© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Senate Republicans ripped Colin Kahl at last week's Armed Services confirmation hearing for tweets criticizing former President Donald Trump’s policies and Republican lawmakers.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday urged Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to support President Joe Biden’s nominee for the top Pentagon policy job amid criticism of his past Twitter posts. But the moderate senator says he's still undecided.
The administration is seeking Manchin’s support after Colin Kahl, the nominee to be the undersecretary of defense for policy, faced backlash from Republican senators during his confirmation hearing last week over past tweets criticizing GOP officials and Trump administration policies.
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Manchin, following Austin's call, said he had not made up his mind on the nomination, but expressed concern with some of Kahl's attacks on Republican lawmakers.
'I've reached out to Republicans who he's worked with and who he's worked under,' Manchin told Fox News' Bret Baier. 'I'm gathering all that information. I have not made a final decision.'
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The White House directed Austin to reach out to Manchin, a congressional aide said, adding that it 'tells you that this nomination is serious trouble.' In addition to speaking with Austin, Manchin said he also spoke to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, under whom Kahl worked as the Pentagon's Middle East policy chief.
The West Virginia moderate was the only Democrat to voice his opposition to Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, over inflammatory tweets. The White House ultimately pulled Tanden’s nomination due to concerns she did not have the votes to be confirmed.
'I've seen some [of Kahl's] tweets and they are concerning and I've talked to him about those and he's well experienced and well accomplished in that area they want to confirm him to,' Manchin told Baier. 'And we spoke about all those things.'
'First of all his tweeting is nowhere near what Neera Tanden's was, and we spoke about that, too,' he added.
Without Manchin’s vote, Kahl would need a Republican senator to support him in order to be confirmed in a 50-50 Senate. The committee could vote on Kahl’s nomination as early as this week, according to two congressional aides.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby confirmed that Manchin and Austin were to talk, but did not provide details. He also signaled Austin's support for the nomination, saying during a Tuesday press conference that 'Colin Kahl is exactly the right individual to help us lead the policy effort.'
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However, he noted that defense officials are 'mindful' of the concerns expressed by some lawmakers over Kahl's nomination.
'We value the oversight, the advice and consent responsibility of the committee,' Kirby said. 'We look forward to working with them through the confirmation process.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday published a scathing op-ed arguing that Kahl is the 'wrong choice' to lead the Pentagon's policy shop, criticizing the nominee for his inflammatory tweets and his past positions on Iran policy.
'A no vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee could push the Administration toward a Mideast approach that better serves America’s national interest,' the editorial board wrote.
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Senate Republicans ripped Kahl at last week's Armed Services confirmation hearing for tweets criticizing former President Donald Trump’s policies and Republican lawmakers. The outing was far and away the most contentious yet for a Biden Pentagon nominee.
In one such tweet, Kahl said Republicans 'debase themselves at the alter [sic] of Trump. He also called the GOP 'the party of ethnic cleansing,' citing statements by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas defending Trump's decision to move troops out of northeast Syria in October 2019, making way for a Turkish invasion.
Kahl apologized for the tweets during the hearing, saying that he would approach the top policy job from a nonpartisan perspective.
But some senators are not convinced that Kahl is the right fit for a Pentagon policy position that is intended to be strictly bipartisan.
'The real tense moments are going to happen when you're in the Pentagon and Iran hijacks another American ship or China shoots down an aircraft,' said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who plans to vote against Kahl. 'And if this is the way you respond to mere policy disagreements when you're sitting at home reading the news, I do not think that you're fit to sit in the Pentagon and make decisions about life and death.”
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Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii noted that GOP lawmakers had avoided commenting on Trump's tweets by saying they hadn't seen them
'That kind of criticism regarding tweets from folks who didn't say anything about the kind of lying, racist tweets out of the former president I think is pretty rich,' she said.
Several top GOP members declared during the hearing that they would vote against Kahl, citing his rhetoric and views on Middle East policy, including his advocacy for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Alex Thompson and Bryan Bender contributed to this report.