Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said he is “relatively confident” secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson will win confirmation.
Corker’s panel will vote on the Tillerson nomination on Monday but the outcome is not certain. One Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, has not yet pledged to support Tillerson and the former Exxon Mobil CEO is unlikely to win Democratic votes.
If Rubio doesn’t vote for Tillerson and no Democrats back him, the nomination will not win committee approval.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would bring Tillerson’s nomination to the Senate floor for a vote even without a majority vote of the foreign relations panel.
Corker, R-Tenn., acknowledged the votes for Tillerson in his committee are “a little bit in flux,” but said his nomination would be moved from the committee to the floor no matter what the outcome on Monday.
“The best route would obviously be he is voted out in the normal way,’ Corker said. “At the end of the day, I feel relatively confident he’s going to be our next secretary of state.”
