Tillerson Denies Castration, but Not Calling President 'Moron'

The secretary of state bemoans the 'destructive games' of Washington DC
By Josh Rosenblatt,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 15, 2017 10:07 AM CDT
Tillerson Denies Castration, but Not Calling President 'Moron'
   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The question of whether the secretary of state called the president of the United States a "moron" remains open, with Rex Tillerson once again declining to put the matter to rest. On CNN's State of the Union Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked Tillerson about reports from last week that he had called Donald Trump a moron during a private conversation following a Pentagon meeting in July, a report Tillerson declined to deny during a press conference last week. Once again, Politico reports, Tillerson dodged the accusation, calling the discussion part of Washington's "destructive games." "I call the president 'Mr. President,'" Tillerson said. "At the end of the day, he makes decisions. I go out and try to implement those decisions."

Tillerson did, however, refute a recent claim made by Republican Senator Bob Corker that the secretary of state was being "publicly castrate[d]" by Trump on the issue of North Korea. Adding fuel to the fire of Corker's already weeklong war of words with the president, Corker told the Washington Post on Friday that he was worried that Trump's binary rhetoric on North Korea—Trump's way or war—was neutering Tillerson. "You cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state without giving yourself that binary choice," Corker said Friday. But Tillerson assured Tapper no such castration had occurred. "I checked," he said. "I'm fully intact." (More Rex Tillerson stories.)

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