Share:

WASHINGTON - Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil chief executive selected by President Trump to be secretary of State, has narrowly won approval from a Senate committee, all but guaranteeing his ascension to the job.

Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo has been approved as the new director of the CIA amid a rift between the intelligence community and new President Donald Trump. The US Senate voted 66-32 to confirm the Kansas Republican to replace John Brennan as the director of the spy agency.

The vote at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was 11 in favour and 10 against, cast strictly along party lines. The nomination now moves to the full Senate.

Several senators, Republican and Democratic, had expressed opposition to Tillerson's nomination ahead of Monday's vote. State Department officials said senators submitted more than 1,000 additional questions for Tillerson to answer after his hearing, suggesting many matters were left unsettled. But in the last 24 hours, he received key support that turned the tide.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, on Monday said he would vote for Tillerson's confirmation. His was some of the toughest questioning during Tillerson's Jan. 11 hearing before the committee. Rubio pushed the 64-year-old Tillerson on his ties to Russia and friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rubio and others also complained that Tillerson seemed reluctant to criticize countries whose governments are widely documented to be abusers of human rights, such as the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. But Rubio said Monday that despite "troubling" answers from Tillerson, he decided to allow "significant deference" to Trump in naming his national security team.

On Sunday, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who initially resisted the Tillerson selection, threw their support behind Tillerson, a career Exxon executive.

Although they are not members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, they are influential within the party and can help steer the vote on the Senate floor.

Among the opponents to Tillerson was Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee. Cardin said Monday he could not vote for Tillerson because he seemed to prioritize "narrow business interests" over broader US goals and values.

Tillerson was unwilling to characterize atrocities as war crimes and was soft on sanctions, Cardin noted, which were imposed on Russia over its 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

“Strangely, he was quick to caution about easing sanctions on Cuba because it would benefit a repressive regime, but seemed indifferent to doing business with Russia knowing that that business helped finance their ongoing violations of international norms," Cardin said.

Tillerson was reportedly recommended for the post of secretary of state by Robert Gates, former CIA director and defence secretary, in a meeting with Trump. Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice made the same recommendation during her meeting with vice president-elect Mike Pence. Both Gates and Rice run a consulting firm that considers ExxonMobil among its clients.

Meanwhile, former US vice president Dick Cheney has been a vocal supporter of the ExxonMobil chief, describing his nomination as an “inspired choice.” The 75-year-old neoconservative politician has lobbied on behalf of Tillerson.

Tillerson takes the job of America's top diplomat with no diplomatic or political experience. He has differed with Trump on several key policies.

Trump has already been accused of undermining the intelligence community by questioning its findings in regard to Russian hacking efforts in favour of him amid the US 2016 presidential vote and likening it to the false intelligence that led to Iraq War.

The new president appeared in front of the CIA's Memorial Wall of Agency in his first visit on Saturday, a move that has apparently done little to end frictions.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer downplayed the rift between the new administration and the CIA, calling it a “myth.”

“That doesn’t sound like a huge feud. They were excited. They were clapping. They were cheering when he walked in,” he told reporters. “To see reports that made it sound like there was some fence-mending that needed to happen - that sure didn’t look that way when you walked in.” The new president’s performance, however, outraged the CIA’s former director, who said Trump should be “ashamed of himself.” In his speech, Trump denied having a feud with the community, asserting that any such row should be blamed on "dishonest" media.

Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States during an inauguration ceremony on Friday.