BYE BYE REX, BYE BYE! Anyone who thinks the drumpf/trump-pence administration firing rex tillerson as Sec of State is bad for America really is naive. drumpf/trump-pence appointed tillerson as a tool to enrich the oligarchs who control the drumpf/trump-pence administration and tillerson was working to do that, just not fast enough. mike pompeo is not qualified to be Sec of State but he is an experienced ass kisser and that is what drumpf/trump-pence wants. From NPR & the Washington Post.....
Trump Replacing Secretary Of State Tillerson With CIA Director Mike Pompeo
Updated at 9:31 a.m. ET
President Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday morning in a tweet that followed a year of frequent tension between the two leaders.
Trump said he is nominating CIA director Mike Pompeo as Tillerson's replacement, which requires confirmation by the Senate.
"Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time ... we got along quite well but we disagreed on things," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We were not really thinking the same ... with Mike, we have a very similar thought process."
Trump and Tillerson are described as talking often, though Trump has frequently appeared to catch the top diplomat off guard on major foreign policy decisions.
A White House official says the president wanted to have a new team in place in advance of upcoming talks with North Korea and ongoing trade negotiations.
Tillerson, who was traveling in Africa last week, was caught flat footed when the surprise announcement came that Trump had accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Just a day earlier, he'd told reporters that negotiations were a long way off.
Trump has tapped Gina Haspel, Pompeo's former deputy and a CIA veteran, to take the helm of the spy agency.
Haspel did not require Senate confirmation to serve in her deputy role but will to serve as the full-fledged director of the agency. Her hearing could exhume many CIA demons about the torture of terror suspects and the secret detention program that followed the 2001 terror attack.
Tillerson, the former boss of petrogiant ExxonMobil, didn't know Trump before 2016 — and their relationship seemed to eventually break after months of disputes over policy, embarrassing leaks and a few public humiliations by the president himself.
White House officials on Nov. 30 cranked up the pressure on Tillerson with an apparent targeted leak to The New York Times. It revealed the existence of a secret plan by chief of staff John Kelly to force out Tillerson and replace him with Pompeo.
Trump would then nominate Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to replace Pompeo, according to the Times. As it happened, Cotton is not getting the nomination to lead the CIA, after all.
The report took care to say that the plan was "tentative" and Trump hadn't yet approved it, but the message to the State Department's headquarters in Foggy Bottom in Washington, D.C., was clear: the White House was finished with Tillerson and wanted him out.
That story followed other evidence that the relationship between the president and the nation's top diplomat was barely functional.
Tillerson said he would not resign in October after an NBC News report said Tillerson had called Trump a "moron" in July after a tense meeting at the Pentagon. Tillerson declined to deny it publicly, and Trump retorted to Forbes magazine that he was ready to compare "I.Q." tests — "and I can tell you who's going to win."
Trump also undermined Tillerson's efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the situation in North Korea. As Tillerson kept up support for talks with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Trump said on Twitter Oct. 1 that Tillerson was "wasting his time."
"Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!" Trump wrote.
It was about five months later that Trump agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Tillerson had also distanced himself from what critics have called Trump's equivocation between neo-Nazis and counter-protesters, who clashed over a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Va.
Tillerson appeared Aug. 27 on Fox News Sunday and was asked by host Chris Wallace about the way the international community views the United States following Trump's controversial comments about the protesters and counter-protesters in the wake of deadly violence in Charlottesville.
"We express America's values from the State Department," Tillerson said. And later: "The president speaks for himself, Chris."
Tillerson's departure makes him the latest member of Trump's inner circle in the administration to step down roughly ten months into Trump's term — following a series of White House aides, starting with national security adviser Mike Flynn, continuing on to chief strategist Steve Bannon, press secretary Sean Spicer and chief of staff Reince Priebus — who have left their posts amid administration turbulence.
Tillerson is the second Cabinet official to resign, following former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who was ousted over a travel expense scandal. Tillerson leaves behind a State Department that critics have called a shadow of its former self because of Tillerson's disconnection from the department and the White House's antipathy toward appointing or keeping top talent in the nation's diplomatic ranks.
WORLD
A Diplomat On The Reported 'Hollowing Out' Of The State Department
Some ambassadorships around the world and other top jobs at the department's Foggy Bottom headquarters remained vacant.
And speculation has swirled for so long that Tillerson might quit that this isn't the first wave of discussion about prospective replacements. A previous go-round centered on Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and former governor of South Carolina. The New York Times reported there was tentative talk that President Trump might appoint his daughter, Ivanka, as Haley's replacement at the U.N.
For now, Haley remains in her post in New York and the Ivanka narrative appears to have cooled.
Tillerson's tenure as America's top diplomat was unlikely. Trump interviewed other, more conventional candidates, including 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, but he ultimately gave the nod to the Texas oilman Tillerson based on a recommendation from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Tillerson told interviewers early on that he hadn't been looking for the job and was "stunned" to get Trump's offer — but his wife, Renda St. Clair, sold him.
"'I told you God's not through with you,' " as Tillerson recounted his wife's remarks.
