It's "shameful" that Democrats won't confirm CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, and an insult to the millions of Americans who voted to elect President Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday.
"A thumbs down to Mike Pompeo is a middle finger to the American people who voted for Donald Trump and expected he would put people in his team that he could work with," Huckabee told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"He has already proven that Mike Pompeo is a person with whom he can work and a person who he trusts."
A secretary of state must be confirmed, he continued, considering with all the issues going on around the world, including North Korea, Japan, and China.
"There is no reason that this is a nomination that should be held up," sid Huckabee. "When John Kerry was selected by President [Barack] obama, he was voted in 94-0. Same exact vote for Hillary Clinton. A lot of Republicans did what they should have done. They gave that president, duly elected by the American people, the team he wanted."
Pompeo has already been confirmed as CIA director by the same group of senators, the former governor said, and some of those senators were once governors themselves and should know the importance of picking a staff.
"They picked their own people while they were governors and they pretend this president doesn't get to do the same?" he said. "It is partisanship that is shameful and they need to grow up and say 'we're not going to let [Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer dictate to us what is the right thing to do."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Tennessee, has also voiced doubts about Pompeo, and is one of three members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has said he will not vote for him.
"I hope Rand Paul comes around," said Huckabee. "If Rand Paul who comes around, he would have wanted to put his own people in place and he would be livid if his own party as senators were giving any type of hesitation."
As for Democrats who cheered when Republicans voted for Clinton and Kerry, "they ought to do the right thing. Forget the politics, just do the right thing."