.”

Beyond the fate of his nomination, Pompeo’s hearing could also provide new clues about Trump’s foreign policy, including when it comes to Syria. Trump has spoken of withdrawing U.S. troops fighting the Islamic State in Syria but also threatened Monday to take military action to punish Syrian dictator Bashar Assad over his alleged recent use of chemical weapons.

“During his upcoming hearing, I expect Secretary of State-nominee Pompeo to articulate an actual policy for Syria,” Menendez said in a statement Sunday.

Democrats are also expected to grill Pompeo on Trump’s thinking about the Iran nuclear deal, which faces a key mid-May deadline that would allow Trump to reimpose sanctions on Tehran, effectively withdrawing from the agreement — a move that would dismay U.S. allies.

Also at issue will be Pompeo’s views toward the State Department itself, especially in the wake of Tillerson’s rocky relationship with its workforce.

While many State staffers are eager to see Pompeo take the reins — in some cases hoping that his strong personal relationship with Trump will be good for the department — his reputation among U.S. diplomats has some dark blemishes.

Some remember all too clearly Pompeo’s zeal over the Benghazi attacks, in which an Islamist mob killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. While many diplomats considered the attacks a horrible tragedy with no political implications, Pompeo and other Republicans treated them as a nefarious scandal and lambasted Clinton. After a House committee found no evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton, Pompeo and a colleague issued an addendum alleging that the State Department was “seemingly more concerned with politics and Secretary Clinton’s legacy than with protecting its people in Benghazi.”

The person familiar with Pompeo’s preparation said he’s paying special attention to management and morale issues at the State Department. Career diplomats there grew disillusioned with Tillerson over time as he failed to fill numerous leadership positions and ignored their expertise. Tillerson’s attempts to cut staff and budgets while spending millions on private consultants for an ill-fated “redesign” of the department also alienated staffers.

Pompeo is aware of the tensions and ready to deal with them, said the person familiar with his preparation for this week’s hearing.

“He values each and every person” at the State Department, the person insisted. “He is going to strengthen the organization so that it can perform its function to the best of its ability and to serve the president’s foreign policy.”

