Senators will be held accountable for Tillerson vote
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to approve former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State. Tillerson’s confirmation now moves to the Senate floor.
Friends of the Earth U.S. President Erich Pica issued the following statement in response:
The Senate Committee’s approval along party lines of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State is a national disgrace and betrays American voters. The full Senate must reject his nomination.
On more than one occasion, including this weekend at the CIA, Donald Trump has suggested that he might start a new war for Iraq’s oil. And now the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has given their stamp of approval to a man Trump gleefully described as leading “this charmed life. He goes into a country, takes the oil, goes into another country…” The Senate should never back war-mongering, resource-stealing bravado.
If the Senate wanted a human rights-violating, climate-denying, fact-bending chief diplomat, then they got their man. But the people of the United States will hold them accountable for Trump’s and Tillerson’s foreign policy, which based on both men’s records, will not serve the interest of ordinary people, at home or abroad.
As CEO of Exxon, Tillerson partnered with governments that committed grave human rights violations, including murder, torture and imprisonment of opponents. Tillerson colluded with corrupt and brutal dictators, while poisoning communities and worsening climate change. The man who the Senate Committee is now sending to the Senate floor has profited from — and has been complicit in — human rights abuses across the globe. He has blood on his hands.
Despite his vague answers, Tillerson has been a climate denier for decades, willing to sacrifice our planet for Exxon’s profits. Friends of the Earth will hold senators accountable for selling out to the United States of Exxon.
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Expert contact: Karen Orenstein, (202) 640-8679, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]