This is not normal. Today, President Donald Trump has fired Rex Tillerson, and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as America's top diplomat.
WaPo:
Tension between President Trump and Rex Tillerson, the nation’s top diplomat, has simmered for many months and reached a breaking point over the past week, officials said. Trump plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to lead the State Department, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach to North Korea.
2. Monday, 6:55 PM: @AP reports that Rex Tillerson says nerve agent "clearly came from Russia." Adds that "we didn’t get very far" in effort to improve relations with Moscow. "Instead what we’ve seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive." https://t.co/wmbcSbWfiZ
— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) March 13, 2018
The former Exxon CEO once had to deny reports he called his boss 'a moron.'
That would be me. https://t.co/6wM7BTlP93
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 13, 2018
And from Reuters, on how conflict over North Korea played into the internal White House drama.
In December Tillerson had offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would be about giving up its nuclear arsenal.
But the White House distanced itself from those remarks, and a few days later, Tillerson himself backed off.
Several months earlier in Beijing, Tillerson told reporters the United States was directly communicating with North Korea but that Pyongyang had shown no interest in dialogue. Trump contradicted Tillerson’s efforts a day later.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump wrote on Twitter, using a pejorative nickname for Kim.“Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” Trump added.
Pres and Tillerson wont be Cabinet seatmates anymore. (File photo (11/1/17) pic.twitter.com/SjGhGvwkzA
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 13, 2018
served, not severed. https://t.co/pnWZ1WqSzK
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 13, 2018
He was one of the worst Secretaries of State in history, doing the most to let @StateDept rot. But @POTUS firing Rex Tillerson via tweet less than a week after the North Korea meeting news and a day after he harshly critiqued Putin? Something is smelly. https://t.co/EYl0bZfjws
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) March 13, 2018
Of the 15 secretaries who served shorter than Tillerson:
1 died
10 were appointed near the end of a presidential admin
1 was appointed honorarily shortly before a transition
2 left for other diplomatic positions
1 resigned over a dispute with the presidenthttps://t.co/NmtvY2SCeg— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) March 13, 2018
Tillerson should pretend he didn't see the tweet and just stay in the job, Milton-like, until one of the Bobs fixes the glitch.
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 13, 2018
Fourteen Democrats voted to confirm Pompeo to be CIA director:
Donnelly, Feinstein, Hassan. Heitkamp, Kaine, Klobuchar, Manchin, McCaskill, Reed, Schatz, Schumer, Shaheen, Warner and Whitehouse.
Murphy was absent that day and did not vote. https://t.co/lh4y4pHW3y
— Amelia Frappolli (@AmeliaFrappolli) March 13, 2018
Tillerson was informed, along with the rest of the world, in 2017 https://t.co/i13E7iE4hN https://t.co/V7ha2jAqDn
— Emily Parker (@emilydparker) March 13, 2018
Senate Foreign Relations Committee expects an April confirmation hearing for Pompeo. Gonna be a grilling – both CIA stuff (meeting with Russian spy chiefs, for example) and stuff like Iran nuclear deal and NKorea talks.
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) March 13, 2018
Your essential read today: @EliotACohen on “the worst secretary of state in living memory”—and what to expect from Mike Pompeo https://t.co/gUYSU2JSRx pic.twitter.com/j9DxQ31HIj
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) March 13, 2018