Monday, November 11, 2019

Former U.S. Secretary Of State Tillerson Denies Claims He Tried To Undermine President Trump's Agenda

New U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks after his swearing-in ceremony, accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Dallas Morning News: Rex Tillerson denies Nikki Haley’s claims that he sought to undermine Trump’s agenda

The former UN ambassador made the allegation in a new book out this week

WASHINGTON – Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is disputing a claim by Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that he sought to subvert President Donald Trump’s agenda in an effort to “save the country."

Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil chief executive, told media outlets on Monday that during his tenure as America’s top diplomat, “at no time did I, nor to my direct knowledge did anyone else serving along with me, take any actions to undermine the president.”

“Once the president made a decision, we at the State Department undertook our best efforts to implement that decision,” Tillerson said, according to The Washington Post, adding that “Ambassador Haley was rarely a participant in my many meetings.”

That denial came after reports emerged that Haley, in her new book, said that Tillerson worked with former White House chief of Staff John Kelly to combat Trump’s decisions and that Haley rebuffed their efforts to join their cause.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Who to believe .... former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson or former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley?

5 comments:

RussInSoCal said...

Tillerson was SECSTATE for just a short time, but I cannot name one thing he accomplished.

Except for insulting POTUS.

Anonymous said...

use infighting flares amid impeachment inquiry — A dispute erupts between Mulvaney and Cipollone camps over how to counter House Democrats' impeachment push — The White House's bifurcated and disjointed response to Democrats' impeachment inquiry has been fueled …
New York Times:
Feud Between Trump Advisers Underscores a White House Torn by Rivalries — Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting chief of staff, and John R. Bolton, his former national security adviser, clashed in court even as more accounts of internal schisms emerged in books and testimony.
Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Law & Crime and Daily Kos
Betsy Swan / The Daily Beast:
Mulvaney's OMB Held Up Lethal Ukraine Aid in 2017 for Fear of Russian Reaction
Discussion: POLITICUSUSA
The Hill:
White House struggles to get in sync on impeachment
Discussion: Breitbart
NBC News:
Pentagon official testifies Trump directed freeze on aid to Ukraine
Discussion: MSNBC and The Hill
Washington Post: Trump cites corruption in Kyiv and European stinginess to justify actions on Ukraine.
Pete Williams / NBC News:
Former Trump official balks at Mulvaney's bid to join impeachment testimony lawsuit
Discussion: The Hill and Politico

Anonymous said...

The drumbeat of open criticism of the commander in chief from retired senior military leaders is highly unusual. While the overwhelming majority have kept quiet, some retired officers are still calibrating their own sense of what’s most important in this moment.

“Honestly, I think there’s a balance point that is not well defined,” Vincent K. Brooks, who retired last year as the head of U.S. forces in Korea, told us of considerations about speaking publicly. “And I don’t think that I know it.” Brooks has previously commented on Trump’s diplomacy with North Korea, saying that the summits with Kim Jong Un didn’t achieve a breakthrough but that the Korean peninsula was safer thanks to the diplomacy. He told us, though, that given the stakes of preserving an apolitical military, the decision to weigh in is personal—and that there’s a difference between offering policy analysis, which he has done, and taking a partisan stand, which he says should be avoided.

“I think what you’re seeing is a growing concern that military advice is not being sought, and if sought, is not being considered,” he said. “I share the concerns as well.”

Paul Zukunft, who served as Coast Guard commandant before his 2018 retirement, has his own concerns. He has tried not to criticize Trump’s policies—but suggested that it can be difficult in this administration to discern what policy actually is. “We’re in uncharted territory, quite honestly,” he told us. For example, if a presidential idea comes out as a tweet and not an executive order, is it really a policy? “In that case, that red line becomes very blurred,” he said. Zukunft said at a think-tank event in 2017 that he stood by the Coast Guard’s transgender troops even after Trump had tweeted they should not serve. Zukunft now says he stands by that comment—when he made it, Trump had only sent a tweet, not set a policy.

Bob Huntley said...

Russ

...or destroyed?

Anonymous said...

Someone got triggered.