New Jersey’s Democratic Senator Bob Menendez was a part of the Secretary of State hearings this morning with ExxonMobil’s own Rex Tillerson. In the section where even little Marco Rubio asked about Vladimir Putin kinda being a war criminal, Tillerson was unable to give the senators even a glimpse of what he and his führer envision our new Russian foreign policy will be. Menendez was pitch perfect in pointing out how bananas crazy this is.
Menendez: For all of these answers you've given me, does the president-elect agree with you?
Tillerson: The president-elect and I have not had the opportunity to discuss this specific issue or this specific area.
Menendez: Well, in your statement on page three, you say, ‘In his campaign, president-elect Trump opposed a bold new commitment to advancing American interests in our foreign policy. I hope to explain what this approach means and how I'd implement that policy if I am confirmed as Secretary of State.’ I assumed to some degree you've had some discussion about what it is that that world view is going to be in order to understand whether you are willing to execute that on behalf of the person you're going to work for?
Tillerson: In a broad construct and in terms of the principles that are going to guide that, yes, sir.
Menendez: I would have thought Russia would be at the very top of that, considering all that’s taken place. Did that not happen?
Tillerson: That has not occurred yet, Senator.
Menendez: That’s pretty amazing.
That is pretty amazing. In fact, it shows that either Rex Tillerson is a liar (he is), or that he is an incompetent person (he isn’t). Menendez quickly goes into Tillerson’s relationship with Putin and his clear conflicts of interest when it comes to sanctions.
Menendez: You built a career on ExxonMobil that afforded you the opportunity to engage regularly with world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Russia. In 2013, he awarded you with the Order of Friendship Award and in our conversations you told me you had direct and personal access to the Russian president over the course of your tenure there. Then in 2014, ExxonMobil lobbied aggressively against sanctions on Russia after their invasion of Ukraine. Exxon lobbied against the stability for Ukraine act which I introduced in the senate laflt year. You employed lobbyists who support these efforts and personally visited the white house and reported you were engaged at the highest levels of government. In essence, Exxon became the in-house lobbyist for Russia against these sanctions. Sanctions are one of the most effective diplomatic tools in our arsenal, one we rely on to avoid putting American lives at risk by engaging in traditional kinetic warfare. Now today, in response to a previous question by senator cardin, you said sanctions are a powerful tool. But you have made statements and given speeches where you have said you do not believe sanctions are a useful tool. So if sanctions are not a useful tool, have you changed your view? What are the tools of peaceful diplomacy you will use to get countries to return and act within the international order? What are you going to say to Vladimir Putin when he says to you, but, Rex, you said sanctions were bad?
Tillerson: Senator, I think it's important to acknowledge that when sanctions are imposed, they, by their design, are going to harm American business. That's the idea is to disrupt America's business engagement in whatever country is being targeted for sanctions. And so broadly --
Menendez: I don't think it's to disrupt American business. It's to disrupt the economies of those countries. Now American business may or may not be affected to some degree.
Maybe Tillerson worrying his little head about the hundreds of billions of dollars at stake in Russia.
Russian officials have optimistically called the agreement a $500 billion deal.
As for Mr. Tillerson personally, he was scheduled to retire next year from Exxon Mobil. According to company filings this year, Mr. Tillerson owned $218 million in company stock, and his pension plan was worth nearly $70 million.
No. Conflict. Here.