President Donald Trump said Rex Tillerson ‘never’ threatened to resign and blasted NBC’s standards a day after the network reported his Secretary of State called him a ‘moron’ last summer.
Trump, Tillerson, and Vice President Mike Pence have all joined to refute elements of the Wednesday report, 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.
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.
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
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 PresidentDonald 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. 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.
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
‘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’
‘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.
Tensions reached the point where Vice President Mike Pence (right) counseled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) on how to ease the tensions
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.