WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today voted to confirm Mike Pompeo as the secretary of state.  The Senate approved Pompeo’s nomination by a vote of 57 to 42.

“As the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a former member of Congress, a West Point graduate at the top of his class, and an editor of the Harvard Law Review, no one can dispute Mike Pompeo’s qualifications to serve as our next secretary of state,” said Wicker. “President Trump has confidence in the secretary-designate, and he deserves a national security team he trusts to carry out his agenda.  It is unfortunate so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose to ignore a long-standing tradition of strong bipartisan support for qualified nominees for secretary of state. I am nevertheless pleased this nomination has been confirmed, and I am confident Mike Pompeo will serve our nation well as our top diplomat.”

On Wednesday, Wicker spoke on the Senate floor in support of Pompeo’s confirmation.

Excerpts of Wicker’s remarks as delivered:

I rise in strong support of the nomination of Mike Pompeo, our current CIA Director, to be the next secretary of state.

…

A distinguished former member of the House of Representatives, he served with accomplishment and great dignity and ability as director of the CIA. He graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point and went on to serve and to graduate with distinction.

…

I will not question the motives of any of my colleagues, my friends whom I respect; I will only say that things are surely different around the United States Senate nowadays than they were previously – when we rose up almost unanimously and confirmed John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and stood for the proposition that a president of the United States is entitled to his or her team and that person needed strong support.

I only say that, at a moment when our country needs to send a strong message of resolve to our allies and to the entire international community, we need to send a strong signal of unity. The vote we may take later this week in confirming Mike Pompeo might send a signal of excessive partisanship and division, and I regret that.

We're going to have a great secretary of state at the end of this process, and I think this unfortunately narrow vote will come and go and perhaps not be the standard that we operate under in future times.

I would only say that, for those colleagues who are still looking for an answer and still wrestling with how they should vote, I would commend to them the example of previous days and the example of sending a strong signal around the globe that this president is supported in his efforts in international diplomacy and that he's entitled to the team that he has chosen.