Secretary Of State Tillerson Out Amid Clashes With Trump, To Be Replaced By CIA Director Pompeo

[Frank Underwood]

• Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of State, ending a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat.
• Trump says CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace the former Exxon Mobil chief executive.
• He says Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel will run the spy agency.

Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of State, ending a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat that was marked by a series of public disagreements with his boss — President Donald Trump.

Trump plans to appoint CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace the former Exxon Mobil chief executive. The president picked deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to run the spy agency.

The Washington Post first reported the news, which the president quickly confirmed in a tweet. Trump thanked Tillerson for his service and said Pompeo will do a "fantastic job."

Since Tillerson took the post in February 2017, mixed messages repeatedly came out of the White House and a State Department with diminishing relevance. The intramural clashes between the president and secretary of State came amid major international crises, including a potential nuclear showdown with North Korea.

Tensions between the president and his top diplomat hit one high when Tillerson, 65, publicly distanced himself from the president's defiant response to violence at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer.

But there were numerous other clashes.

The policy rift emerged most sharply when Trump tweeted in October that Tillerson is "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programs.

The president wrote: "Save your energy, Rex, we'll do what has to be done!"

In October, NBC News reported that Tillerson already came close to resigning this summer but was urged to stay in the job until the end of the year. He referred to Trump as a "moron" in July following a meeting with the president's national security team, according to NBC, which cited multiple high-level administration sources.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/sec...-be-replaced-by-cia-director-pompeo-wapo.html

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Some have taken to calling Trump's long line of cabinet firings a Saturday Night Massacre in slow motion.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill Of My Master Vlad!

 

[Emelee]

I've decided to treat the Trump presidency as the sit-com it resembles.

 

[Frank Underwood]

Tillerson was the former CEO of Exxon, while Trump's pick to replace him (Mike Pompeo) justified torture as "patriotism." Trump's pick to replace Pompeo as Director of the CIA (Gina Haspel) also supports torture, having oversaw a torture site in Thailand during the Bush Administration. So while there's a revolving door in the Trump Administration, the replacements end up being just as big a thug (if not more so) than their predecessors. Forget about the swamp, the Trump Administration is a flat out cesspool.

Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer's already saying that he's not calling on Democrats to oppose Pompeo and Haspel. The resistance, folks!

 

[Frank Underwood]

Diane Feinstein has said of Gina Haspel: "Everything I know is that she's been a good deputy director of the CIA." During the Bush Administration, Haspel oversaw a secret torture site in Thailand. Techniques they used included sleep deprivation and stuffing detainees into coffins. One detainee in particular was water boarded 83 times and had his head slammed against the wall before interrogators decided he had no useful information. This is the lowest of the low, but thanks to identity politics, critics of Haspel are already being called sexists.

We all know how awful Republicans are, but when are people going to wake up and see the Democratic Party for what it's become? They're complicit in this nightmare.

 

[Angela Channing]

The amount of members of his administration that Trump has fired in just over a year in office is phenomenal. I'ts like a bad episode of The Apprentice.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

The amount of members of his administration that Trump has fired in just over a year in office is phenomenal. I'ts like a bad episode of The Apprentice.

But on The Apprentice he actually used the catchphrase. As President, he is too big of a pu$$y to fire them face-to-face.

 

[Frank Underwood]

I disagree with Rand Paul on many issues (his comparison of Medicare for All to slavery, for example). However, he at least has the backbone to say he will oppose the nominations of Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel. Paul's the first Republican to come out against them, and he was also the only Republican to vote against Pompeo for CIA Director last year.

Haspel destroyed evidence regarding her torture program, and Paul said she's expressed "joyful glee at someone who is being tortured." Paul also said ""I'm perplexed by the nomination of people who love the Iraq War so much that they would advocate for a war with Iran next. I think it goes against most of the things President Trump campaigned on."

Most people who call themselves "the resistance" are all talk, and even Paul has gone along with some of Trump's draconian policies such as the tax cut bill. However, promoting torturers to positions of power is something that should be universally opposed. I give credit where credit is due, which is precisely why I reject partisan politics.

 

[Frank Underwood]

 

[Frank Underwood]

The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, is demanding Pompeo be confirmed. That's what you get from a "newspaper" owned by a guy who does business with the CIA.

Pompeo also sought advice from Hillary Clinton. Isn't it nice to know someone who is pro-torture is being counseled by a war monger? I wonder if she told him to give the cavalier response of "We came, we saw, he died" after he successfully kills a foreign leader. After all, that's what she said about Gaddafi. We can only hope every politician makes light of war.