TILLERSON: ‘I’M FULLY INTACT’
Responds to Corker’s ‘castrate’ comment
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered up a notable response yesterday to a leading GOP senator’s assertion that President Trump was trying to “publicly castrate” the secretary by undercutting his diplomacy.
“I checked — I’m fully intact,” Tillerson deadpanned, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The notion of Trump running roughshod over the nation’s top diplomat is apparently a sensitive one inside the White House, with Tillerson and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley making the news talkshow rounds yesterday to push back against reports of a deteriorating relationship between the two.
Haley, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” was asked about reports she might be tapped to replace the former Exxon Mobil CEO as secretary of state. “That’s ridiculous,” she said. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Haley contended, as she has previously, that Trump and Tillerson “work very well together.”
The secretary, however, passed up repeated chances to directly deny he had called Trump a “moron” — a remark reportedly made months ago, but that emerged earlier this month in news reports.
“I’m not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff,” Tillerson said in the CNN interview. “I don’t work that way.” He had also sidestepped a flat denial after the report first appeared on NBC, although his spokeswoman said he didn’t use such language.
Two weeks ago, Trump went on Twitter to admonish Tillerson, then in the midst of delicate diplomatic outreach toward North Korea, not to “waste his time” pursuing any indirect channel to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Many foreign policy observers described that as a remarkable breach of the united front that presidents and the State Department seek to present.
Some Trump supporters painted Trump’s comment as a kind of “good cop-bad cop” play, but Sen. Bob Corker — the Tennessee Republican who a week ago referred to the White House as an “adult day care” center and then used the castration metaphor in subsequent interviews — said no such strategic imperative was at work.
Tillerson insisted he and Trump routinely have “a very open exchange of views” — again without specifically denying the “moron” characterization, which was reportedly made to others, not to the president’s face.
“I call the president ‘Mr. President,’ ” Tillerson told CNN.
Corker and Tillerson are close, and the senator, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, is a respected voice in the chamber on foreign policy matters.
Corker’s caustic observation about day care followed a Twitter attack by Trump in which the president accused the Tennessee Republican, who is retiring, of not having the “guts” to seek re-election. After Corker’s online retort, the president replied by belittling Corker’s height.
‘I’m not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff. I don’t work that way. ’ — REX TILLERSON U.S. secretary of state