WASHINGTON — The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a late pivot Monday evening (April 23), approved the confirmation of Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of state, after Republican Senator Rand Paul, bowed to pressure from President Donald Trump and dropped his opposition.

For days, the committee appeared ready to deliver a historic rebuke. Since it began considering nominees in the late 19th century, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has never given a nominee for secretary of state anything but a favourable vote, according to the Senate historian. It has been almost 30 years since any Cabinet nominee was reported to the full Senate with an unfavourable recommendation.

But minutes before the committee convened, Mr Paul, an ardent opponent of interventionist foreign policy, declared his support for Mr Pompeo, the CIA director, to lead the State Department, securing approval from the committee.

"After calling continuously for weeks for Director Pompeo to support President Trump's belief that the Iraq War was a mistake, and that it is time to leave Afghanistan, today I received confirmation that Director Pompeo agrees with President Trump," Mr Paul wrote. "President Trump believes that Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilised the region and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan. Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the president on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination."

Mr Trump told reporters Monday afternoon that Mr Paul has "never let us down" and that "he's a good man."

With two moderate Democrats signalling their support for Mr Pompeo earlier Monday, the confirmation of the United States' top diplomat by the full Senate this week was all but secured anyway. Even Monday, it took a "present" vote by Democratic Senator Chris Coon to allow the nomination to move forward after Republican Seator Johnny Isakson, a Mr Pompeo supporter, failed to show up for the vote.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, intends to move the full chamber to begin debate on Mr Pompeo's nomination as soon as Wednesday, with a final vote expected before senators leave Friday for a weeklong recess.

But supporters of Mr Pompeo feared that he would become the country's 70th secretary of state with a bruised standing on the world stage after a Foreign Relations Committee rebuke.

"I understand the climate we are in. I understand the polarisation we have as a nation," Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee's chairman, said Monday. But Corker touted Mr Pompeo as one of the most qualified secretaries of state in history, ticking through his resume.

That partisan environment had, in the end, provided Mr Pompeo a lift. Democrats up for re-election in states Mr Trump carried in the 2016 election broke the nominee's way: Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana pledged their support Monday, joining Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who declared her "yes" vote last week. Other endangered Democrats from Trump states are under pressure to also fall in line.

On Monday, White House officials trained their fire on Senate Democrats, who they said are stonewalling the president's nominees without good cause.

Mr Trump, writing on Twitter, labelled those voting against Mr Pompeo "Obstructionists" and said he needed more Republicans in office in their place.

Mr Trump did not include Mr Paul in his criticism. The president said last week that Mr Paul was "very special guy" who had "never let me down."

Committee Democrats stood by their opposition.

"This is not about policy difference," Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, said before casting a vote against Mr Pompeo. "I don't want to vote for people who are anti-diplomatic to be the nation's chief diplomat."

The Senate has historically given deference to presidents to choose their top diplomat. President Barack Obama twice reached into the chamber's ranks to choose a secretary of state, elevating first Hillary Clinton then John F Kerry for the role. Both received 94 votes to confirm their nominations, with opposition from only a handful of their Senate colleagues.

Mr Pompeo's predecessor, Rex W Tillerson, was confirmed 56-43 by the Senate in February 2017. He was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee by an 11-10 vote along party lines. Mr Trump fired Mr Tillerson, a former oil executive who never really meshed with the president, in March in favour of Mr Pompeo, a former Tea Party congressman with whom he has developed a close relationship.

In a briefing Monday afternoon at the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, dismissed Democratic opposition as "pointless obstruction to score cheap political points with their base as a willful attempt to undermine American diplomacy."

Democrats, many of whom voted for Mr Pompeo's confirmation as CIA director, dispute that claim, saying that their problems with Mr Pompeo derive from more than just distaste for the president's foreign policy.

As a four-term House member from Kansas, Mr Pompeo earned a reputation as a sharp-tongued conservative partisan. He first appeared on Mr Trump's radar in 2015 when, while still a member of the House, he peppered Ms Clinton with searing questions in a hearing about the deadly attacks in 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. Mr Pompeo called Ms Clinton, then on her way to becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, "morally reprehensible."

Democrats also point to comments by Mr Pompeo that they say betray prejudice against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people and against Muslims.

As he has tried to win over senators to support him for the State Department job, Mr Pompeo has tried to play down those stances. At his confirmation hearing this month, Mr Pompeo presented himself in moderate terms. He promised to defend gay rights around the world, to work to rescue the Iran nuclear deal and to reverse the administration's marginalisation of US diplomats under Mr Tillerson.

The Senate Intelligence Committee will formally consider Mr Trump's nominee to replace Mr Pompeo at the CIA, Gina Haspel, at a hearing on May 9. Ms Haspel's nomination is similarly dividing Republicans and Democrats in the chamber. THE NEW YORK TIMES