Praise for Rex Tillerson Won’t Change the Fact He Owns Holding Company in Russia

The Trump Transition team is advertising Former Georgia Democrat and U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn’s endorsement of Exxon tycoon Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, calling him “Well prepared to do what is essential.”

If you want to weigh the value of Nunn’s testimony for the rest of us, this is the same language used, significantly, by Newt Gingrich.

Trump, of course, claimed all the CIA’s intel about his Russia ties were lies before nominating Vladimir Putin’s BFF for the job.

Speaking of the man who has the Russian Order of Friendship from the hands of Vladmir Putin, Nunn, says, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution,

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“I consider Rex Tillerson’s experience and knowledge in business as an asset – not a liability.

“I know Rex Tillerson pretty well, and I am confident that he is well prepared to do what is essential for the security of our nation: to hold firm and tough where our national interests and our values demand it and to build on our common interests in working with other nations – including Russia – on practical, concrete steps that will make the American people safer and more secure.”

As The Washington Post reminds us, the Order of Friendship doesn’t necessarily mean much by itself. However, it means a great deal given the depth of Tillerson’s ties to Putin’s Russia.

Nunn seems to be forgetting we are vetting a Secretary of State and not a CEO. Where business ties to Russia are concerned this is certainly true, but the business world is not the world of diplomacy. Sure, Putin loves him, but consider Tillerson’s major conflict of interest, a holding company based in Russia:

Americans have a very real cause for concern that Tillerson’s treatment of Russia would in any way endanger his profits there. The same is true, of course, of Donald Trump himself, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also face conflicts of interests due to business ties with Russia.

When added to Trump’s yet-to-be-fully-unraveled ties to Putin, Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State is one Putin ally too many in this administration.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.