President Trump ousted his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday morning, replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Trump confirmed on Twitter that CIA Director Mike Pompeo would be the new secretary of state and thanked Tillerson for his service.
CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel will become the new director of the CIA.
On Monday, Tillerson contradicted White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders by admitting that Russia was likely responsible for the poisoning of a former spy.
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Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018
Trump claims that he and Tillerson disagreed on the Iran nuclear deal while claiming that he and Pompeo are always on the same wavelength.
Update: “The instability of this administration in just about every area weakens America,” Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement sent to PoliticusUSA. “If he’s confirmed, we hope that Mr. Pompeo will turn over a new leaf and will start toughening up our policies towards Russia and Putin.â€
Update: Outside the south portico, Trump responded to a shouted question by a reporter, “Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time. We got along, actually, quite well but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal; I think it’s terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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