Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a one-time outspoken anti-Trumper during the campaign, sent out an enthusiastic tweet Tuesday morning regarding Donald Trump's secretary of state pick, ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson.
What about the fact that all three of those recommendations come from people who have serious business ties to Russia and/or a stake in ExxonMobil? Politico writes:
Former government officials are lining up to vouch for ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Donald Trump’s secretary of state, and they all have something in common — a financial stake in the outcome.
James Baker, the George H.W. Bush secretary of state who, MSNBC reported, advised Donald Trump to pick Tillerson, is a partner at a law firm that has represented Exxon as well as Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company that partners with Exxon.[...]
Tillerson, who was formally nominated by Trump on Tuesday morning, also came recommended by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. They also work for Exxon through their international consulting firm, Rice Hadley Gates.
Yeah, forget about Tillerson’s long-standing relationship with Russia or that 2013 “Order of Friendship” he was awarded by the Kremlin or the “billions in dollars in oil contracts” in the country that Tillerson has an interest in—forget about all that, say Gates, Baker, and Condi. In fact, author and activist Naomi Klein pointed out another one of Rice's credentials for endorsing Tillerson ...
A lot of questions still hang in the air about whether Republicans are capable of serving as any kind of check whatsoever on Trump’s presidential power, especially when he gets to the point of trampling Constitutional guarantees like the right to peaceably assembly, freedom of speech, etc. With Republicans like Flake touting a triumvirate of self interests in support of Tillerson’s nomination, we may very well be getting a window to the future. It’s not a pretty picture.