More about Trump's team
- Senate confirms Alex Acosta as Trump's secretary of labor
- Lawmakers say Flynn did not inform U.S. government about payments from Turkey, Russia
- Senate confirms Sonny Perdue as agriculture secretary
- Gorsuch sworn into Supreme Court, restores conservative tilt
- Senate confirms Trump pick Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court
- Senate Republicans invoke 'nuclear option' to overcome Democrats' filibuster of Supreme Court nominee
- Trump removes Bannon from National Security Council
- U.S. defense chief worries about 'reckless' North Korea actions
- U.S. defense chief worries about 'reckless' North Korea actions
- Michael Flynn in talks with Congress, wary of prosecution
- Top aide to President Donald Trump leaves administration
- David Friedman sworn in as Trump's ambassador to Israel
- Ivanka Trump to become official White House employee
- Zinke: Border wall 'complex,' faces geographic challenges
- Kushner, taking new White House role, faces rare scrutiny
- In Trump's White House drama, Priebus is favorite target
- Ivanka Trump, Education Secretary DeVos promote STEM careers
- Attorney General: Sanctuary cities are risking federal money
- Netanyahu welcomes new U.S. ambassador 'to Jerusalem'
- Ivanka Trump to attend women's economic summit in Berlin
- Ex-CIA chief: Flynn's firm discussed removing cleric from U.S.
- Trump son-in-law's ties to Israel raise questions of bias
- Gorsuch hearings show him as careful, folksy, testy at times
- Trump SEC pick assures that his Wall St. work not problem
- AP Exclusive: U.S. probes banking of ex-Trump campaign chief
- Supreme Court nominee unscathed facing last day of hearings
- Lawmakers want details on Flynn's foreign contacts, payments
- High court nominee to face daylong questioning in Senate
- Tillerson to skip meeting of NATO foreign ministers
- High court nominee: I'll be unbiased or 'hang up the robe'
- First daughter Ivanka Trump gets West Wing office
- White House tries to distance Trump from campaign aides
- Senate hearings get underway on Trump Supreme Court pick
- Report: Trump adviser's husband picked for Justice post
- Trump's high court pick is harsh critic of assisted suicide
- Documents detail Flynn payments from Russian interests
- Senate votes to approve Trump's picks for key security posts
- Democrats say Trump's pick for trade post needs waiver
- Senate confirms Trump pick to head Medicare and Medicaid
- Key members of Trump's circle under scrutiny for Russia ties
- DeVos promotes school choice, local control
- Tillerson heads to Asia with North Korea tensions high
- Conway suggests surveillance of Trump went beyond phones
- Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a rising star in Trump's orbit
- Trump's choice for FDA has ties to Wall Street, drug makers
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeks resignations of 46 U.S. attorneys
- Acosta headed for questions on sex offender case at hearing
- White House: Trump unaware of Flynn's foreign agent work
- HUD could face steep cuts, but Carson says numbers early
- EPA chief: Carbon dioxide not primary cause of warming
- AP Source: Huntsman offered job of ambassador to Russia
- General says no bad decisions in Yemen raid, probe is over
- Former Trump security adviser Flynn admits Turkey lobbying
- Confirmation for Justice's No. 2 job occurs amid controversy
- Top Trump security adviser faces questions in rare hearing
- Ben Carson compares slavery to immigration to America
- DHS chief: Agency may separate parents, children at border
- Vice President Mike Pence jokes with 'enemy of the people' at Gridiron Dinner
- Six weeks later, senators question delay on agriculture pick
- Officials: Tillerson eyes State Department budget cut over 3 years
- Pence used a private email account to conduct state business
- New Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ponies up to work at first day in office
- Sessions recuses himself from investigation into Russia's election meddling
- Senate confirms billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary
- Sessions: More violence around pot than 'one would think'
- Pence to address politically potent Republican Jewish group
- State Department news briefings to resume in early March
- Sessions: U.S. to continue use of privately run prisons
- Trump pick as security adviser is independent-minded
- Trump sends top aides to Mexico amid deep strains with U.S.
