Four Democrats crossed party lines to join every Republican in approving Rex Tillerson as President Donald Trump's top diplomat. | Getty Senate confirms Tillerson as secretary of state

The Senate on Wednesday made Rex Tillerson the next secretary of state, confirming the former ExxonMobil CEO on a 56-43 vote.

Four Democrats crossed party lines to join every Republican in approving Tillerson as President Donald Trump's top diplomat: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, and Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.


Tillerson was sworn in Wednesday night. "Your whole life has prepared you for this moment," Trump said, adding that Tillerson was “a man who is respected around the world, before he even begins."

On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted his congratulations to Tillerson.

"Congratulations to Rex Tillerson on being sworn in as our new Secretary of State. He will be a star!" Trump wrote.

Tillerson arrives amid growing dissent within State against Trump’s severe immigration limits, signed by nearly 1,000 of the diplomats he will have to supervise. But the 64-year-old veteran oilman had lined up the GOP votes he needed for confirmation more than a week ago, assuaging concerns among conservative Russia hawks about his close business ties with Moscow’s state-controlled oil company.

The former Exxon chief “possesses deep relationships around the world, and understands the critical role of U.S. leadership,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. “He has expressed a commitment to defend American values and to restore U.S. credibility by strengthening old alliances and building new ones.”

Liberal groups, particularly environmentalists aghast at Trump's decision to steer foreign policy through a veteran fossil-fuel titan, had pushed Democrats to vote against Tillerson. The nominee's confirmation hearing, marked by tense exchanges over Tillerson's stances on sanctions against Russia and the human rights record of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, helped fuel a historically high level of resistance to the nomination.

Previous secretaries of State in both parties won Senate confirmation with far more support from the minority party: Hillary Clinton on a 94-2 vote, John Kerry on a 94-3 vote, Colin Powell unanimously, and Condoleeza Rice on an 85-13 vote.

Heitkamp, one of the Democrats who backed Tillerson, said that when she met with the new State chief, “I was blunt about my concerns with his ability to assert that discipline given his ties to Russia and the new administration’s talk of loosening sanctions on the country."

"While I’ll continue to closely monitor those ties and reinforce the need to stay vigilant on Russia," she added, "I look forward to working with Mr. Tillerson on our shared support for soft power investments that reinforce America’s ties with strategic partners and treaty allies and to bolstering America’s proactive approach to diplomatic relations.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) did not vote on Wednesday, though he had previously opposed the Tillerson nomination in committee. He was accompanying Trump to Dover Air Force Base in his home state to receive the remains of Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, who was killed early Sunday in the first anti-terrorism raid authorized by the new president.

