Despite the many times Tillerson used the word "honor" during Tuesday's hearing, what the day's proceedings revealed was a man who doesn’t get the concept. Despite all the times he invoked his training as an engineer, his answers were those of a machine.
Trying to extract any meaningful statement from Tillerson was as hopeless as with most nominees. On every question of import, he delivered a fixed answer that was no answer at all. Will you promise to keep the sanctions in place? We’re going to give that a “bottom up” look. Will you promise to keep United States commitments to the Paris agreement? It’s important that we “keep a seat at the table.”
Tillerson was dully on target whenever he was confronted with a procedural question. Senator: The law requires that tab C be inserted in slot A only after the removal of tab B. Rex: I would remove tab B. So Republican senators set up the T-ball stand and propped up plenty of these for Tillerson to knock around the infield.
He was less than impressive when it came to anything about the particulars of a current situation. Over and over and over, Tillerson resorted to “I need more information” or “I have not been briefed” or “I do not have all the facts that you do.” For a guy whose big selling point was his world knowledge, it’s amazing how many times Tillerson gave out some variation on “I don’t know” when confronted with a real-world issue.
But it was when he was handed a moral question that Tillerson's front absolutely collapsed.
Given examples of the kinds of regimes where ExxonMobil had made agreements, Tillerson was asked if there were any nations where they would not make a deal. His answer? In places where they couldn’t be sure their agreement would hold. The concern about conditions in that country, or who was on the other end of that deal? Zero. If they could ensure their profit, there were no other issues.
Even in pointing out what “makes America great,” that was the limit of both Tillerson’s idea of “great” and his notion of “honor.” We honor a deal. It’s what he started out the day saying. It was literally his message to the Boy Scouts. It’s his genuine understanding of the term.
And it’s not even one step better than “I was just following orders.”
Tillerson’s answer on Exxon’s dealings around the world was the most eye-opening—particularly because Tillerson seemed completely unaware that he was throwing the entire run of what most people consider morality into the trash bin. But it was far from the only instance in which a moral question left him dangling.
When it was pointed out to Tillerson that Exxon made deals with Vladimir Putin, he readily agreed. In back-to-back questioning from Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, Tillerson was asked whether he considered Putin a war criminal. Tillerson not only would not use the term, he seemed baffled that anyone would. When Tillerson was given examples of Putin’s actions—from using military weapons to attack and destroy civilian populations to bombing hospitals to murdering journalists and political opponents—Tillerson was unmoved. He retreated first to the fallback that he didn’t have all the information. When it was pointed out that the information was from public sources, he was still unwilling to apply the term. Even Rubio seemed utterly shocked that he was unable to secure so much as an agreement that intentionally bombing a hospital was a war crime, and Tillerson’s repeated refusals to be budged left Rubio and Menendez agitated.
Tillerson, who put a deal on Putin’s desk worth half a trillion dollars, has billions of reasons to resist making that statement. That’s entirely within his definition of honor.
The exchange over Putin was also the moment for one of Tillerson’s most jaw-dropping admissions of ignorance. Though in his introduction he had mentioned Russia specifically and talked about Trump’s “bold new approach” to that nation, when confronted over the details, Tillerson claimed that he had actually not discussed Russia with Donald Trump. It was a statement so unexpected that it was asked it twice, and when Tillerson continued to plead ignorance, Menendez issued the summary of the day: “Pretty amazing.”
A near repeat of the Russia conversation happened when Tillerson was asked about the actions of President Rodrigo Duterte and the thousands of people being killed in the name of “drugs” in the Philippines. Tillerson refused to condemn the actions. First he cited a lack of access to classified information. When told it was all in the newspaper, Tillerson refused to accept the press account (as any good Trump staffer would). When told that Duterte himself was bragging over the number of bodies he was leaving in the streets, Tillerson still refused to condemn the actions. He claimed he couldn’t until he “had the facts.”
On other human rights issues such as women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, Tillerson pulled out his personal knowledge of events in “the kingdom” to say that it would be wrong to push them too fast. After all, that could endanger a deal.
It was during Menendez’s questioning that Tillerson made the most obvious eye-roller of the day, and the one that caused Sen. Bob Corker (who gave up his questioning and introduction time to serve as Tillerson’s apologist-in-chief) to sweat the most.
Asked about Exxon’s lobbying efforts on Russian sanctions, Tillerson responded that he had not personally lobbied against sanctions and was unaware that Exxon had lobbied against sanctions. This despite the fact that Exxon filed 14 separate reports on their lobbying efforts, and despite the inconvenient truth that Rex Tillerson called Bob Corker personally to discuss sanctions.
For the rest of the day, Republicans trotted in explanatory notes and Corker did his best to find some nit that could be picked to explain the difference as lobbying about sanctions instead of against sanctions, but there was little doubt about the truth—Tillerson lied openly and blatantly about the issue that’s most important to both Tillerson and Trump: the removal of sanctions against Russia.
This was just one example in which Rex Tillerson, 41-year Exxon employee and until days ago the CEO of that firm, pretended to have no knowledge of the company’s actions. Asked repeatedly about the company’s actions in routing business through Europe to get around sanctions and make sales to Iran, Syria, and the Sudan, Tillerson made one of many “You’ll have to ask Exxon” statements.
In an series of exchanges with Tim Kaine on climate change, Kaine not only showed that Exxon had decades of knowledge about climate change but that they stifled their own scientists. Tillerson first responded with “I’m no longer with ExxonMobil so I’m in no position to speak on their behalf.” Kaine kept pressing, but Tillerson would only reply “The question would have to be put to ExxonMobil.”
When, in frustration, Tim Kaine finally said, “Do you lack the knowledge or are you refusing to answer my question?” Tillerson’s reply was a snide, “A little bit of both.”
That’s Donald Trump’s secretary of state candidate, openly refusing to answer a question put to him in his confirmation hearing. It wasn’t just an admission of ignorance that would be worthy of the world’s worst CEO, it was a signal of open disrespect for the entire procedure.
In early discussion about climate change, Tillerson held to a series of nonsense statements about “keeping a seat at the table” that amounted to an unstated desire to destroy the Paris agreement and still pretend that the U.S. was taking “leadership.” Later Tillerson resorted to the same legalistic amorality he displayed on human rights. This was most clear when he refused to acknowledge any connection between a series of current events and climate change, saying that “some literature” said the connection wasn’t clear.
Since Tillerson refused to answer the question about Exxon’s funding of climate denial material, you can guess where that literature originated.
Late in the day, Chris Murphy brought Tillerson back to the discussion that had started with his refusal to condemn either Putin or Duterte. Murphy asked Tillerson to name any nation he would cite as a violator of human rights. Again Tillerson rolled out a dismissal of any information provided by the press, or by organizations, or public statements in favor of “factual information” without giving any idea what constitutes facts in Trump-Tillerson land.
If Rex Tillerson was a Dungeons & Dragons character he might, in the most generous reading, be “lawful neutral”—someone who would follow the rules, regardless of their effect. But even that is being too generous.
What Tillerson’s hearing showed was someone who would bend the rules, dodge the rules, evade the facts, and deny the truth—so long as it delivered the profit. Good is when the deal stands, no matter what it takes.
Tillerson stated repeatedly that there would be no difference between his positions and those of Donald Trump. In his confirmation hearings, he demonstrated that much, at least, is true.
Rex Tillerson should not be secretary of state. His blatant and open disregard for both facts and human rights should frighten not just Democrats, but every senator who pretends to have a notion of “honor” that goes beyond winning the day.