Top Republicans are pushing back on the potential appointment of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state due to the executive’s ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, throwing a potential Senate confirmation into doubt.
In the wake of reports that Tillerson is President-elect Donald Trump’s top pick for the position, lawmakers questioned the executive’s long-standing working relationship with Russia.
“Being a “friend of Vladimir” is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState,” Florida senator Marco Rubio tweeted Sunday.
After Tillerson negotiated a multi-billion dollar energy partnership with the Russian oil company Rosneft in 2011, Putin awarded the 64-year-old executive the country’s Order of Friendship.
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham expressed concern over that exchange.
“I don’t know the man much at all, but let’s put it this way: If you received an award from the Kremlin, [an] Order of Friendship, then we’re gonna have some talkin’,” Graham said. “We’ll have some questions. I don’t want to prejudge the guy, but that’s a bit unnerving.”
Arizona senator John McCain also questioned Tillerson’s ties to Putin.
“I don’t know what Mr. Tillerson’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I’ll tell you it is a matter of concern to me,” McCain said Saturday.
Tillerson has also criticized U.S. sanctions that were imposed on Russia after the country’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. The sanctions ended up costing Exxon around $1 billion in losses.
The GOP push back comes as some Republicans, including McCain and Graham, have expressed support for investigating Russian interference in the U.S. election. Trump has rejected reports that Russia swayed the election in his favor using cyberattacks.
The president-elect praised Tillerson for his business savvy in an interview that aired Sunday, but has yet to confirm the pick.
“He’s much more than a business executive, I mean he’s a world class player. He’s in charge of I guess the largest company in the world,” Trump said on Fox News Sunday. “He knows many players, and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company, not for himself.”
