Rex Tillerson, in Meeting With US Diplomats, Says Russia 'Interfered' in Election

By Spencer Ackerman, The Daily Beast

12 December 17

The secretary of state acknowledged Moscow’s 2016 interference. Then he continued to talk about cutting back on U.S. diplomacy.

eleaguered Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged in a closed-door meeting with U.S. diplomats on Tuesday that Russia “interfered in democratic processes here,” something President Trump still describes as “fake news” intended to delegitimize his presidency.

It’s a precarious position for Tillerson to take, even privately. Tillerson’s job is on thin ice, as rumors swirl that he will be swapped out for CIA director Mike Pompeo. Within the department, Tillerson’s support is wafer-thin, as diplomats have come to see his purpose as hollowing out U.S. diplomacy.

Publicly, Tillerson has been a bit more circumspect about the Kremlin question. In April, Tillerson called the “question of Russian interference” in the election something that was “fairly well-established.” In August, Tillerson told his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that the election meddling engendered “serious mistrust between our two countries.”

Nor was Tillerson’s acknowledgement about Russian interference in the 2016 election the only departure from Trump’s positions.

While Trump has “decertified” the Iran nuclear deal and is looking for the exits—something U.S. allies consider a catastrophic step toward war—Tillerson told his Tuesday morning town hall, “for the time being, we are in the agreement,” according to a State Department official.

But the official referred to Tillerson as “an idiot” for suggesting a retrenchment of diplomatic efforts in Europe at a time when Russia and the far-right forces it sponsors are aggressively competing for influence.

Tillerson said “the footprints in places like Paris and Rome are too large,” the official told The Daily Beast. The official summarized Tillerson’s position as: “they are nice places, but is there really work there for all the employees? He basically says to take people from those places and send them to conflict [zones and] hotspots.”