Set the stage for what could be the first big fight between the Trump White House and his own party. Sources telling us tillerson does come highly recommended to trump. Those endorsements, former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and james baker and bob gates. Were covering it all for you. Jason carroll is live outside of trump tower. Cnn political reporter manu raju live in washington. Jason, lets start with you. Good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. A number of gop leaders are weighing in. People like paul ryan and newt gingrich. Trump tweeting this morning saying, quote, i have chosen one of the truly great Business Leaders of the world. Though you also have senators like marco rubio weighing in saying, he has serious concerns. This morning president elect donald trump picking exxonmobile Ceo Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. Sources say tillerson was recommended by former republican secretaries of state including james baker and Condoleezza Rice. Tillerson chosen after trumps vetting of a string of high profile candidates including an unlikely courtship with onetime rival mitt romney. Trump called the 2012 gop nominee personally last night to say it wasnt all a game. Tillersons nomination already generating controversy with no formal Foreign Policy experience. The business titan instead forming Close Relationships with many World Leaders by closing massive oil deals including russian president Vladimir Putin sparking criticism from both sides of the aisle. Anybody whos a friend of Vladimir Putin must disregard that hes a murderer, thug, kgb agent. Reporter this after theyre talking about him being an agent. This smells like politics. Reporter a Bipartisan Group of senators calls for a congressional inquiry. I think we ought to approach all of these issues on the assumption that the russians do not wish us well. Reporter president obama reiterating calls for a review to prevent russia from impacting future elections. This was not a secret running up to the election. The president elect in some of his political events specifically said to the russians, hack hillarys emails. Reporter trumps team says he wont interfere with an investigation. Hes the president of the United States. The legislature can do what it wants. Reporter he delays a News Conference where he promised hell discuss how hell handle his conflicts of interest. He will be leaving his businesses before january 20th and two of his three children, don and eric, plus executives, will run the companies, notably no mention of his daughter ivanka who is likely to step away from the businesses and serve as an advisor to her father. Trump also promising no new deals will be done during his terms in office. And, carol, trump continuing to name names to his administration. Gary khan will be director of the National Economic council. Mcdaniel, the niece of mitt romney to head up the rnc and former Texas Governor rick perry said to be the frontrunner to lead the Energy Department, a department he once said he would eliminate if he ever became president. Carol . All right. Jason carroll reporting live from trump towers this morning. Tillerson isnt a shoe in for secretary of state. He still needs to be confirmed by the senate and considering his close ties to russia he could be looking at a i heated showdown on capitol hill. Lets bring in manu raju to talk about that. Hi, manu. Reporter hey, carol. Republicans have fallen in line behind trumps other picks but not Rex Tillerson. Yesterday Mitch Mcconnell refused to discuss the possibility of tillersons approval. Weve heard reservations from four republicans. A time that many want to take a hard line against russia. They issued this statement. While Rex Tillerson is a respected businessman, i have serious concerns about his nomination. The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity, free of potential conflicts of interest and has a clear sense of americas interests. Now this is significant because if democrats stay united against tillerson on the Foreign Relations committee and rubio votes no, that could be enough to derail the nomination because republicans only have a one seat advantage and thats one reason why the outgoing democratic leader harry reid told me tillersons confirmation may be in doubt. I dont know if he can get 50 votes. Reporter do the reports that youre seeing about his russian connections concern you . Its in keeping with trump. Hes he hes already stated he likes putin better than he likes obama. Its obvious he likes russia and thats fairly concerning to the world and certainly concerning to america, concerning to me. Reporter now the challenge to trump is 52 senators, on the floor of the senate the trump team can only limit its defect shuns to three republican senators to get them confirmed if all the democrats vote no. Because of those four republican senators have expressed reservations so far, trumps team and tillerson himself have some selling to do on capitol hill to close ranks. Carol . All right. Manu raju joining us live. Lets talk about all of this and more. With me is jeff zel lenny, elise lab bet and cnn Global Economic analyst. Welcome to all of you. Lets dive right in. He has no military or diplomatic experience. This is a history making pick, right . It is, indeed, carol. He is totally different from the recent secretaries of state that weve had. Without question he has considerable experience making deals but not diplomacy and that, of course, is the hallmark of any secretary of state position. About managing those relationships, carrying out the president s wishes with russia. As manu just reported, this confirmation hearing on capitol hill is going to be divisive, its going to raise all the questions that weve just been talking about. Even more so, now that hacking is in the news, it is going to be a focal point for that conversation as well. It is a separate conversation but the you know, the emergence of russia as a central issue in our politics here in the u. S. Now comes at not an opportune time for Rex Tillerson. Donald trump doubling down here and he has the support of recent secretaries of state, Condoleezza Rice among them. Look for a bruising confirmation hearing as we go forward here. Once if he would happen to get confirmed an open question about what type of secretary of state he would be. Well, let me put that to you because jeff mentioned Condoleezza Rice, supporting the pick of Rex Tillerson. She said Rex Tillerson is an excellent choice for secretary of state. He will bring to the post remarkable and broad experience, deep understanding of the Global Economy and belief in americas special role in the world. So are critics wrong about tillerson, elise . Well, carol, its not necessarily unprecedented. You know, you have had very successful secretaries of state like George Schultz who ran a Big Corporation like pectel. Certainly Rex Tillerson has a knowledge of the world, International Experience in dealing with World Leaders. Diplomacy is very different to business deal making, and, you know, you measure it in different types