John McCain: “I don’t know what Mr. Tillerson’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I’ll tell you it is a matter of concern to me. You want to give the president of the United States the benefit of the doubt because the people have spoken. But Vladimir Putin is a thug, bully and a murderer, and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying.”
Senator Robert Menendez: "Reports that Rex Tillerson could be nominated to be our nation's top diplomat (are) alarming and absurd. With Rex Tillerson as our secretary of state the Trump administration would be guaranteeing Russia has a willing accomplice in the president's cabinet guiding our nation's foreign policy."
NBC: "In 2013, the Kremlin bestowed the country's Order of Friendship honor on Tillerson.
He will also be paired with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his deputy secretary of state, one of the sources added, with Bolton handling day-to-day management of the department."
American Thinker: "According to a recently published Heritage Foundation report, the 2017 Index of U.S. Military Strength, Russia poses a “formidable” and “aggressive” threat to the vital interests of the United States. The report states, “Russia seeks to maximize its strategic position in the world at the expense of the United States. It also seeks to undermine U.S. influence and moral standing, harasses U.S. and NATO forces, and is working to sabotage U.S. and Western policy in Syria.” ...
Near the close of 1999, as Russians became increasingly angry about massive government corruption and lawlessness and the popularity of Yeltsin and his heir apparent, Putin, dropped into single digits, four apartment buildings were bombed. The violence was orchestrated by the FSB to turn the attention of the populace away from domestic concerns and redirect it toward Chechen terrorism. Satter, who has the distinction of expulsion from Russia in 2014 as an “undesirable,” explains how the Russian government rigged explosions of civilian housing. More than 300 Russian citizens died and the bombings were conveniently blamed on Chechen separatists.
With the perceived Chechen threat and the fear kindled within the Russian population, Putin had an excuse to start the second Chechen war. This action instantly transformed him into a popular hero, easily able to assume control of the country. With the terrorist threat upfront, the miserable conditions in Russia and Yeltsin’s criminal government took a back seat, Satter says. Russians unified behind Putin and shifted their concerns to homeland security. Once elected, Putin, perceived now as a tough leader avenging Chechen aggression, exonerated Yeltsin, who had resigned as president, amid outrage over his government corruption.".......
Glenn Reynolds: "SO, I WAS WRITING ABOUT THIS PUTIN STUFF BACK IN JULY, but nobody seemed to care then.
Meanwhile, if you want to do something about Russian interference going forward, we need to (1) get serious with cybersecurity and not give divas like Hillary a pass because they’re divas; (2) go to paper ballots and other forms of enhanced election-integrity protections. I’d go full-bore with the kinds of standards used in many other countries: Photo ID, dyed finger, paper ballots counted in a big open room in front of many witnesses, etc. U.S. elections aren’t run according to accepted international standards, and that should be fixed.
And remember, anyone who doesn’t want to fix things is obviously a big ole Putin stooge.".......
John Bolton said to FOX's Eric Shawn that Russians cannot be allowed to tamper with our elections. The ambassador called for a real fact-finding look, not the usual ObamaFarce. He also thinks there's a possibility of some false flag operations, noting that incriminating cyber fingerprints were oddly left in some instances, yet not in others. There was certainly talk this year of American intelligence officers who hate Hillary's guts.
Russians aside, it would be great if we could get Democrats to stop tampering with American elections, such as registering foreigners to vote or Obama accepting foreign campaign contributions.
As for Tillerson's Order of Friendship from Putin, being true friends implies a relationship of equals. Da?
UPDATE: Rubio skeptical, too. Allahpundit counts the votes and it's looking thin. Carly?!
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