Trump Offers CIA Director Position to Kansas Representative Mike Pompeo

Trump has offered the position of CIA director to Kansas Republican Representative Mike Pompeo, several news organizations have reported.

Pompeo was elected to Congress in 2010 on a wave of tea party support, and had never previously served in elected office. Pompeo initially supported Florida Senator Marco Rubio for president, but later backed Trump once it became clear he’d become the frontrunner.

Pompeo graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Harvard Law School. He is a conservative who has pushed for limited government, is a leading critic on the nuclear deal with Iran, and is a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was also a leading figure on the House Select Benghazi Committee, a panel created in 2014 to investigate the attacks on the American consulate in Libya.

After the committee released its official report, Pompeo and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan released their own separate report that strongly criticized then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s role in the attack, veering nearly into conspiracy. The independent report claimed Clinton knew terrorists were committing the attack “almost in real time,” but purposefully misled the American people to protect President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.

Pompeo has also made controversial statements about Muslims following the 2013 Boston marathon bombing. In a speech on the House floor, he said all American Muslim leaders were “potentially complicit” in the attacks, and those that may follow, because they had not done enough to condemned radicalization.