Rex Tillerson Says Trump Actively Avoided Confronting Russia Over Election Interference

Test Ticker

Please support Mother Jones with a year-end donation. The truth is, we're a long way from our $600,000 goal, and we have to get as close as we can by Tuesday so we don't have to make hard decisions come January. If you value our reporting, please consider pitching in today.

$600,000

We still need to raise 400,000: Whether you can give $5 or $500, it all matters.

Please support Mother Jones with a year-end donation. We need to raise $600,000, or get as close as we can, by Tuesday so we don't need to make hard decisions come January. Whether you can give $5 or $500, it all makes a difference.

Ting Shen/Xinhua via ZUMA

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.

Former Secretary of State met with leaders of the House Foreign Affairs committee on Tuesday. The Daily Beast reports:

Tillerson reached out to the committee and expressed a willingness to meet, a committee aide said. In a more than six-hour meeting, he told members and staffers that the Trump administration actively avoided confronting Russia about allegations of interference in the election in an effort to develop a solid relationship with the Kremlin, a committee aide told The Daily Beast.

Not a big surprise, I guess, but it’s always nice to have insider confirmation. I suspect, however, that a desire to develop a “solid relationship with the Kremlin” wasn’t the only reason Trump didn’t confront Putin about this. He also wanted to make it clear that further interference in 2020 would be just peachy.