December 13, 2016 02:54 PM UTC

Trump Confirms ExxonMobil CEO as Secretary of State Choice

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• by: Colorado Pols

On Tuesday, the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump made official one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington D.C. in the last week: ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson is Trump’s pick to serve as Secretary of State.

It has been reported in numerous outlets that Trump and Tillerson could be in for a tough battle on the road to confirmation from the U.S. Senate. From FiveThirtyEight.com:

Russia will soon become an axis of conflict between President-elect Donald Trump and the U.S. Senate. Trump may have a difficult time securing Senate confirmation for Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, his pick for Secretary of State, because of Tillerson’s ties to Vladimir Putin and Exxon Mobil’s business interests in Russia. Furthermore, the Senate may soon launch an inquiry into possible Russian interference in the presidential election, something that Trump opposes.

Russia hasn’t been a focal point for policymaking in the Senate over the past several years outside of a few resolutions passed by unanimous consent. Therefore, there aren’t a lot of votes to indicate which senators might take the most hawkish positions toward Russia. However, we can look at two recent developments to get a sense for which senators might be most willing to hold the line against Trump…

Guess who makes the list of Republican “hawks” on Russia who could take a prominent role in Senate confirmation of Tillerson? Hint: His name rhymes with Mory Fardner:

There aren’t a lot of surprises on that list. It includes three of the most well-known Russia hawks in the Senate — Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida — along with Cory Gardner of Colorado, one of the few Republicans to represent a state won by Hillary Clinton. [Pols emphasis] There’s also Portman, Pat Roberts of Kansas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Three of those Republicans — Rubio, Gardner and Johnson — are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will vote on State Department nominees before their names go to the entire Senate. [Pols emphasis] Republicans will have just a one-seat advantage on the committee, so any GOP defections could potentially scuttle Tillerson’s confirmation.

But as James Hohmann writes for the Washington Post, Gardner may be reluctant to oppose Tillerson’s nomination in part because he needs to raise big money from the oil and gas industry:

Cory Gardner will be reluctant to upset the energy industry, not just because he’s from Colorado but because as NRSC chairman he’ll need to aggressively hit up oil executives for money the next two years.

Is Rex Tillerson really a good choice for Secretary of State? Who cares so long as the oil and gas industry says so!

What does Sen. Gardner have to say about Tillerson’s nomination? As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports…not much:

We asked whether Gardner had a position yet on Tillerson and were told by Communications Director Alex Siciliano: “Senator Gardner will carefully consider whomever is nominated for Secretary of State on their merits, and their merits alone.”

Hopefully you weren’t holding your breath waiting for something more substantial from Gardner, who really just wants to make sure that Donald Trump takes him off of his “naughty list” for being completely unhelpful during the 2016 election. If Gardner is concerned about Russia’s growing ties to the incoming administration, don’t expect to hear it from him anytime soon.