{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://waters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-waters-statement-nomination-rex-tillerson-secretary-state", "Congresswoman Waters\u2019 Statement on the Nomination of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State", "2016-12-14", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Maxine Waters", "W000187", "waters.house.gov", "waters", "https://waters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "December 14, 2016\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, condemned President-elect Trump\u2019s nomination of Rex Tillerson to be our nation\u2019s next Secretary of State. Her statement follows:\n\n\u201cA day after he publicly ridiculed the C.I.A. and its conclusions that Russia breached our recent election, President-elect Trump once again reaffirms his curious allegiance to Vladimir Putin with yet another nod to Russia in his latest nominee for Secretary of State. Putin-approved Rex Tillerson comes after the President-elect\u2019s continued denials, despite the intelligence community\u2019s conclusions and bipartisan consensus, that Russia was behind the cyberattacks on Clinton Campaign staff, the Democratic National Committee, and even the Republican National Committee; his urging Russian operatives to hack his political opponent; his repeated statements praising Putin\u2019s leadership and stature over the United States President; and the ongoing unanswered questions about his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his multimillion dollar business deals with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, including some allegedly tied to organized crime, that is reportedly the subject of an FBI inquiry.\n\nLike the President-elect, if confirmed, Rex Tillerson would assume his position with no government experience and a myriad of conflicts of interest and financial entanglements related to his business dealings with Russia.\n\nRex Tillerson has no diplomatic experience. His entire career has been spent at Exxon and ExxonMobil (following Exxon\u2019s merger with Mobil in 1999), and his international experience is limited to negotiating oil deals for his own and his company\u2019s profits.\n\nTillerson has very close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ties which go back to the days when Tillerson represented Exxon\u2019s interest in Russia prior to Tillerson\u2019s accession to his current position as ExxonMobil\u2019s CEO. Tillerson was awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin in 2013. This \u201cfriendship\u201d award should cause Americans to wonder whether his first priority as Secretary of State will be the national security of the United States or his personal relationship with the authoritarian leader of a nation that has nuclear weapons pointed at our country.\n\nIn 2011, Tillerson signed a multibillion dollar agreement with Russia on behalf of ExxonMobil for drilling in the Arctic. However, sanctions against Russia in response to its aggression in Ukraine brought the project to a halt in 2014. If Tillerson were to use his position as Secretary of State to reverse these sanctions, it could be immensely profitable to ExxonMobil \u2013 and possibly his personal stock in the company. Trump\u2019s refusal to close the door on lifting the sanctions aggravates these concerns.\n\nTillerson\u2019s ties to Russia are especially troublesome in light of the U.S. intelligence community\u2019s deeply disturbing conclusion that Russia interfered in the U.S. elections for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. Any foreign meddling in our democratic process is absolutely unacceptable. The incoming administration may need to make critical decisions regarding how the U.S. will respond to this intolerable interference, in order to deter Russia \u2013 as well as other potential adversaries \u2013 from attempting to interfere in our elections in the future.\n\nRevelations of Russian meddling in our elections have created a crisis of confidence in our political institutions. Trump has exacerbated this crisis by rejecting out-of-hand the conclusions of the dedicated professionals who work in the intelligence community. Trump\u2019s nomination of a designated friend of Russia to be our next Secretary of State will only serve to intensify the concerns of American voters about the protection of the electoral system enshrined in our Constitution.\n\nRex Tillerson\u2019s record of misinformation on climate change is also a reason for grave concern about his ability to be a credible and effective Secretary of State. Recent evidence indicates that Exxon deliberately misled government agencies and the American public regarding the threat posed by climate change. The New York Times reported that ExxonMobil may have known as early as the 1950\u2019s that their carbon emitting product contributes to warming the earth. Furthermore, Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times reported that ExxonMobil and other energy groups began a coordinated campaign of mass deception as to the truth of climate science \u2013 spreading doubt and confusion among the public and ultimately sinking climate action in Congress.\n\nRex Tillerson\u2019s apparent willingness to deceive the American people by engaging in a misinformation campaign that could have significantly increased his company\u2019s profits makes him unacceptable as a diplomatic representative of our nation.\n\nI have personal experience with the troubling way that Rex Tillerson has run his business, as a consequence of ExxonMobil\u2019s ownership of an oil refinery in the City of Torrance in my congressional district. Exxon acquired the refinery when it merged with Mobil in 1999 and continued to operate it until July 1st of this year, when ExxonMobil sold the refinery to another company. During Mr. Tillerson\u2019s tenure as CEO of ExxonMobil and operator of this refinery, the refinery had at least six known accidents and safety problems, including an incident in 2009 that caused a worker to die of second- and third-degree burns and an explosion last year, which injured four workers, registered as a magnitude 1.7 earthquake, and covered much of the surrounding community with ash.\n\nIt is hard to believe that Mr. Tillerson would be a dedicated advocate for our country\u2019s national interests when he has provided no evidence that he takes seriously the health and safety of the people who live and work in and around his company\u2019s facilities, even when those facilities are located in American communities like Torrance, California.\n\nFinally, Tillerson\u2019s close ties to Russia are especially alarming in light of Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s brutal assault on the city of Aleppo and his merciless slaughter of innocent civilians.\n\n\u201cAleppo will join the ranks of those events in world history that define modern evil, that stain our conscience decades later - Halabja, Rwanda, Srebrenica and now Aleppo,\u201d said U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power.\n\nGiven all of the domestic and international challenges facing our great country at this critical moment in history, we do not need yet another Trump Administration official with extensive entanglements in Russia and a history of pursuing corporate profits at the expense of the American people.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T21:09:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://waters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-waters-statement-nomination-rex-tillerson-secretary-state"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8540548626333475, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}