WASHINGTON _ With Mike Pompeo's nomination to be secretary of state already uncertain, a Democratic group is launching a new ad campaign urging more senators to oppose him for failing to disclose a past business connection with a company owned by the Chinese government.
The left-leaning group American Bridge is launching digital ads targeting three undecided Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee _ Jeff Flake of Arizona, Dean Heller of Nevada and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska _ after McClatchy reported Pompeo did not tell Congress he owned a Kansas business that imported oilfield equipment from a company owned by the Chinese government.
The ads direct readers to a petition. "Donald Trump's pick to be Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was caught lying to the American people," the petition says. "He failed to disclose years of personal business dealings with a Chinese state-owned oilfield company. Who knows what other foreign governments have been lining Pompeo's pockets? Enough is enough. It's time to stop Pompeo's nomination, he's not fit to be America's top diplomat."
Already, Republican leaders are considering bypassing the committee and sending Pompeo's nomination directly to the floor for a vote, which would make him the first secretary of state in almost a century to face a floor vote without a favorable committee recommendation.
With Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky opposed and John McCain of Arizona out battling cancer, Pompeo needs some Democrats to be confirmed.
But nearly every Democrat on the committee has already announced they oppose the former Kansas congressman. At least two other senators, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, also have come out against. Many have cited what they consider Pompeo's anti-American views on religious freedom, Muslims and gay people.
"The secretary of state is a very different role than CIA director, and it's not the kind of position you learn on the job," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "I sense a certain disdain for diplomacy in Mike Pompeo that I believe disqualifies him from being our next senior diplomat."
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the panel's top Democrat, said Wednesday that he will vote against Pompeo in part because of his lack of strategy and vision on a variety of global issues and his failure to disclose his trip to meet North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. He said in a statement he made the decision after considering his nomination hearing and reviewing responses to questions he submitted, including one about the Chinese business. His office did not respond to a request for comment.
President Donald Trump and his aides predicted Pompeo would be confirmed.
"We have submitted a nominee who should pass bipartisan muster, evidenced by the fact that he did a year ago," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters. She added that he has received support of former secretaries who worked for Democratic presidents, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright.
Sen. Tom Cotton, a White House ally, said vulnerable Democrats from states that Trump won, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, would face consequences if they voted against Pompeo.
Pompeo's omission, on the questionnaire he was required to fill out for Senate confirmation to lead the CIA, never came up during his confirmation hearings last year. He was confirmed as CIA director last year by a vote of 66 to 32, with 14 Democrats voting for him.
Pompeo, a three-term congressman from Wichita, served as president of Sentry International, which manufactures and sells oilfield equipment, from 2006 to 2010.
November 2006, he registered SJ Petro Pump Investment LLC in Kansas. Pompeo and Sentry were both listed as owners of SJ Petro in its 2007 annual report filed with the Kansas Secretary of State's office. In 2008, he was no longer listed as owning more than 5 percent of the company but was still a signing member.
Pompeo said at the time that SJ Petro Pump Investment acted as an agent that sells and distributes equipment made by a Chinese firm with a similar name, SJ Petro, according to an October 2010 story in the Wichita Eagle.
The Chinese business, SJ Petro or SJ Petroleum Machinery Co., is a subsidiary of Sinopec, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies. It was majority owned by China Petrochemical Corporation, a state owned enterprise, according to its 2008 annual report.
Last year the questionnaire he filled out for the Senate intelligence committee asked: "During the past 10 years, have you or your spouse received any compensation from, or been involved in any financial or business transactions with, a foreign government or any entity controlled by a foreign government? If so, please provide details."
He answered "no."
Pompeo's salary from Sentry International in 2010 was $238,364, according his 2010 financial disclosure report. His latest questionnaire submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his new job nomination is not publicly available.
In a statement, a CIA spokesman said last week that Pompeo "would have no reason to know details on the layers of companies that may or may not have had ownership interests in each overseas company that supplied products to his Kansas company."
"It appears that politics has taken over yet another position ... 2018 is approaching," Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Let's get him on board."
