Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday in a party-line vote.
“It’s a little bit of a departure in the vote count than things have been in the past on nominations like this, but I certainly respect everyone’s ability to cast votes in the manner in which they wish,” committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said after the vote.
Tillerson carried the day on the strength of 11 Republican votes, while all 10 Democrats opposed the nomination. That result came about as one GOP senator who had seemed inclined to vote against him and one Democrat who hinted at supporting him reverted to party lines. That produced a committee result more typical of the most controversial Supreme Court nominees, who hold lifetime appointments, than the support that political Cabinet appointees usually enjoy.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., for his part, voted against Tillerson despite suspecting that Trump would nominate an inferior candidate, from the perspective of Senate Democrats, if his first choice were rejected.
“I came very close to voting for Mr. Tillerson because of the constructive role that I believe he could play but I, frankly, in listening the inaugural address of President Trump concluded that American leadership on the world stage is not as simple as ‘America first’ and [concluded] that I was even more concerned about a number of alarming things that the president said as a candidate on a whole range of issues,” Coons said.
Corker said that was a “disappointing” position for him to take.
“What I thought we were looking at in the secretary of state is someone who was going to be up under the hood advising the president in a way that we thought would be good for our country, not to measure them against comments in an inaugural address or comments during a campaign,” Corker said during the committee hearing. “It’s very evident to me that in some cases here on the committee it’s really turned out to be a proxy on the election itself and it’s disappointing, but that’s what’s happening.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voted in favor of Tillerson, despite being unsatisfied with his answers to questions about human rights violations by countries arond the world. “I believe the president is entitled to significant deference when it comes to his choices for the cabinet,” Rubio said in a Monday morning statement. “Despite my reservations, I will support Mr. Tillerson’s nomination in committee and in the full Senate.”
