Trump reportedly taps Rep. Mike Pompeo to be CIA director

Thomson Reuters

Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo

President-elect Donald Trump has offered Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo the position of CIA director, transition officials told media outlets Friday.

The decision follows Trump's selection of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

Representatives for Trump's transition team didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pompeo is a Tea Party-aligned member who originally supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the GOP presidential primary. He expressed some criticism of Trump during the campaign, but ultimately offered up his support after Trump won the nomination.

"You have seen him make good decisions in his business life, his family life, with his children. So I am excited for a commander in chief who fearlessly puts America out in front," Pompeo said in July.

Pompeo has been criticized in the past for his comments about Muslims, as he once argued in 2013 that clerics who failed to fully denounce terrorists were "complicit" in the attacks.

He also apologized in 2010 for a tweet his campaign posted that called his Indian-American opponent, Raj Goyle, a "turban topper" who "could be a Muslim, a hindy, a buddhist etc who knows."