Sen. Coons: “It's critical that [Trump] both distance himself from his potential conflicts of interests by explaining to the American people how he is going to come clean, how he is going to release his taxes and how he is going to sever his ties to potentially complicating business interests.”
Sen. Coons: "[Trump] needs to speak directly to his very troubling and now very long pattern of overly positive statements about Putin and his seeming blind spots to Putin's threat to the united States and, in particular, the cyber-attack that affected the American presidential election."
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss his role in the confirmation hearing for Rex Tillerson and share his expectations for President-elect Trump in the upcoming press conference.
Full audio and video of the interview available here: http://bit.ly/2jDLQa1
Excerpts from the interview:
Sen. Coons on his recent meeting with Tillerson: He gave very strong answers about the importance of NATO, about holding Russia accountable for the massacres in Aleppo, for the invasion and occupation of Crimea in the Ukraine, and I’m hopeful he is as forthcoming in the hearing today. That opens up another problem, which is the yawning gap between his statements and President-Elect Trump.
Sen. Coons on the gap between the nominees and Trump’s expressed views: As we move towards possible confirmation votes we have to dig into the background of these nominees. They are still, in many cases, finishing their ethics disclosures and their financial disclosures and those of us who are Democrats have to make a values judgment. Jeff sessions, just to be clea,r is one of the most conservative senators and he gave a number of answers on civil rights and civil liberties that to me were very troubling. Mr. Tillerson I think is a widely experienced, well-traveled seasoned senior business executive but we have different priorities and values when it comes to issues like climate change and the role of human rights and a free press in our foreign policy.
Sen. Coons on President-elect Trump’s upcoming press conference: I'll be watching very closely what President-elect Trump says today in his first press conference. It's critical that he both distance himself from his potential conflicts of interests by explaining to the American people how he is going to come clean, how he is going to release his taxes, how he is going to sever his ties to potentially complicating business interests.
Sen. Coons on President-elect Trump’s associations with Russia: [Trump] needs to speak directly to his very troubling and now very long pattern of overly positive statements about Putin and his seeming blind spots to Putin's threat to the united States and, in particular, the cyber-attack that affected the American presidential election. I am expecting, hoping, that Rex Tillerson is comparably clear about the importance of the American intelligence communities and his respect for them as independent and non-partisan professionals and his intention to rely on their professional advice