Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson has won the support of Sen. Tom Cotton, an early victory in his outreach to foreign policy hawks in the Senate Republican conference.
“Rex Tillerson is one of the most distinguished business leaders in the world, and he will bring a remarkable set of skills and experiences to the role of secretary of state,” Cotton said Tuesday.
Tillerson seems likely to face a difficult confirmation process because several of the most prominent Republican hawks are worried he is too friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin after years of working together during his tenure as CEO of ExxonMobil.
At least three other Senate Republicans are less comfortable with Tillerson’s background. Sen. Marco Rubio and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain have pledged to give Tillerson a fair hearing, but emphasized they don’t like that he accepted an Order of Friendship award from Putin after negotiating a major energy deal. His opposition to the sanctions President Obama imposed on Russia following Putin’s annexation of Crimea has also alarmed some lawmakers.
Graham set a litmus test for Tillerson, saying he will vote against confirming the CEO to lead the State Department unless Tillerson acknowledges that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and supports punitive sanctions against Putin.
“You opposed sanctions in the past,” Graham said. “If you oppose sanctions in the future, then you’re letting Russia get away with it, you’re inviting more aggression by Iran and China and North Korea, and I don’t think you have the judgment to be secretary of state.”
Cotton echoed the Trump team’s line of defense that Tillerson was simply representing his company when he opposed previous sanctions. “Like Dick Cheney and Bob Gates, I’m confident that Rex will bring the same clear-eyed, hard-nosed approach to the interests of the American people as secretary of state that he brought to the interests of ExxonMobil shareholders,” he said.
Cotton hewed closer to Trump than some Senate Republicans — speaking at the Republican National Convention on his behalf — but he also warned Trump not to get too friendly with Putin.
“I hope that when Donald Trump begins to receive intelligence briefings of the nature that I’ve been reviewing for a year and a half now in the Intelligence Committee that he might have a slightly different perspective on Vladimir Putin, because Vladimir Putin is not a friend of the United States,” Cotton said at the RNC in July.