- Scott Pruitt confirmed by Senate to serve as EPA administrator
- Harward turns Trump down for national security adviser job
- Trump names Acosta as new choice to become labor secretary
- Senate hearings for Supreme Court pick to begin March 20
- Trump's pick for Israel ambassador faces rocky confirmation
- Senate to confirm Trump budget chief
- Andrew Puzder is withdrawing as Trump's nominee for labor secretary
- Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon on track to lead Small Business Administration
- Four GOP senators on the fence over Puzder for labor secretary
- National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns amid Russia controversy
- Senate confirms former banker Mnuchin as Treasury secretary
- Trump 'evaluating the situation' involving Flynn, Russia
- Gorsuch returns 68-page questionnaire to Senate
- Gorsuch returns 68-page questionnaire to Senate
- Senate confirms Trump's health secretary
- Senate confirms Jeff Sessions to be attorney general
- Sen. Sessions on track for confirmations as attorney general
- DeVos ekes out confirmation win as Pence casts historic vote
- Senate set to confirm education secretary by narrow margin
- Vice President Mike Pence says nominee Neil Gorsuch will join Supreme Court 'one way or the other'
- DeVos clears Senate hurdle toward becoming education secretary
- Seasoned spymaster named deputy CIA director
- Pelosi calls top Trump security adviser 'white supremacist'
- GOP senators move Trump EPA pick ahead as Dems boycott vote
- Little heard in public, Bannon is quiet power in Oval Office
- 2 Republican senators won't support DeVos nomination
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- Senate confirms Rex Tillerson as secretary of state
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- Union-backed Ronald Vitiello named to lead Border Patrol
- President Donald Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch to U.S. Supreme Court [video]
- Elaine Chao sworn in as transportation secretary
- Education nomination advances to full Senate
- DeVos may have used official's remarks without attribution
- GOP pushing Price, Sessions, DeVos a step toward Senate OK
- Labor secretary nominee's company outsourced jobs
- Amid criticism, Comey remaining as FBI director under Trump
- Former intelligence officer picked to lead Navy
- Senate committees approve several of Trump's Cabinet choices
- South Carolina Gov. Haley resigns to become U.S. ambassador to U.N.
- Former congressman Mike Pompeo sworn in as CIA director
- Senate panel narrowly backs Rex Tillerson for top diplomatic post
- Senate confirms Trump's picks for defense, homeland security
- Rick Perry says he regrets call to eliminate Energy Department
- Trump picks former Georgia governor as agriculture secretary
- Senate panel decisively approves James Mattis for defense secretary
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- Pointed questions await Trump's pick for health secretary
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- Education secretary pick DeVos defends school choice during confirmation hearing
- Tennessee scientists urge Corker, Alexander to oppose Trump's EPA pick
- CIA nominee Mike Pompeo agrees Russia tried to interfere in election
- Top Trump aide in frequent contact with Russia's ambassador
- Trump's Pentagon pick cruises toward likely confirmation
- Trump's Pentagon pick receives strong support in first vote
- Black lawmakers say Sen. Jeff Sessions unfit to be attorney general
- Trump's pick for top diplomat takes tough line on Moscow
- I'd stand up to Trump as attorney general, Sessions tells senators
- Trump son-in-law Kushner to take senior White House role
- Haslam backs Trump's pick for U.S. Education Secretary
- Trump selects former Sen. Coats for top intelligence post
- Trump to name Nashville's Bill Hagerty ambassador to Japan
- Trump expected to name lawyer Robert Lighthizer as top trade rep
- Trump names Bush-era veteran and policy newcomer to posts
- Trumps pick for ambassador to Israel sparks hot debate
- Sen. Corker says he is 'more than reassured' about Tillerson's views on Russia
- Trump picks Florida Panthers owner as Army secretary
- Trump's pick for budget director has urged big spending cuts
- Trump salutes supporters in Florida, names budget director
- Former SEAL Zinke tapped for Interior secretary
- Perry would bring oil industry ties to Energy Department
- Trump announces selection of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state
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- President-elect Donald Trump: Rudy Giuliani taking himself out of running for Cabinet post
- Trump expected to tap Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn for economic post
- Trump selects Tennessee business leader as labor secretary
- Trump picks WWE's Linda McMahon for Small Business Administration post
- Trump picks Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head EPA
- Trump taps retired four-star Gen. John Kelly to head Homeland Security
- HUD secretary nominee Ben Carson under fire for lack of experience
- Trump to nominate Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense
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- AP Source: Trump offers National Security Adviser job to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn
- AP Source: Trump offers National Security Adviser job to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Barraged by questions about Russia, Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state promised a far more muscular approach toward the Kremlin on Wednesday, abandoning much of the president-elect's emphasis on improving ties between the Cold War foes. Instead, Rex Tillerson suggested the outgoing Obama administration responded too softly to Moscow's takeover of Ukrainian territory.
