American Bridge President Jessica Mackler issued the following statement on Marco Rubio, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham kissing Trump’s ring on Rex Tillerson’s nomination:
“It’s disgraceful — but, ultimately, unsurprising — that the self-marketed anti-Putin and anti-Iran hawks are caving to Trump and now calling for U.S. foreign policy to be dictated by a man who is close friends with Vladimir Putin and who oversaw millions in sales with state sponsors of terrorism while he led ExxonMobil.”
After two weeks of putting on a show of standing up to Trump’s Putin-allied (and honored) secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, Senators Marco Rubio, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham have each folded and lined up behind Tillerson’s nomination.
Tillerson is so close to Russia that Vladimir Putin personally presented him with the “Russian Order of Friendship” award. And while Tillerson led Exxon, the company lobbied hard against U.S. sanctions on Russia — something that Tillerson denied during his confirmation hearing, even as he hedged on maintaining current sanctions or imposing furture sanctions against a country that sponsored hacking to interfere in American democracy.
Rex Tillerson’s nomination is representative of Trump’s future plans to reward Putin for his interference in November’s election on his behalf. And that makes it all the more imperative for Trump to publicly release his tax returns; because not only do 74% of the American people want to see them but also the returns will let us know whether Trump is otherwise financially beholden to Russia or Russian investors.
Published: Jan 23, 2017