Tillerson had no governmental experience; he went to work in 1975 for Exxon Co., as it was then known, as an oil production engineer. But, having risen to become CEO of the descendant ExxonMobil, he effectively served as a kind of head of state of his own — not only running the energy behemoth, but also conducting its foreign policy across the globe in all the places it drilled or refined or conducted other operations.
That work brought Tillerson into contact with all manner of leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who awarded him Russia's Order of Friendship in 2008. Trump and Tillerson met with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Germany in June, and then Tillerson continued follow-up negotiations with Russia until his departure from office.
As secretary of state, Tillerson belonged to a cadre of leaders who sometimes preceded Trump on international travel to assuage allies' concerns about him. Or they returned after his visits to try to smooth things over.
Tillerson, Vice President Pence, Defense Secretary James Mattis and others emphasized conventional points about American commitment to allies, to international norms and other longstanding points — often after Trump appeared willing to flout them.
At the same time, Tillerson stayed in lockstep with the president on many matters of policy. He defended to the State Department press corps, for example, the realism that he said underpinned the administration's new strategy focused on Afghanistan, which amounted to the new goal of playing to a draw.
"I think the president was clear this entire effort is intended to put pressure on the Taliban to have the Taliban understand: You will not win a battlefield victory. We may not win one, but neither will you," he said.
At the same time, however, the new Afghanistan strategy will remain one of Tillerson's most significant elements of unfinished business. It depended upon a broad new diplomatic campaign across South Asia involving pressure on India and Pakistan to help with a good outcome in Afghanistan — even though, at the time, the United States did not have active ambassadors in India or Afghanistan.
President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation’s top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach such as possible talks with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday.
Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled diplomat cut short a trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.
Tension between Trump and Tillerson has simmered for many months, but the president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week, officials said.
The reason for the latest rift was unclear, but Trump and Tillerson have often appeared at odds over policies such as the nuclear deal with Iran and the tone of U.S. diplomacy. A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state “had every intention of staying” in his job and was “unaware of the reason” for his firing.
Tillerson cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. “I felt like, look, I just need to get back,” he told reporters aboard his plane home. The White House, however, had told him the previous Friday he would be dismissed, according to two administration officials. The news was not conveyed in person by Trump.
At the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the move had been considered for “a long time.”
“We disagreed on things ... the Iran deal,” Trump told reporters. “So we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process.”
Trump selected Gina Haspel — the deputy director at the CIA — to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency.
Both would need to be confirmed by the Senate at a time when the closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees.
In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel.
“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said. “Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.”
CIA Director Mike Pompeo during a security summit in Washington on Oct. 19, 2017. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
The president continued, “Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect.”
Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: “Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.”
A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state has not spoken directly with Trump about the move.
“The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security and other areas,” Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of public diplomacy for the State Department, said in a statement.
“He will miss his colleagues greatly at the Department of State, and the foreign ministers he’s worked with throughout the world,” Goldstein continued. “The secretary did not speak to the president, and is unaware of the reason. He is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and believes strongly that public service is a noble calling.”
The president — who has long clashed with Tillerson, who he believes is “too establishment” in his thinking — felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said.
“I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State,” Pompeo said in a statement. “His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life.”
Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion.
“After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” she said. “I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
On the flight from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government.
“It came from Russia,” Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. “I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely.”
Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the attack as “reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible,” and expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United States believes Russia was behind it.
Tillerson was especially frustrated when Trump last Thursday unilaterally agreed to the meeting with Kim while Tillerson was traveling abroad in Africa, according to officials familiar with his thinking.
Tillerson had long expressed interest in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and was upset to have been left totally out of the loop when Trump decided to move forward, according to a White House official.
Foggy Bottom was also acutely aware — and chagrined — that when Pompeo appeared on the television shows this past Sunday to explain the North Korea developments, he did not mention Tillerson.
Pompeo long has been mentioned as Tillerson’s most likely replacement. The former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm relationship with Trump as the CIA director, often delivering the President’s Daily Brief to Trump in person, and racing over to the West Wing at a moment’s notice to field the president’s queries on a range of topics.
Last November, the White House readied a plan to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, and Trump seriously considered making the move, but was convinced to keep the current team in place.
Pompeo often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply involve his agency, simply because Trump likes him, said one White House official.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a replacement for Pompeo, but Trump opted to promote from within by elevating Haspel.
Tillerson’s exit had been so widely expected that the rumors were given a nickname: Rexit. Speculation about his ouster has come in waves, including inOctober after NBC News reported that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron.”
Tillerson, 65, spent his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington’s ways and the administration’s culture of backstabbing.
Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks.
Trump seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China’s trade practices, the war in Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal, those people said.
Tillerson pushed Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, at least for now, with a July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain. Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that determination and strongly suggested he would not go along with another such certification of compliance due in October.
Although Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that Trump announced last week, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where Trump proclaimed on Aug. 21 that “our troops will fight to win,” Tillerson laid out a much more modest agenda.
Josh Dawsey, John Hudson and Carol Morello contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment