WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the nomination of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a favorable recommendation, narrowly avoiding a rare rebuke as his confirmation heads to the full Senate.

Democrats put up stiff resistance and voted against Pompeo, who is now the CIA director. Only a last-minute switch from Kentucky Republican Rand Paul — whom Trump called before the vote — enabled Pompeo to win committee approval.

It would have been the first time since the committee starting keeping records in 1925 that a secretary of state nominee faced an unfavorable report.

Pompeo’s nomination now goes to the full Senate, where votes are tallying in his favor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he looks forward to voting to confirm Pompeo this week.

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5:25 p.m.

Sen. Rand Paul says he now supports Mike Pompeo as secretary of state.

The Kentucky Republican announced his position after talking with President Donald Trump moments before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was set to consider the nominee. Pompeo hasn’t had sufficient support from the panel for a favorable recommendation, but Paul’s support could change that outcome.

Paul says on Twitter that after talking with Trump and meeting with the nominee he received assurances that Pompeo believes the Iraq war “was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region, and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan.”

With those assurances, the senator says he has “decided to support his nomination to be our next secretary of state.”

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