State. Mr. Trump today also named former Texas Governor rick perry as his choice for Energy Secretary and while perry certainly has years of government experience, tillerson has none. But he is a business titan with a record of overcoming challenges. Sound familiar . Yet, unlike donald trump, tillerson has the enthusiastic backing of some big names from the bush administration. They include former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, former defense secretary bob gates, both of whom served under president george w. Bush. We should also point out that exxon is a client of the Consulting Firm that rice and gates started. Also supporting Rex Tillerson, former Vice President dick cheney and bush 41s own secretary of state james baker. But tillerson still faces a potential capitol hill showdown because of his ties specifically to russian president vladimir putin. So for that, let me first go to cnn National Politics reporter mj lee. Tell me first about these key senators and specifically republicans who are criticizing this pick . Yeah, well, brooke, i can tell you this is the nomination that is turning a lot of heads on capitol hill for several reasons. Tillerson is a controversial pick. The first reason is he has no prior government experience, much like president elect donald trump and the other reason, of course, is the one that you mentioned, his close ties, businesses the, i should say, to russia and russian president vladimir putin. Of course, the backdrop for these concerns about tillersons ties to russia is the concern that russia may have interfered with the u. S. Elections and this is, of course, an issue that many republicans are now saying they want to look into further. Already we are seeing some republicans sort of voicing their concerns about the tillerson nomination. We have heard senator john mccain, for example, saying putin is a thug and murderer and he cant understand why anyone would be friends with him. Senator marco rubio is also weighing in and i want to read part of his statement. Rubio writing while Rex Tillerson is a respected businessman, i have serious concerns about his nomination. The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity as free of potential conflicts of interest, has a clearer sense of americas interest and will be a forceful advocate for americas Foreign Policy goals to the president within the administration and on the world stage. Now, brooke, you can imagine if thats the kind of mixed reaction that were getting from the republican side of congress, theres some fierce opposition coming from, of course, the democratic lawmakers on capitol hill as well. This includes senator bernie sanders. He said today that tillersons nomination must be opposed and that the exxon ceo is a pal of putin. The big question going into the next year is whether tillerson will get the support he needs to be confirmed or whether enough republicans cant get on board with his nomination and they end up tanking his nomination. Brooke . Well loop back to that point, mj lee, thank you for setting it up. Let me bring in heidi perrzybyr the cnn political reporter sara murray. Ladies, welcome. Sara, on the note that apparently this tillerson pick came to fruition because of the urgings of bob gates, Condoleezza Rice and jim baker. Talk about that and how they had a hand in making this happen. They helped put this candidate in front of donald trump at a time he was looking at other folks. He was looking at mitt romney for instance as part of an effort to look at former rivals and he kind of liked him. Donald trumps team felt like he needed more candidates, this is someone that Condoleezza Rice, robert gates and others urged him to look at. They hit it off. Had they met before saturday . Not to my knowledge. Forgive me, let me stop, we have to go to oakland, california. Atf about to brief us on potentially the cause of the warehouse fire. Atf has assisted by providing our fire expertise and conducting witness interviews. All of the scene information has been gathered and our analysis will continue in conjunction with the Fire Department investigators. All of the findings will be submitted to the oakland Fire Department who will prepare the final report and give it to the District Attorneys Office for their Ongoing Investigation. To clear up the concern over the determination being electrical, the electrical system is part of the analysis atf experts and the oakland Fire Department investigators are looking at in determining the cause of the fire. The investigation is still ongoing, though, and at this time no final determination has been made as to the exact cause of the fire. Atf will continue to support the Fire Department with analyzing all of the findings for the final report. Atf will also continue to assist with the interviewing of witnesses for the District Attorneys Office investigation. Although atf is no longer on the scene, we would like to let the families and friends of the victims know that our thoughts are with them. At this time, id like to turn the podium over to fire chief rei reid. Good morning, everyone. I would like to start off by acknowledging the remarkable work that was done by oakland Fire Department personnel. Their time on scene during those four days was very taxing, both physically and mentally. I want to thank them personally for the contributions theyve made in regards to this tragic incident. The work they perform ed was spectacular because it was a very difficult event. I want to thank the atf for their participation and support throughout this incident. For providing us with investigators and specialized personnel from their Fire Research laboratory in maryland. Currently our fire investigators are still working with atf to compile all the information necessary for a final fire report. The determination of cause and other gin has not been identified yet. This investigation is still ongoing. Once we complete the fire report and as i mentioned, the investigation is still ongoing so i cannot give you a date on when that report will be completed. But once the report is completed it will be turned over to the d. A. s office as mentioned by atf to continue their Ongoing Investigation that is taking place. Again, this was a tragic event. It was something that the city of oakland suggest that is that they would it was a tragic event. So with the families, our thoughts and prayer are with you and for all the different agencies that were out supporting that event i just want to say thank you to everyone for your participation and your help during these ti s times. Good morning, im nancy omalley, the District Attorney and i want to just begin by echoing what chief reed just said, and that is to acknowledge the dedicated hard work of the first responders, the firefighters, Law Enforcement and including all of the leaders of those organizations who worked so hard over the last several days to make sure that this tragic event is being addressed with the utmost seriousness and focus that we can. I want to thank specifically the atf for their expertise and working so closely with my investigative team. Between the atf and my team we have conducted numerous interviews with witnesses, we are working with the atf and the oakland Fire Department to identify what we can from the evidence thats been presented, the analysis is ongoing and that will continue. As you know, my office now stands in the