Paul switches, says he’ll back Pompeo after talking to Trump | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Sen. Rand Paul wanted assurances that Mike Pompeo would not advocate more war and that the White House would at least discuss curbs on government surveillance.

Once he heard what he needed to hear, the Kentucky Republican senator dropped his opposition to Pompeo’s nomination as secretary of state, delivering President Donald Trump a huge win Monday.

The reversal, though, did raise new questions about how far Paul was willing to go with his defiance. While he got assurances he’d get an airing, he got no concrete change in policy Monday.

He dismissed suggestions that he is developing a reputation of protesting but then falling in line.

“I am a loud voice that war has been a mistake and will continue to be, that regime change has been a mistake,” he said. “I can promise you that they did listen to me and that my point of view on all the wars has not changed an iota and I think my voice is a louder voice by participating.”

Paul’s sudden support for Pompeo, announced just as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was convening to vote on the nomination, instantly provided the controversial choice the momentum that the White House had so eagerly, even desperately, sought.

Trump had lobbied Paul hard. The senator said he talked with both the president and Pompeo several times on Monday before the committee vote, which wound up sending the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation. Confirmation, which now appears all but assured, is likely later this week.

Paul said that Trump promised him a discussion on curbing government surveillance and databases.

“I haven’t been given anything or promised anything, I don’t get a bridge built somewhere, but I have asked that we consider the liberty of the individual and the Constitution,” Paul said.

He has long been a critic of government surveillance programs, warning that they are a breach of privacy. In December, he temporarily stalled confirmation of one of Trump's Justice Department nominees over concerns about warrantless wiretaps and surveillance.

Earlier this year Paul threatened to filibuster a measure to extend and expand massive U.S. surveillance powers.

Pompeo, now the CIA director, in 2016 endorsed a plan to have surveillance agencies collect "all metadata" and combine it with "publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database."

Paul said he was "absolutely, unquestionably, unequivocally opposed to more databases" particularly one that involves information about lifestyles. "That's just a recipe for 1984 on steroids," he said. But he said he'd talked to both Pompeo and Trump and they assured him there would be a discussion.

Paul also said he got guarantees that Pompeo, a former Kansas congressman who the senator criticized for hawkish views, won’t drag the president into more wars. The senator said that he got assurances that Pompeo agreed with Trump that the Iraq War "was a mistake" and that the United States "must end" its involvement in Afghanistan.

Paul’s new position provided Pompeo with an important boost. For days, it was anticipated that the committee would send the nomination to the full Senate with an unfavorable recommendation, since Paul was expected to join all 10 Democrats in voting no. The other 10 Republicans would vote yes.

There are no records of a secretary of state nominee being sent to the Senate floor unfavorably since 1925. But thanks to the Paul switch, the committee approved the nomination on a party line vote.

Paul didn’t entirely shed his maverick ways Monday. He said last week it would take a “great deal” for him to vote for Pompeo, and suggested he’s not completely convinced by Pompeo.

“I’d like to hear it a bit more verbally to others, other than myself,” Paul said. “Time will tell whether those assurances are true or not.”

At his confirmation hearing, Pompeo dismissed concerns that he and new National Security Adviser John Bolton would comprise a war cabinet.

"Every day at the forefront of our mind is how can we find solutions that achieve the American objective but avoid us having to put a single American in harm's way," he said.

At the White House Monday, Trump hailed the change of mind.

“Rand Paul never let us down,” Trump said as he planted a tree with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron. “He’s a good man.”

Paul, who last month had also announced staunch opposition to Trump’s CIA pick, Gina Haspel, declined Monday to say whether will continue to oppose her nomination.

“They’re completely separate,” he said.

Trump called Paul last week and urged him to meet with Pompeo, telling reporters he was sure the Kentucky senator “won’t let me down.” But Paul, who last month said he’d do whatever he could to block Pompeo, as well as Trump’s pick for the CIA, appeared unmoved after the meeting in his office.

Before he met with Pompeo, Paul told reporters he believes that Pompeo is more hawkish than Trump. He said Trump has repeatedly called the Iraq War a mistake, has supported ending the war in Afghanistan and wants U.S. troops to leave Syria.

Pompeo, he said, has “been more of the ‘Let's stay forever in the Middle East, let’s stay forever in Afghanistan.’"

The Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for Haspel, a Kentucky native, on May 9. The CIA on Friday released an internal memo that cleared Haspel of wrongdoing in the destruction of videotapes showing the waterboarding of terrorism suspects in 2005.