Political Quotes

“I came to the floor yesterday to voice my serious concerns with some of the remarks made by the Secretary of State nominee, Rex Tillerson, in his hearing. I was worried that his milquetoast posture toward Russia, especially his failure to support strong U.S. sanctions--existing or proposed-- bespoke a fundamental misreading of the geopolitical climate and the true nature of our international security challenges. I was worried that, as Secretary of State, he only promised to recuse himself from matters involving Exxon for a period of 12 months. Exxon's interests overseas aren't going away after 1 year. That is not good enough to resolve what is, potentially, a massive conflict of interest. I am worried that Mr. Tillerson, as CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil, conducted business with all three foreign state sponsors of terrorism through a foreign subsidiary in a way that allowed Exxon to evade U.S. sanctions. As the head of Exxon, Mr. Tillerson did business with the terrorism trifecta: Iran, Syria, and Sudan. This raises serious questions that the man who is nominated to be the face of the United States to the world has so much experience doing business with our most prominent and concerning adversaries. At the hearing, under questions from the senior Senator from New Jersey and the Senator from Oregon, Mr. Tillerson denied having knowledge of these dealings and directed the Senators to seek more information from ExxonMobil itself.…”