Mike Pompeo has reached out to Hillary Clinton for advice as he gets set to face a tough confirmation process to become secretary of state, Politico is reporting.
Pompeo has also asked other former secretaries of state, including John Kerry, for guidance, the website noted.
Politico pointed out Pompeo once had tormented Clinton over her response to the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya and had liked a tweet that called Kerry a "traitor."
But that hasn't stopped him from making calls for advice from the two and others who have held the post.
"These were lengthy calls seeking advice" from the former secretaries, an unnamed source familiar with Pompeo's preparation work told Politico. "He understands the gravity of the challenge before him."
Pompeo, the CIA director, was nominated by President Donald Trump to take over as Secretary of State after Rex Tillerson was ousted from the post.
Clinton has said she hopes Pompeo will emulate the strategy he used when he took over the CIA and lean on the people with experience and expertise.
"I don't know what will happen with the nomination of Mike Pompeo to become the next secretary of state, but the one small glimmer of hope is when he went into the CIA, he only brought two people with him and he really relied on the career intelligence people," Clinton said, the Washington Examiner reported.
According to Politico, during the phone call from Pompeo, Clinton urged him to stop the continued loss of career diplomats who had resigned when Tillerson headed the state department.
And the unnamed source familiar with Pompeo's preparation for the confirmation hearing, said dealing with morale issues at the department is a key issue.
"He is going to strengthen the organization so that it can perform its function to the best of its ability and to serve the president's foreign policy," the source said.
But Democrats are said to fear he will encourage the president's hawkish instincts on issues like North Korea's nuclear program. And one Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has already announced he will oppose Pompeo's nomination.