Advisors to President Donald Trump are floating CIA Director Mike Pompeo as a possible successor to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as the president steams over Tillerson’s failure to forcefully knock down a report he called Trump a ‘moron.’
Trump offered ‘total confidence’ in Tillerson publicly following Tillerson’s extraordinary statement where he defended Trump but failed to deny having called him a ‘moron.’
That dramatic event followed an NBC report that Tillerson was on the verge of quitting last summer and had uttered the comment at a security meeting at the Pentagon.
But the president is furious that Tillerson didn’t counter the story better and forcefully deny the comment,Axios reported.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks with colleagues before delivering remarks at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) June 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. Advisors to President Trump are floating him as a possible Secretary of State. The OSS was the precursor to the CIA
Instead, Tillerson said he wouldn’t be part of ‘petty nonsense’ by addressing the question.
The report describes Trump as seething at how the story dominated cable news on a day he made his trip to visit victims and responders of the Las Vegas shooting. But the president helped amp up the coverage by tweeting and commenting publicly about the story, as did Tillerson by delivering a formal statement at the State Department to address the report.
Pompeo, a former House member, has regular contact withe the president, briefing him daily on the array of global threats.
He served three terms in Congress including on the Intelligence Committee, and was an Army Cavalry officer. Until he took over the CIA, he did not have experience running a huge government institution, of which State is among the most notoriously unwieldy.
Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo delivers remarks at The Center for Strategic and International Studies April 13, 2017 in Washington, DC. This was the first public remarks by Pompeo since he took the helm at the U.S. spy agency
TEAM PLAYER: President Donald Trump, with National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster (L), Vice President Mike Pence (2nd R) and CIA Director Mike Pompeo (R), speaks during a security briefing on August 10, 2017, at his Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey
Any reshuffling would introduce more drama into an administration that has already seen multiple high level departures, including the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last Friday.
Trump announced Pompeo as among his first security appointments, on the same day he announced Gen. Mike Flynn would be his national security advisor (Flynn was forced out following disclosures about his Russia contacts and failure to provide information to Vice President Mike Pence.)
NBC reported that Tillerson nixed plans to travel with Trump on Wednesday in order to try to contain the ‘moron’ story.
Meanwhile, the White House continues to try to project an aura of calm about the blowup and the fraught relations between Trump and Tillerson, a former Exxon CEO.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that Trump wasn’t bothered by the fact that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didn’t deny calling the president a ‘moron.’
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called NBC News’ ‘moron’ story a ‘pretty ridiculous accusation’ and suggested it was below Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to deny he made the comment outright
‘Look, as the secretary of state said, this is a pretty ridiculous accusation and, frankly, I think it’s beneath the secretary of state to weigh in on every rumor out there,’ Huckabee Sanders said. ‘His spokesperson, however, did come out and clarify that the secretary of state never used those words,’ she added.
Thursday marked the second day the White House, Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence have pushed back on the story, first reported by NBC News, which said Tillerson was on the verge of quitting in July and even called the president a ‘moron’ at a Pentagon meeting with security officials.
President Donald Trump weighed in for the second consecutive day on Thursday following an NBC report that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson threatened to quit and called Trump a ‘moron’ during a security meeting
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had to make a rare public statement Wednesday fending off a report that said he wanted to quit his post. At the presser, he didn’t explicitly deny calling President Trump a ‘moron’
But Tillerson, in an extraordinary speech at the State Department Tuesday, did not directly deny having used the term. A state spokeswoman later said Tillerson ‘does not use that language to speak about anyone.’
The president weighed in for the second consecutive day on Thursday.
‘Rex Tillerson never threatened to resign. This is Fake News put out by @NBCNews. Low news and reporting standards. No verification from me,’ Trump wrote on Twitter.
The report stated that Tillerson, who was in Texas for his son’s wedding at the time, had threatened not to come back to Washington.
Tillerson appears to have persuaded a very important audience with his Thursday speech where he vouched for President Donald Trump‘s intelligence: the president himself.
