The Minnesota Democrat trying to lead his party says President-elect Trump needs to force his secretary of state nominee to be open and honest about his relationship with Russian leaders.
Rep. Keith Ellison said on CNN Wednesday that Trump and Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil CEO, need to be upfront about Tillerson’s background, because Russia might be able to release information later on about the nominee.
“If you expand this to the whole hacking situation … then we have to say what if they turn against him, will they expose things about him we don’t know?” Ellison said.
Tillerson has been described as having a friendly relationship with Putin and received the Order of Friendship from the Russian leader. That’s given many Democrats and some Republican pause.
Ellison said he thinks the confirmation process should include full disclosure of the connections between Tillerson and foreign countries.
“We need to know that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, you’re thinking about other than the best interest of the United States,” he said.
Ellison is in the running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee and has been under fire of late for his comments about Israel and Jewish people in past years.
Ellison was asked about comments he made in 2010 about the prominence of Israel in U.S. foreign policy. At the time, Ellison said, “United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East is governed by what is good or bad through a country of 7 million people. A region of 350 million all turns on a country of 7 million. Does that make sense? Is that logic? Right?”
The Anti-Defamation League and other groups have condemned that statement, but Ellison said he didn’t mean anything untoward. He said he was speaking to other minority and immigrant groups who asked how they could be effective in pushing their political agenda and he thought the Jewish people could be an example.
“There’s a lot of people around the world who look to the Jewish community, who has used this democratic system to further its policy ideas,” Ellison said. “Some people in our country, they might be immigrant groups, they might be new Americans, they might not know the system as well and they want to be effective in lobbying.”
