As Senate confirmation hearings continue for President-elect Donald Trump's picks for his Cabinet, controversial Secretary of State pick Rex Tillerson continues to stumble as he moves through day two of his ongoing hearing. But as the hours drag on, a bigger question than his plan for Russia or climate change: How will the nation function if both its president and head diplomat don't have government experience?

Earlier today, the Washington Post's James Hohmann and Breanne Deppisch pointed out that Tillerson's troubling performance in his first nine hours of Senate confirmation testimony don't bode well for U.S. diplomatic relations, especially because Donald Trump comes from a similar background (i.e. no background) in politics or diplomacy. According to the Washington Post, only about half (47%) of Trump's Cabinet nominees posses previous government experience. On the contrary, more than nine in 10 of George W. Bush and Barack Obama's Cabinet secretaries were equipped with previous government experience, the Washington Post reported.

What did Tillerson, the CEO of oil conglomerate Exxon Mobil, do to cause alarm? There were several key issues. First and foremost, Tillerson got into a series of tense debates with Republican senator and former presidential nominee Marco Rubio, a member of his own party, about how the potential Secretary of State would handle foreign relations with Russia. By refusing to explain if he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was a war criminal in regards to Russia's involvement in Syria's civil war (or being able to say why he doesn't), Tillerson only further strengthened suspicions that his potential ties to Putin may cloud his judgement. It also brought up concerns about if his business interests might get in the way of his ability to do his job in other matters, too.

Even worse, Tillerson's answer for every question — on everything from believing in climate change to confronting Vladimir Putin — was essentially that he'd "need more information" before making a final assessment. This, Hohmann and Deppish say, is because Tillerson comes from a background in business, where transparency isn't necessarily the norm. "Tillerson showed yesterday that he is not accustomed to being fully transparent, and like Trump, he does not believe he needs to answer questions from the public when he does not want to," they wrote in the Washington Post.

While it's not over yet, Tillerson's hearing is proving one important point: Trump's hypothesis that businessmen make for good politicians and diplomats may not ring true in practice.

Related: Trump Won’t Fully Leave His Companies When He Takes Office — And That’s a Problem

Check this out: