Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Monday that he still hasn’t decided whether he can support Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as the next secretary of state.
“We’re going to go through the transcripts of the hearing, which I’ve begun to do,” Rubio told the Tampa Bay Times. “We need to have a foreign policy that while always acting in the national interest of the United States is always rooted in our values as a nation.”
A spokesman for Rubio agreed that Rubio is still working through the process of deciding.
“As Senator Rubio said at the hearing, secretary of state is one of the most consequential positions in the U.S. government, and he’s taking his time and doing his due diligence before making further announcements,” the spokesman said.
Rubio’s vote on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is key, as Republicans outnumber Democrats there by just one vote, so anything more than one GOP vote against Tillerson would likely sink him at the committee.
Last week, Rubio wasn’t happy with how Tillerson answered his questions about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. On Monday, Rubio told reporters in Florida that he hadn’t decided yet.
He also rejected President-elect Trump’s claim on Monday that NATO is “obsolete,” although Trump also said the decades-old alliance is still “very important to me.”
“NATO is not obsolete,” Rubio said. “It most certainly needs to be reinvigorated, given the new challenges of the 21st century.”
