Pompeo Facing Uphill Confirmation Battle
MARQUARDT: Welcome back. The White House says there is no final decision on how to respond to the apparent gas attack on civilians in Syria last weekend, but officials say that President Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May have vowed in a phone call to deter further use of chemical weapons in the region. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live in Northern Syria. Nick, we are -- here we are, almost a week since that alleged attack and still no military response from the U.S. and its allies. Meanwhile, Syria is about to let in international chemical weapons inspectors. So how does that change the calculus, if at all, of a possible strike?</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, Syria says they may have already let into Syria chemical weapons inspectors, although the OPCW, the U.N. chemical weapons investigators say they won't get to work until Saturday. Now really, frankly of their own making, the U.S. and its allies, the U.K. and France, have a very complicated timetable ahead of them here. They made it absolutely clear in a number of statements that military action is likely. Donald Trump has reeled that back in, in terms of timing. But, France has said it has proof chemical weapons were used. Jim Mattis, U.S. Secretary of Defense, says that he's looking for more actual evidence but he believes that to be the case, too. And the U.K. has been clear on that as well. You can't, though, really strike Syria while U.N. investigators are looking at the actual evidence. That's quite, you might say, disrespectful for the actual process themselves. They kind of have to get underway potentially if they're going to act before during today at some point and they have an 11:00, your time, Security Council meeting to bear in mind as well. So of their own making, frankly, a complex timetable ahead here or a long wait until the inspections come up with their evidence in possibly a week or so from now. Back to you.</s>MARQUARDT: Lots of complex mechanics at play there. Nick Paton Walsh in Northern Syria. Thanks very much.</s>ROMANS: All right, 45 minutes past the hour. CIA Director Mike Pompeo facing an uphill battle in his bid to become Secretary of State. Two key Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have signaled they are prepared to vote against his nomination. Republican Rand Paul is already opposed, so Pompeo may not have enough support to win a favorable recommendation from the committee. Listen to Pompeo deflecting questions about President Trump and the Russia probe.</s>MIKE POMPEO, NOMINEE, SECRETARY OF STATE, FORMER DIRECTOR, CIA: Senator, I don't recall. I don't recall what he asked me that day precisely. But I have to tell you, I'm with the president an awful lot. He has never asked me to do anything that I considered remotely improper.</s>MARQUARDT: All right, let's now bring in "CNN POLITICS" multiplatform editor Brenna Williams live from Washington. Good morning there, Brenna.</s>BRENNA WILLIAMS, CNN POLITICS MULTIPLATFORM EDITOR, "THE POINT,": Good morning.</s>MARQUARDT: All right. Well, Pompeo was asked in his hearing about the issue du jour -- about a possible -- a possible Mueller firing so let's listen to that, quickly.</s>POMPEO: Senator, I haven't given that question any thought. My instincts tell me no. My instincts tell me that my obligation to continue to serve as America's senior diplomat will be more important at increased times of political-domestic turmoil.</s>MARQUARDT: All right, asked there about what would he do -- deflecting there, saying he would stay away from it. So does this indicate that he's going to be some kind of rubber stamp secretary of state as opposed to Sec. Tillerson and he's just going to go along with whatever the president wants?</s>WILLIAMS: Well, here's the thing. As Pompeo and Trump, as Pompeo said, they're very close. They have a lot of conversations. So, yes, I mean, coming into the State Department if he were to get confirmed, Trump would have an ally there. At the same time, Pompeo has also said that he's committed to doing things that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didn't do, like filling a lot of roles, including ambassadorships --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>WILLIAMS: -- that weren't filled during the Tillerson administration -- or, you know, tenure.</s>ROMANS: Holding up the secretary of state at this time -- I mean, you look at all the things that are happening -- Syria, Russia, North Korea talks coming up -- what do you think the chances are here that this becomes a real battle?</s>WILLIAMS: Actually, it's really interesting because usually, you know, high -- when you're in a high-power position like the CIA director -- he already had to go through Senate confirmation -- it's an easier transition. But there are some people, like you said, Shaheen and Kaine among them -- Rand Paul -- that are not really on board for this. Running the CIA -- yes, you need to be a good administrator, but it's a different kind of diplomacy than running the State Department --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>WILLIAMS: -- so there are some questions about that. So, yes, I think there's a battle although McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has indicated that he might still bring the vote to the floor. There are ways to do that should the vote not make it out of committee.