Trump said Wednesday he was ‘honored’ by Tillerson’s emphatic remarks following the NBC report as the drama unfolded on a day the president flew to Las Vegas to meet with shooting victims and responders.
The president blasted the report as ‘fake news’ and ‘totally phony’ – while expressing ‘total confidence’ in his secretary of state.
President Donald Trump told reporters he was ‘honored’ by Tillerson’s comments following remarks at an event at University Medical Center in Las Vegas to honor shooting victims
His comments came hours after Tillerson addressed the report but refused to specifically deny having called the president a moron.
‘I’m very honored by his comments. It was fake news. It was a totally phony story,’ Trump said in Las Vegas, where he flew Wednesday to honor victims of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
‘Thank you very much,’ the president continued. ‘It was made up. It was made up by NBC. They just made it up. Total confidence in Rex. I have total confidence,’ the president said.
In an extraordinary speech at the State Department, Tillerson vouched for Trump in unreserved fashion, calling him ‘smart’ and saying he ‘loves his country.’
‘He loves his country. He puts Americans and America first. He’s smart. He demands results wherever he goes,’ said Tillerson.
But he wouldn’t be specific when pressed on the ‘moron’ comment.
‘I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that,’ Tillerson said when asked about the alleged ‘moron’ remark, in comments carried live on cable networks.
Trump said he had ‘total confidence’ in his secretary of state, who is reported to have called him a ‘moron’
Tensions reached the point where Vice President Mike Pence (right) counseled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) on how to ease the tensions
‘I mean, this is what I don’t understand about Washington. Again, I’m not from this place. But the places I come from we don’t deal with that kind of petty nonsense and it is intended to do nothing but divide people and I’m just not going to be part of this effort to divide this administration,’ he said.
The speech had an immediate effect. Trump tweeted moments after Tillerson spoke that the NBC story had been ‘totally refuted.’
‘The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!’
Tillerson has noted he serves at the pleasure of the president, even as he disputed reports he was ready to walk.
MORON THIS TOPIC: Tillerson said he hadn’t spoken to the president, and hadn’t been asked to make the remarks
Tillerson was emphatic – and specific – in denying he was going to quit.
‘There has never been a consideration in my mind to leave,’ he said.
Wednesday afternoon, after the numerous outlets noted that Tillerson had not explicity denied having made the ‘moron’ comment, State spokeswoman Heather Nauert was more precise.
‘The secretary does not use that type of language,’ Nauert said. ‘The secretary did not use that type of language to speak about the president of the United States. He does not use that language to speak about anyone,’ she said.
Trump also went after NBC and called on the network to make an apology.
According to the NBC report, Tillerson was on the verge of quitting in July, right around when President Trump delivered his infamously political speech to the Boy Scouts of America, even calling the president a ‘moron,’ according to NBC News.
Tillerson, who had previously served as president of the Boy Scouts, wasn’t there as Trump heralded his own Electoral College win and talked up the ‘record’ crowd he drew at the National Scout Jamboree.
Several days earlier, after a July 20 Pentagon national security meeting, Tillerson referred to the president as a ‘moron.’
The Pentagon incident came a day after a meeting in the White House Situation Room where Trump rattled his national security team by suggesting he might fire the top US commander in Afghanistan, comparing the decision-making process on troop levels to renovating a high-end restaurant in New York, participants in the meeting said.
Tensions reached the point where Vice President Mike Pence (right) counseled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) on how to ease the tensions
Tillerson’s reported utterance of the word ‘moron’ stunned the handful of high-level administration officials who witnessed the secretary of state’s outburst.
Relations got so frayed that Vice President Mike Pence, who regularly hails Trump in public remarks, counseled Tillerson on ways to ease the tensions, according to NBC’s reporting.
Vice President Mike Pence’s office denied in a statement ever having discussed Tillerson’s resignation with him.
‘The vice president can also confirm that, as the secretary of state made clear, at no time did he and the secretary ever discuss the prospect of the secretary’s resignation from the administration,’ according to a statement following the NBC report.