Tillerson not quitting: US state dept
BACK AT WORK Secretary of state took some time off after ‘megatrip overseas’
WASHINGTON: US secretary of state Rex Tillerson was back at work on Wednesday, with the state department dismissing rum ours that he was planning to quit.The department said he was away from work to take some time off after a “mega-trip overseas”.
Tillerson was scheduled to receive visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad H ar ir ia nd Qatar’ s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul rah man Al Th a ni, according to the state department’ s schedule of engagements.
“The secretary has been very clear he intends to stay here at the state department. We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us,” spokesperson Heather Naue rt told reporter sat the daily briefing on Tuesday.
She added Tillerson was “just taking a little time off” after returning from a “mega-trip overseas”.
CNN on Monday reported Tillerson might be planning to leave over his continuing policy and personnel problems with the White House and the way President Donald Trump has been recently treating senior cabinet colleague Jeff Sessions.
Trump’s public rebuke and tormenting of Sessions—the first Republican senator to back him asap residential candidate—has reportedly worried other members of the cabinet.
The report, citing sources, had said Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO, could leave by the end of the year after completing the reorganization of the state department — essentially after riding it of surplus staff.
Staffing problems have led to at least one heated exchange between Tillers on and director of presidential personnel, Johnny DeStefano, at the White House.
Tiller son has also been seen to beat odds with Trump on key foreign policy. Just hours after Tillerson made an appeal for an end to the blockade of Qatar in June, Trump came out against Qatar calling it a “funder of terrorism, and at a very high level”.
REPUBLICANS RALLY AROUND JEFF SESSIONS
“Beleaguered” attorney general Jeff Sessions has found support among Republicans troubled by Trump’s continuing public and vicious attacks on him.
Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators have rallied behind Sessions in recent days, with senator Richard Shelby warning Trump that his firing “wouldn’t be well-received”.
Even Breitbart News Network, a strident supporter of Trump, has sided with the attorney general, saying, “Sessions has fought in the trenches for a tough line on immigration for years, back when Trump was pouring money into the campaign coffers of Democrats.”