Chris Coons: ‘Disturbing’ and ‘Alarming’ the ‘Humiliating’ Way Tillerson Was Fired

EXCERPT:

COONS: "Well, you’re right, Willie, that it’s not that surprising that Rex Tillerson was fired by President Trump. What is surprising, disturbing, even alarming is the humiliating way in which this came about. The timing, the process, it’s striking that exactly at the moment when President Trump’s Twitter rants, his bluster, his threatening against North Korea may have secured an important diplomatic opening, which Rex Tillerson had urged him to take, he cast aside his top diplomat, I think further undermining the Secretary of State’s office, the Department of State, the career foreign service officers upon whom we rely for diplomacy. This is an important moment in American history where we face clear threats from Russia, from North Korea, from Iran, from other countries and where we need our diplomats to be well supported, engaged and motivated. Mike Pompeo has a reputation here on the Hill for being smart, being aggressive, also being partisan, and we don’t yet know whether he will be a strong secretary of state or whether he will simply reinforce President Trump’s worst impulses."