When asked to respond to Sen. Bob Corker's comments that he had been publicly castrated, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday "“I checked, I’m fully intact." Tillerson won't deny calling Trump 'a moron,' but does deny being undercut

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday again declined to clearly say he hadn't called President Donald Trump “a moron,” but he did deny a Republican senator's claim that he had been castrated as the nation's top diplomat.

Tillerson twice refused to say that he had not called the president “a moron,” as reported by NBC News, instead punting on the question and saying he would not dignify it with a response.


“I call the president ‘Mr. President,’” Tillerson said on CNN’s "State of the Union." “At the end of the day, he makes decisions. I go out and try to implement those decisions.”

CNN host Jake Tapper pushed Tillerson to say he had not called the president a moron, if that was the case, saying it was very serious whether he said it or didn’t, noting that administration officials were telling the press he did.

But again, Tillerson dodged the question, saying he was shocked Tapper wanted to spend so much time on the question when there were so many other foreign issues to address.

“I’m not playing,” Tillerson said. “These are the destructive games of this town.”

In a hastily arranged news conference earlier this month, Tillerson bluntly denied he had ever considered resigning, which was also reported by NBC News, but did not deny calling the president a moron.

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Tapper also asked Tillerson to respond to Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who said during his weeklong feud with the president that Trump had “ publicly castrated ” the secretary of state.

Trump tweeted Oct. 1 that Tillerson was "wasting his time" negotiating with North Korea.

Tillerson said that those who are entrenched in Washington are often resistant to change and the president’s “unique” leadership style, but Tapper pressed for a more definitive answer.

“I checked; I’m fully intact,” Tillerson responded.