Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was unwilling to commit Wednesday to voting President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because of the partisan split on the committee, his defection could stall the nomination.
“My view is the president deserves wide latitude in their positions, but the higher the position is the less latitude they have,” Rubio told reporters after the hearing, in remarks broadcast by CNN. “Some positions, as the it gets higher and higher, the discretion becomes more limited and our scrutiny should become higher.”
During Wednesday’s confirmation hearings, Rubio grilled Tillerson on human rights, and at one point, Tillerson balked at calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”
“These questions were designed for a specific reason, and that is, if we’re going to have moral clarity in our foreign policy we need to be clear. And I don’t want to see us move towards a foreign policy in which human rights matter when nothing else matters, when something more important isn’t standing in the way,” Rubio told reporters after the hearing.
Rubio added that he intended to go back and look through the Tillerson’s answers before making the decision whether to support him.
“I have to make sure that I am 100 percent behind whatever decision that I make, because once I make it, it isn’t going to change,” Rubio said.
Don’t count on this cipher. He’s angling for something.
Exxon stock?
Marco has his hand out, for sure. DJT is setting the table for lots of snacking.
Why not Marco …
He said he was for clean water —
Hey Marco chill out and max your credit cards.
Marco’s reply: I don’t have any
I bet ten Internet dollars he votes to confirm.