you re in africa and the only thing that stops you from being fired while you re there, according to post today is john kelly said give the guy a break. don t lop his head off when he s in foreign territory. but warn him, i m going to do it when he gets home. in other words, trump s inclination was to fire the guy while he s overseas on assignment. why would he want to do that. he just decided at that moment he had had it with tillerson. once he decided to make that change, he wanted to announce it. he likes to break his onus on twitter and had to be convinced he needed to wait for the secretary of state to finish his mission. it looks bad. you know what? it looks however it looks, but look, he waited. he waited till tillerson was back in the u.s. for about three hours and then announced it. go with him on jet lag, get him while he s weak and groggy and then stick it to him.
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
much less of that for putin to deal with. under rex tillerson s leadership there s been an unprecedented parade of senior talent leading the building. there s also been slow walking of sanctions against russia. and something else, in 2016 as part of the defense bill that president obama signed, under rex tillerson the state department never collected the money for that program. one source saying that tillerson aide said that money is unwelcome because any extra funding for programs to counter russian media influence would anger moscow. can t have that. today they re still reporting that they haven t collected that money for this year either it s $120 million sitting there. not one of the 23 analysts
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 mayor 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 say yes to the guy that got that job to put a spotlight on that man. if the russians were so siked to get you there, what did they like about you so much and are they happy about the purchase and are there receipts? second revelation, brand-new revelation from jane mayer. she s got a lot of detail about the past relationship with
one of the biggest bombshells from jane mayers piece in the new yorker is a piece that surfaced from the christopher steele dossier. reporting from one of steele s sources that the kremlin had intervened to block the president s choice for secretary of state, mitt romney. when rex tillerson was chosen that made them so happy. if there s one thing that vladimir putin doesn t like it s an assertive state department that will levy and implement sanctions against russia for its foreign policy and military adventurism. having an understanding soul in a secretary of state would mean