Despite All Democrats Voting Against Tillerson for Secretary of State, Committee Moves Nomination to Full Senate
11-10 Vote for Tillerson
Rex Tillerson received ten “no” votes, one from every Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Eleven Republicans voted for the retired Exxon/Mobil CEO, moving his nomination to become America’s next Secretary of State to the full Senate, where he is expected to be confirmed.
Many had hoped that Marco Rubio would vote against Tillerson, but the Florida Republican who once battled Donald Trump announced Monday morning he would support the nominee.
Rubio said he was concerned Tillerson would pursue deals that undermined traditional US alliances.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 23, 2017
 And Sen. Rubio was widely mocked for not voting against him:
Actual footage of Marco Rubio trying to stand up for what he believes in pic.twitter.com/90Sbn7eBQP
— Nat Baimel (@NatBaimel) January 23, 2017
Others expressed their concerns for Tillerson:
.@SenMarkey: Tillerson “refused to commit to recusing himself” from all ExxonMobil matters as sec. of State; that’s “a fundamental conflict” pic.twitter.com/kE4VndK3Sq
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 23, 2017
Tillerson refused to say having a Muslim registry was wrong or bad, and had little more than a shoulder shrug when talking about LGBT issues.
Sen. @MarcoRubio statement on vote for Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State. Full video of Senate meeting here: https://t.co/GgVpKY8HKA pic.twitter.com/jyelRUxfnQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 23, 2017
Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, provided the final yes vote.
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Image: Screenshot via C-SPAN
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