Trump Won't Back U.K. Prime Minister May (or Rex Tillerson) in Blaming Russia for Ex-Spy's Poisoning

British Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

You’ve probably all caught up with the news of now-former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s ouster.

So what do we know about what happened?

We know Tillerson has no idea why he was fired, and apparently, found out about it on Twitter.

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(Chief of Staff John Kelly told him on Friday to look for a tweet concerning him.)

We know Mike Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, is being shuffled from his position as the head of the CIA to take Tillerson’s place.

We know Trump plans to do more rearranging, as he announced to the press today that he almost has the Cabinet he wants, suggesting his first picks were not who he wanted.

(He’s been shuffling and rearranging from the day he got in office. He’s into year 2 now. Shouldn’t he have figured out who he wants, by now?)

With what we do know about Tillerson’s firing, so far, there are a lot of different roads that can be taken, in examining why Tillerson, and why now.

I mean, the guy [allegedly] called Trump a “f**king moron” last year, but that blew over.

Now he’s out, and as some across social media are theorizing, Tillerson may have just crossed a red line.

Specifically, we know there was a break between what Tillerson said about a nerve agent attack on ex-Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in the UK, and what the White House assessment, as delivered by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanderson said.

Rex Tillerson got out ahead of the White House, saying last night that Russia was “clearly” responsible, after Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined to point the finger.

Also:

Theresa May gave Russia until Wednesday to provide an explanation as to how a weapon it produced came to be used in an attempted murder on U.K. soil, and warned there would be serious repercussions if no explanation was forthcoming. She will be counting on U.S. support on this issue.

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She had the support of Tillerson, and President Trump had initially said he was inclined to believe the UK.

Today, however, the president seems a little less willing to call out Russia.

Or whoever.

This isn’t the first time Trump has allowed an escape route for Russia. He’s previously doubted Russia’s involvement in hacking into the DNC’s emails, saying it could be some other country. This was after the intelligence community had already announced that they’d concluded it was the work of Russian hackers.

It’s odd, because the president always seems so deeply uncomfortable, even to the point of being defensive, whenever Russia is accused of something.

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/973543040836145154

For now, however, we’ll just write it off as another “coincidence.”

 

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