Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was eager to meet with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to a new report.
Tillerson, who met with the panel on Tuesday, reportedly “volunteered” to appear before the committee and called the Capitol Hill switchboard to say he was “happy to talk,” according to ABC’s Tara Palmeri.
An aide on House Foreign Affairs committee told me Former Sec of State Rex Tillerson “volunteered” to be interviewed by the committee after they put out feelers. Tillerson literally called their switchboard and said he’s “happy to talk”
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) May 22, 2019
Tillerson’s meeting with lawmakers was not advertised to those in the media, and he entered the building through an entrance with little traffic.
The meeting, which lasted more than six hours, was scheduled following a request from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and covered a variety of topics.
“The discussion … covered a wide array of topics related to foreign affairs, the operations of the nation’s foreign policymaking apparatus and his tenure as Secretary of State,” a spokesman for Tillerson said, according to the Post.
An official familiar with Tillerson’s meeting said that Tillerson addressed his relationship with White House advisers, and voiced some dissatisfaction with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law. For example, he claimed Kushner undercut his ability to share new policies with the president regarding important foreign affairs, the Daily Beast reports.
Tillerson also addressed Trump’s communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and claimed the Trump administration intentionally failed to challenge Russia on interference in the 2016 election, according to reports.
Tillerson was fired from his post last year by a tweet from Trump, who announced at the time he would nominate then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take his place.
