Washington, DC – NIAC Action Executive Director Jamal Abdi issued the following statement on Mike Pompeo’s nomination hearing:

“Trusting Mike Pompeo to be our nation’s chief diplomat would be akin to appointing an arsonist as chief firefighter. Pompeo made clear that a vote for him is a vote to kill the Iran deal and put the U.S. and Iran on a path to war.

Pompeo failed to resolve concerns about his attempts at diplomatic sabotage during the Iran nuclear talks or his past comments suggesting he prefers bombing to negotiations. Pompeo played down the ramifications of the U.S. abandoning the Iran deal just as he has previously played down the cost of the U.S. going to war with Iran. He refused to articulate any strategy for how he would approach Trump’s pending decision to abrogate the agreement. Instead he repeated ad nauseum that he would ‘fix’ the deal, despite the fact that none of our allies think it is broken.

Pompeo has demonized Muslims and even accepted an award from a hate group and failed to distance himself from these political allies. He did not provide any assurance that he would be anything but an enabler of President Trump’s most bigoted and dangerous impulses. Pompeo is an ambitious man who could very well become the most powerful national security official in Washington if he is appointed as Secretary of State. That should give pause to anybody familiar with his history. Members of the Foreign Relations Committee should stop Pompeo’s nomination now before it is too late.”

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