In an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had to confirm that he had not been “castrated.”
“I checked,” Tillerson told host Jake Tapper.
“I’m fully intact.”
This was in response to a comment made by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) in an interview with the Washington Post . According to the senator, President Trump was “ publicly castrat[ing] ” his secretary of state by undermining his efforts to negotiate with North Korea.
During his CNN interview, Tillerson once again refused to deny that he called President Donald Trump a “moron” in July.
“I’m not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff.”
On Oct. 4, NBC News came out with a report saying that the secretary of state was “ on the verge of resigning ” this summer after multiple clashes with the Trump White House. Things reportedly became particularly tense after Trump delivered a controversial speech to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization which Tillerson was once the national president of.
According to the report, three sources revealed that Tillerson had “openly disparaged” Trump after a meeting of national security officials at the Pentagon and that he had referred to the president as a “moron.”
. @jaketapper : Did you call Trump a moron?
Rex Tillerson: “I’m not gonna deal with that petty stuff” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/mQxyzmjzBa
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 15, 2017
On Sunday, the secretary of state wouldn’t say if he had actually used the term to describe Trump, but noted that Washington, D.C. “seems to relish” rumors and feeds on them “in a very destructive way.”
“I don’t work that way,” Tillerson said.
“I don’t deal that way, and I’m just not going to dignify the question. I call the president ‘Mr. President.’”
According to Tillerson, his relationship with Trump is “open, frank, and candid.”
Tillerson said the US is trying to stay in the Iran nuclear deal days after Trump threatened to pull out of it https://t.co/RIZgDBloXd pic.twitter.com/8F1GxPHyEZ
— CNN (@CNN) October 15, 2017
Meanwhile, following the NBC News report, President Trump publicly challenged the secretary of state to an IQ test.
In an interview with Forbes magazine, Trump said that he thought the whole “moron” story was “ fake news ,” but couldn’t resist taking a jab at Tillerson.
“…[B]ut if he did [say] that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”
Trump’s team later claimed that he was just joking. His press secretary reassured reporters that the president has full confidence in his secretary of state.
Tillerson also attempted some damage control. After the story about the alleged “moron” comment broke, the secretary of state held an unscheduled news conference in which he said that he was not planning on resigning anytime soon. He also said that, contrary to reports, he thought President Trump was “smart.”
U.S. diplomacy with North Korea to continue until ‘first bomb drops’: Tillerson https://t.co/VKj5kUBVO2 pic.twitter.com/sp8ez2dxCN
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 15, 2017
Tillerson heaped praises on his boss, saying that Trump loves his country and that he demands results from those around him. He also said that the president likes to hold people accountable for whether or not they’ve done the jobs he asked them to do.
He did not, however, confirm or deny making a comment about the president’s intelligence.
[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]
