Apparently it’s now in vogue – if you’re a liberal senator – to question President Donald Trump’s nominees about their faith and religious beliefs.
For the third time in the last year or so, a Trump nominee was grilled in a Senate hearing about his or her faith. The latest was Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s nominee for secretary of state. In addition to questions about various foreign affairs, Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) (pictured above) tore into Pompeo’s views on marriage and sexuality.
Booker: “So you do not believe it’s appropriate for two gay people to marry?”
Pompeo: “Senator, I continue to hold that view. It’s the same view …”
Booker: “Do you believe that gay sex is a perversion? Yes or no.”
Pompeo: “Senator, if I can …”
Booker: “Yes or no, sir. Do you believe that gay sex is a perversion, because it’s what you said here?”
Pompeo vowed to continue treating everyone working under him fairly and with respect. Booker finished by saying he doesn’t believe Pompeo represents the values of the nation. (See last week’s verbal exchange below)
Travis Weber of Family Research Council recalls two other times recently when liberal senators suggested Christians with biblical views of sexuality don’t belong in public service.
“Several months ago [both] Amy Barrett, nominated for the judiciary, and Russell Vought, nominated for the executive branch, were questioned in a very improper manner about their religious beliefs – as if that was the determining factor whether they were going to be voted for,” he notes.
Barrett was challenged by California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein; Vought was berated by Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders.
Weber says the line of questioning from Booker, Feinstein, and Sanders isn’t only unfair, it’s unconstitutional. “[It’s] highly improper, unconstitutional, very inappropriate – and we want to call attention to this and ask people to stand with Mike Pompeo,” he tells OneNewsNow.
Toward that end, FRC is circulating a petition to the U.S. Senate condemning the religious litmus test that’s being applied to Mike Pompeo.
Booker ‘out for blood’
Senator Booker didn’t stop at questioning Pompeo’s beliefs on marriage and sexuality during the recent confirmation hearing. The Democratic lawmaker also grilled the nominee about his contacts with two prominent critics of radical Islam: Frank Gaffney, president and founder of the Center for Security Policy, and Brigitte Gabriel, founder and president of ACT for America. Booker asked Pompeo why he didn’t denounce Gabriel.
Booker: “Were you silent? Did you ever call her out on her remarks that were hateful or bigoted?
Pompeo: “Senator, I’ve spoken to a number of groups, and I believe my record with respect to tolerance and the equal treatment of people …”
Booker: “Yes or no, did you ever call her out?”
Pompeo: “Senator, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t recall each statement that I’ve made over 54 years.”
Brigitte Gabriel, during a subsequent interview with OneNewsNow, made two basic observations about Booker’s line of questioning:
“First of all, it is disgraceful the way Booker conducted the questioning of Pompeo and the questions that he asked him,” she commented.
And Booker, she argued, was clearly out for blood. “The left has lost their mind. They are out to destroy anybody who does not adhere to their ideology and their way of thinking,” she continued.
“… They are labeling anybody who does not agree with them as someone who is ‘nuclear’ and should be avoided at all costs – especially someone like me, who speaks about national security, protecting the United States, [and] fighting to secure our freedoms. That was too much for Mr. Booker.”
Gabriel – like FRC – is calling on concerned citizens to contact their senators and urge them to support Pompeo’s appointment as secretary of state.
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
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