of terms. In a deal you kind of look at profits, but here youre looking at, you know, results in terms of diplomacy. One diplomat said diplomacy has a very long tail. When you hit one thing it necessarily affects the others. Its kind of like this complicated International Puzzle of world issues that you have to take into effect. Ive spoken to a lot of diplomats a the the state department. They say perhaps the ceo approach, someone who knows how to negotiate could shake things up for the better. There are other concerns though as jeff mentioned about Rex Tillersons relationship with Vladimir Putin and with russia and also some of the other deals he made around the world. Several years ago exxonmobile led by tillerson was in iraq trying to work on oil deals there. They dealt with the kurds as opposed to the Central Government in baghdad. That kind of fostered fears of kurdish independence. That got people wrangled up. State department, eventually everything was worked out. Now exxon is working with the whole government. There are concerns about a possible culture clash. It also isnt clear how rex tiller son feels about the state department and how they would do things. He would work with donald trump. Hes been ceo for ten years. Donald trump is a ceo now. Youre talking about hardnosed negotiations. Rex tillerson, i would expect he is a hardnosed negotiators because he made billions and billions of dollars for the exxon corporation. Absolutely. Sometimes diplomacy takes a more delicate touch. Is he capable of that . Im going to push back. I think the experience of a head of a Multinational Energy company like exxon is actually pretty relevant here. I mean, what these guys do, typically they spend their days and nights talking to heads of problematic Foreign Governments. This is actually an industry, you know, you talk about long tail, oil and gas is probably the most strategic industry, the industry with the longest view. Theyre looking at 20, 30, 50 year time frames. Theyre dealing in long relationships with governments in some of the worlds hot spots. So i actually think that experience is very relevant. I think that where things are going to be trickier maybe in the confirmation hearings are tillersons personal business interests. To have this much of a stake in exxon as a major player in the russian market is problematic. I think hes going to have to explain that. Hes going to have to show us that he is no more in bed with putin, you know, or any olligarh is in russia. I have to leave it there. Many thanks. Still to come on the newsroom, putin wants to normalize relations with the United States, but a long list of lawmakers say russia is not our friend so which is it . I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. Breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Breo wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. 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The United States is a great nation, nobody is arguing about that, but i think its completely excessive and creates certain issues in interaction. Also, carter paige, who advised the Trump Campaign for six months, appeared on Russian State Television extolling the virtues of trumps pick. Hi, matthew. Reporter hi, carol. Thats right. Carter paige is a former advisor to mr. Trump. Hes been making his rounds in russia. He was an unknown figure before his name was dropped by donald trump in the president ial campaign. Hes since been dropped by the Trump Campaign. He still sort of comes to russia as part of the organization hes founded which does business here to talk about policy issues. And hes been meeting the local press here over the past couple of days. You know, theres a sense in which they believe hes got some kind of incite into what donald trump is thinking about russia. Because theres such an appetite here in russia for anything donald trump has to say for any sort of possible change in policy towards his country, hes getting extremely large audience. Carter paige very positive on the appointments of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Take a listen to what he had to say to a bunch of local journalists gathered in moscow last night. Theres a lot of rumors out there. I dont have any specific insights into the rumors. Im really personally excited you know just as one small example one major example on one hand but one of many examples about Rex Tillerson, you know, being awarded the order of friendship, the many joint ventures he creates worked to create in the black sea, tide oil, the list goes on. Actions speak louder than words. I think theres a lot of ways we can certainly Work Together on this. Reporter carol, after donald trump announced his decision on twitter that Rex Tillerson was his choice for secretary of state, he tweeted again saying this. The thing i like best about Rex Tillerson is he has vast experience dealing successfully with all types of Foreign Governments. Its his dealings with the russian government that are potentially the most controversial, are potentially going to create the most problems when it comes to his confirmation hearings in the senate. Matthew chance reporting live from moscow. Thanks so much. Let me introduce my next guest. Congressman reed ribble. Republican from the state of wisconsin. Serves on the House Foreign Affairs committee. Good morning, sir. Good morning, carol. Good morning. Lets start with carter paige. American citizen, onetime trump advisor. Appeared on Russian State Television which is the Government Television station to taut Donald Trumps pick for secretary of state. How does that strike you . Well, i mean, i think the whole russian connection with tillerson is something that Everyone Needs to be a little bit cautious of. It does throw up some red flags and certainly mr. Tillerson should divest himself of his holdings at exxon so theres no conflict of interest at all. Then we have to recognize, i think, mr. Trump has to recognize that russias not necessarily a great friend of the United States and has never been held accountable for some of the actions in ukraine. It has to be both intrigued and a bit troubled. Well, you know, russias foreign minister, who is the equivalent of americas secretary of state, already sent out a news release saying that russia welcomes the nomination of Rex Tillerson as u. S. Secretary of state and is ready to work with him. He says, i think both President Trump and the new secretary were not opponents to developments of our relations. On the contrary, people are pragmatic. We expect the pragmatism will be a good basis for building mutually beneficial relationships with russia. You dont find this coming in from other countries like our strong allies like germany and the u. K. It came first from russia. Well, yeah. I dont know that we should necessarily be surprised at that simply because exxon is a big player in russia. Russias number one industry is energy and so i think that that would be logical. We have to remember that these Business People that trump is bringing into the into his cabinet, theyre typically obsessively selfinterested. When youre looking