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President-elect Donald Trump has selected Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his nominee for secretary of State, NBC News reported Saturday.
Tillerson is expected to be offered the post this weekend, The New York Times reported.
Tillerson had reportedly jumped to the front of the pack of candidates in recent days, despite not being mentioned on shortlists as recently as last week.
Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller said in a tweet Saturday afternoon that there would not be an announcement about the State position until at least next week, though he did not refute NBC's report.
Several other media outlets reported Saturday afternoon that Tillerson was Trump's likely pick to become the nation's next top diplomat.
Critics have already called into question Tillerson’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tillerson negotiated an energy partnership with Putin in 2011 that the Russian president said could be worth $500 billion.
The following year, Tillerson received the Russian Order of Friendship, one of the highest awards the country bestows upon foreign nationals.
Reuters reported earlier this year that the Exxon Mobil deal with Russia had been put on hold due to sanctions levied against the Kremlin for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. The company has said it intends to resume the deal after sanctions are lifted — a process that Tillerson could help expedite as secretary of State.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell said that two sources informed her that Tillerson's selection is planned to be announced sometime next week. She also reported that former Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, a neoconservative firebrand, would be tapped to be Tillerson's deputy at State.
The selection of the Putin ally comes just hours after the Washington Post reported that the CIA had assessed that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election in an effort to help Trump get to the White House.
Trump pushed back on the report with an attack on the CIA. An unattributed statement from his transition team said of the agency, "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."
If the NBC report proves accurate, all eyes will turn to the GOP senators who have taken the most hawkish stances toward Russia, as Democrats will likely only need three Republicans to cross the aisle to block the nomination.
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Trump picks Exxon CEO Tillerson for secretary of State: report | TheHill
If this turns out to be true, as Trump hasn't officially announced it yet, we are going to be speaking Russian in a few years. This is incredible. There are too many dollar signs in the eyes of every person Trump has elected to his cabinet that they can't see the fact that they're playing right into Putin's hands. Incredible. I'm going to get a head start tonight by pouring vodka down my throat to get my tolerance up.