Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he often had to push back on President Trump, telling him that some of his requests would violate the law.
“So often, the president would say here’s what I want to do and here’s how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, ‘Mr. President, I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law,’ ” Tillerson said in rare public remarks in Thursday night in Houston at a fundraiser for the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
“I’d say here’s what we can do. We can go back to Congress and get this law changed. And if that’s what you want to do, there’s nothing wrong with that. I told him I’m ready to go up there and fight the fight, if that’s what you want to do,” he added.
Tillerson said Trump would show frustration during those conversations.
Trump and Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil CEO, were known to have a contentious relationship. Tillerson was dismissed from his post in March and replaced by then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.- READ MORE