a memo after his contract with fusion ended. this memo did not surface publicly with others, shorter than the rest. that official said he was relaying talks circulating in the ministry of foreign affairs. what he heard was astonishing. people were saying the kremlin intervened to block trump s first official choice for secretary of state, mitt romney. jane mayer published that scoop a few days ago. a couple weeks later the wall street journal published this after the election of 2016, russian backed online trolls flooded social media to try to block mitt romney from getting the secretary of state job. several most popular accounts linked to a pro propaganda agency slammed the governor encouraging their tens of thousands of followers to take action. we all know how this story ends. trump picked as his secretary of state, not mitt romney but out of nowhere, the exxon ceo, rex
no on pompeo. we will have to have some democrats would vote for him in the end. you have to remember, harris, secretary of state job, john kerry got 94 votes in the senate. hillary clinton got 94 votes in the senate. mike pompeo graduated first in his class at west point, harvard law review. house of representatives, a member of the intelligence committee. a highly qualified position. the secretary of state s job is critically important to american foreign policy. we need to get him approved as soon as possible. harris: critically important, look at the time. this is the person who told us a few months ago how close we were potentially with korea s nuclear weapons program. it s not just timing that is critically important but it s also inconsistent with where democrats have been before. they supported him. true, they did. when he was up for cia, it was 66-32. we had 15 or so democrats who
welcome back. president trump s latest nominees for top post could run into opposition from his own party. today republican senator rand paul vowed once again to do everything he can to block mike pompeo for the secretary of state job, and gina haspel for the cia post. paul objects to haspel s involvement in the bush era interrogation programs. here s what senator paul and his fellow republican lindsey graham said today. i ll do whatever it takes, that includes filibuster. i will try to make a point to the american people and maybe the american people will rise up and say you know, we stand in solidarity with those who seek freedom from torture, not the freedom to torture. it s inconsistent with who we are as a people to have someone run our spy agency that has this
what he heard was astonishing. people were saying the kremlin intervened to block trump s choice for secretary of state. he was notably hawkish on russia calling it the single greatest threat to the u.s. steel s memo said the kremlin through unspecified channels had asked trump to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift ukraine related sanctions and who would cooperate on security issues of interest to russia. if what the source heard was true that a foreign power was exercising pivotal influence over policy and an incoming president. the quote on december 18th, 2016, the secretary of state job, it was a surprise to most and a happy one. tillerson s business ties were long-standing in 2011 he brokered a historic partnership between exxonmobil and the state-owned russian giant. after the election, congress
over policy and an incoming president. the quote on december 18th, 2016, the secretary of state job, it was a surprise to most and a happy one in moscow because tillerson s business ties were longstanding and in 2011 he brokered an historic partnership between exxonmobil and the state-owned russian giant. after the election, congress imposed additional sanctions on russia and retaliation for the election interference but trump and tillerson have resisted enacting those additional sanctions. it s interesting, this bombshell from jane mayer today is treated like a mitt romney story but more than that it is a story who the secretary of state ended up being. i mean, if this memo was correct, and russia did get veto authority to say no to mitt romney getting that job, presumably that means they did