</s>ROMANS: Rand Paul's --</s>MARQUARDT: But --</s>ROMANS: Rand Paul's issue is his position on torture. And some of the Democrats' issues is speech -- other things that he's said in his speech in 2013 where he criticized Muslim leadership for not standing up against the Boston Marathon bombing.</s>MARQUARDT: Yes.</s>ROMANS: So they say there's anti-Muslim sentiment there, so that's what some of the --</s>MARQUARDT: The pushback.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>MARQUARDT: Right. Brenna, touch on -- expand a little bit more on that about how extraordinary it would be if the committee were to not recommend Pompeo for secretary of state but then McConnell brings it to the floor for a vote.</s>WILLIAMS: I think it would be a very controversial move and also, Pompeo would need to get some Democrats on his side because it's a very almost evenly split Senate right now. John McCain has not been around because of his health concerns and Rand Paul, a Republican senator as we said, is not going to vote for him. So, Pompeo has been kind of trying to show his diplomacy chops by going out to the Hill talking to Democratic senators -- talking to senators on both sides trying to convince them that he's the guy for the job. So we'll see if his diplomacy works on the Senate side as he hopes it would on the international stage.</s>ROMANS: Meanwhile, today in Washington, D.C., I think you're going to have people with their heads buried in a book that they've been trying to get -- this Comey book this morning. We're going to hear from him on Sunday night in an ABC interview -- James Comey, himself. But people are starting to read this. And give me a sense of just what Washington -- what Washington is making of this. And I also think -- we were just talking about how interesting it is that the RNC already has sort of like a strategy to discredit him personally and to attack his character -- James Comey's character.</s>WILLIAMS: Well, we heard reports of this GOP strategy before excerpts from the book even hit. We knew it was going to cause a tidal wave. As my colleague Chris Cillizza said in last night's "The Point" newsletter, it hit Washington kind of like an atomic bomb. Comey is coming out swinging. He's not holding back. He's making claims about the president's character, about things that the president said to him in private conversations. So this is not the last we're going to hear of this, right? This is day one of many and the GOP -- like I said, they were expecting it before we even saw one word out of this book. So it's really interesting that the White House hasn't said anything yet but they are on board with this GOP-RNC strategy.</s>MARQUARDT: It's very hard to imagine the scenario in which the president stays silent on this. He's stayed silent on other things --</s>WILLIAMS: You think?</s>MARQUARDT: -- and he's held back on others things. But on this, it's got to be just a matter of minutes possibly before we actually hear from the president on Twitter.</s>WILLIAMS: Washington is waiting with bated breath.</s>MARQUARDT: Brenna, thank you so much.</s>WILLIAMS: Thank you.</s>ROMANS: Brenna Williams, thank you. Let's get a check on "CNN Money" this morning. Global stocks mostly higher today. Wall Street rose on reports -- I mean, that the president may rejoin the TPP trade agreement. Wall Street likes that. He also walked back threats of an immediate strike on Syria. The hope today is that investors will focus on fundamentals, not headlines. You've got earnings season starting with some big banks -- Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo. Wall Street expects big profits from those banks and bank stocks soared yesterday in anticipation. In AT&T's antitrust trial its first witness aims to undermine the Justice Department's case. The DOJ, of course, is suing AT&T to block its purchase of Time Warner, the parent of CNN. The government claims the deal will mean higher prices for you, the consumer, but AT&T's economist argues it will lower prices because the merger creates a more efficient company. The trial began in mid-March and is expected to wrap up this month. All right. Tesla is in an open feud with the National Transportation Safety Board. Both sides accuse the other making improper disclosures about a fatal crash. It concerns the NTSB's investigation of a Tesla crash while in autopilot mode. The agency removed Tesla from the official probe for disclosing details during the investigation. Tesla says no, it wanted to correct misleading statements about autopilot and that it removed itself from the investigation. Tesla says the NTSB is more concerned with press headlines than actually promoting safety and threatens to make an official complaint to Congress. Unusual to see that kind of dispute spilling into the public.</s>MARQUARDT: Elon Musk does like his headlines.</s>ROMANS: Yes, he does.</s>MARQUARDT: All right. Well, President Trump quit a huge trade deal last year. Now he may want to get back in. We're going to get reaction live from Tokyo, next.