The surprising shift in tone by Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil CEO and Russian "Order of Friendship" recipient, reflected the difficulty Trump will have in persuading Democrats and Republicans to broach a broad rapprochement with President Vladimir Putin's government. Calling Russia a "danger" to the United States, Tillerson said he would keep U.S. sanctions in place and consider new penalties related to Russian meddling in the presidential election.
Although he said he hadn't read last week's classified assessment by the U.S. intelligence community, Tillerson said it was a "fair assumption" that Putin would have ordered the operation that purportedly included hacking, propaganda and internet trolls to harm Hillary Clinton's candidacy and advance Trump's. But in a puzzling revelation, Tillerson conceded he hadn't yet talked with Trump about a Russia policy.
"Russia today poses a danger, but it is not unpredictable in advancing its own interests," Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He added that Trump's administration would be committed to the defense of America's NATO partners, an obligation the president-elect called into question during the campaign if allies failed to meet defense spending pledges.
While his prepared statement reflected some of Trump's desire for improved ties, Tillerson quickly pivoted under pressure from both sides of the aisle. On Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimea region, he said, "That was a taking of territory that was not theirs."
Still, he criticized President Barack Obama's sanctions on Russia, which ended up costing Exxon hundreds of millions of dollars. And he declared that he would have responded by urging Ukraine to send all available military units to its eastern border with Russia and recommending U.S. and allied support through defensive weapons and air surveillance, to send a message to Moscow.
"That is the type of response that Russia expects," he said in a response to questions from Sen. Marco Rubio, Tillerson's toughest GOP inquisitor, who later lectured the oil man on human rights and hinted he might withhold his support. "If Russia acts with force," Tillerson said, "they require a proportional show of force."
Trump offered a sharply different account of Ukraine during the presidential campaign and never proposed a show of U.S. military force in Ukraine. In an August interview, he claimed Russia would not enter Ukraine, not seeming to know Russian troops were already there. He suggested Crimea didn't count because the peninsula's people preferred being part of Russia, restating Putin's reason for taking the territory in 2014.
Like Trump, Tillerson vowed complete support for Israel, which he called America's "most important ally" in the Middle East. He said the new administration would undertake a full review of the Iran nuclear deal to deny the Islamic republic the ability to acquire an atomic weapon. He said that might only be possible if Iran can no longer enrich uranium, which the accord permits under strict constraints and without which Tehran wouldn't have made the deal.
Some of the questioning reflected the traditional friction between a Congress that wants to prescribe foreign policy and an executive branch that traditionally seeks to maintain broad flexibility in its international affairs, tinted by Tillerson's vocal opposition to economic sanctions as a business leader.
Addressing some of Congress' most experienced architects of U.S. economic pressure, Tillerson called sanctions "a powerful tool" in deterrence that could, however, also project weakness if applied poorly.
He said neither he nor Exxon had lobbied against sanctions. But the company did try to influence sanctions legislation on Russia two years ago, congressional records and data from the Center for Responsive Politics show, and Tillerson made numerous White House visits, to no avail. Given a second chance on the subject, Tillerson sought to clarify his answer by saying he had expressed concerns related to security in shutting down an Exxon operation newly prohibited under the sanctions.
Tillerson represents a break in a longstanding tradition of secretaries of state with extensive military, legislative, political or diplomatic experience. Yet his supporters point to Tillerson's lengthy career as a senior executive in a mammoth multinational company as proof he has the management and negotiating skills to succeed in the State Department's top post, particularly when facing tough foreign governments.
"It's brilliant what he's doing and what he's saying," Trump said of Tillerson during a news conference in New York that occurred as Tillerson was testifying. "He ran incredibly Exxon Mobil. When there was a find, he would get it."
His Exxon experience, however, has been criticized by Democrats for possible conflicts of interest because of the company's far-flung business dealings. Tillerson, who stepped down as CEO at the end of 2016, said he understood being secretary of state meant different responsibilities. He pledged to be a steward for U.S. national interests rather than corporate ones.
If all 10 Democrats on the committee vote against Tillerson, and Rubio or any other Republican joins them, the nomination would then be referred to the full Senate with "no recommendation." That would be an embarrassment for such a high-profile Cabinet nominee and could signal a larger confirmation battle.
"He's got to convince me he sees Russia for who they are," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, another skeptical Republican. On Tillerson's proposed response to the election hacking charges, Graham said, "Real fuzzy answer."
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Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.