Trump’s nominee for State clears hurdle in Senate

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state cleared a Senate hurdle Monday, setting the stage for an extended debate over the president’s order banning travel from specific Muslim-majority countries and U.S. policy toward Russia.

Senators voted 56-43 to put Tillerson’s bid to be the nation’s chief diplomat on track for confirmation later this week. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pressed unsuccessfully for a delay in the vote until Tillerson answered for Trump’s travel ban order.

Trump’s order bars individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. Trump has repeatedly said the move is aimed at protecting the nation against extremists looking to attack Americans and American interests. But recent domestic acts of deadly extremist violence have been carried out either by U.S. citizens or by individuals whose families weren’t from the nations singled out.

Although many Democrats – including Schumer – will oppose Tillerson, they’ll need at least several Republicans to join them to derail the nomination. That appeared unlikely, even after two of the Senate’s leading Republican voices on national security voiced concern over Trump’s desire for a better relationship with Moscow.

Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also criticized Trump’s travel ban order and his failure to consult with key federal agencies, including the departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

“We fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism,” McCain and Graham said. That elicited an angry tweet from Trump, who called the two GOP senators “weak on immigration” and accused them of “looking to start World War III.”

Whether Trump intends to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia will likely be another major theme in the Senate debate over Tillerson’s nomination, which is restricted to no more than 30 hours after Monday’s vote. The president last week was noncommittal, telling reporters at a news conference: “We’ll see what happens. As far as the sanctions, very early to be talking about that.”

But Democrats have doubted Tillerson’s willingness to be tough with Russia. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said his responses to questions about sanctions against Moscow sounded more like answers a corporate executive would give instead of a prospective secretary of state.

Trump complained Monday night about the confirmation process, tweeting: “The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct.”

Trump has nominated some of the wealthiest Americans to serve a president, leading to exhaustive ethics reviews. A Senate schedule interrupted by breaks has also delayed the process.