lead of the criminal investigation and were working closely with now the oakland Fire Department to make sure that we are thorough, that we are methodical and that we are calculated in how we are able to analyze every piece of information and evidence that we believe we have recovered from the fire scene as well as surrounding circumstances that led up to that tragic fire. We will continue with our investigation. The lead prosecutor is david lim, an assistant District Attorney and we have several investigators from my office who are working committed 100 to this investigation. We will work as efficiently as we can. We will move it along as quickly as we can but we will not sacrifice the integrity of the investigation or any of the analysis to try to get to an end result before we are ready i want to emphasize its an active investigation and we will not be commenting on any of the information we have gathered. I thank the media for the attention and care you have shown in your reporting to the family members of those who died in the fire and to all of the people who have who survived the fire and those who have information that give us a better context under which this fire occurred. I also want to say that the my office, victim witness division, has been working actively and very significantly in reaching out and working with the families of those who have died and those who survived the fire. We have prepared for you a number of phone numbers for resources for people in the community who have been impacted by this fire, particularly those who have been directly impacted unfortunately no concrete answers yet as far as what started what caused that fire. We heard the fire chief in oakland repeat over and over what a tragic event that was, that quote unquote ghost ship is what it was called this. Warehouse in oakland, california, where 36 lives were lost. The investigation as far as the cause is still under way as is the criminal investigation so still to be continued as far as oakland, california. Meantime, so much to talk about today when it comes to politics. We were talking about the guy mr. Trump wants to tap as secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, we will talk to our panel as far as concerns, could there be a nasty nomination battle . What about ties to russia . Do people care he doesnt necessarily have diplomatic experience . 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[ male announcer ] at customink, we make it easy for you to create custom tshirts and other apparel for all of lifes events. Get Free Shipping and ontime delivery guaranteed. Go to customink. Com to get started today. Back to politics. As far as this Rex Tillerson pick for secretary of state, we know former secretaries of state james baker and Condoleezza Rice had a hand in this as did former defense bob gates. How much of a hand . How did this come to be . They were important in putting Rex Tillerson in front of donald trump. Theyre not two men who have a long history together but making it clear if there was going to be opposition, which we are seeing from senators, that they were going to put their names out publicly in support of this guy. Thats the thing that could sway these senators. Weve seen senators mentioning it a bit saying it gives them confidence to see people like Condoleezza Rice and robert gates throwing their support behind tillerson but i think when the two guys met, when tillerson and trump met, you saw two businessmen who have been successful in their fields coming together and they saw a similar pragmatism in one another and that helped donald trump feel comfortable in a way he didnt necessarily feel with mitt romney. So theyre saying this could be a difficult nomination confirmation fight. Do you think the Trump Team Knows that . Do you think theyre naive . Do you think they dont care . Trump knows that and by picking Rex Tillerson hes setting up a proxy battle within the republican party. You have on one side the names you just mentioned, senator graham, senator john mccain, senator rubio, then you have trump and his allies like senator jeff session. So its a referendum on russia and Rex Tillerson to his credit has negotiated great deals with russia. He received the order of frie friendship from russia, the guy know house to negotiate but thats the very thing that concerns a lot of these senators. This is not a new issue. It came up on the campaign trail all the time. So you say that this is a referendum on russia. Im wondering if some of the worries about a Rex Tillerson pick is more about the friendship award and about ties with russia and stock with exxon and russia he has. Well, i think coming on the heels of this bombshell information about russia possibly having launched an unprecedented cyber attack on us during the election, brooke, we are just at the beginning of our discovery about the, tent to which the russians were successful which is astonishing so the question is not just does he not have experience but in terms of the experience he does have and the conflicts of interest he does have, hes going to have to dwoes himseliv. But the company, exxon, has billions of dollars riding on the sanctions we have in place against russia. That he was very outspoken about. And that tillerson was outspoken about in terms of being critical. Lets say, we go through our discovery and find that there was an awful lot of successful attempts by russia in terms of tinkering in our election, were going to need someone who has a really strong spine to go up against the russians and try and preserve the institutions and the diplomatic approach weve had in place since world war ii, which has been to try to create a bulwark against russia aggression which were seeing in ukraine and syria, which is underreported in terms of the russians being involved in the bombing there, its not just the syrians so its overall that tillerson is the question is if tillerson is a proxy for what is a new approach to russia since world war ii in terms of the policy weve had. Theres so much more to be said about him but i want to make time for the former Texas Governor rick perry. Just because we can. Lets play the sound. You all know where im going. A couple years ago heres what where he was. The third agency of government. I would do away with education, the commerce. Commerce. And, lets see i cant. The third one i cant. Sorry. Oops. Okay, sara murray. Its still awkward to watch, isnt it . He is a wellrespected politician but he couldnt name it. Whats more important is that was an agency he wanted to do away with and now hes being tapped to lead it. Its interesting to see what a donald trump direction for the department of energy will be but i think when you see someone like rick perry, the reason trump liked him is because he used his helm to spur job creation and that had to do with capitalizing on Energy Assets already in texas but that had to do with going to nearby states and luring in businesses and being aggressive. Thats something that can help an individual state but thats not something that can spur job creation nationwide one of the things you need to remember when you look at these picks is donald trump is looking at these people through the lens of a businessman and what hisser arching goal is as his which is do create jobs and protect american workers. So when he sees perrys legacy in texas, he sees someone who did that as a governor and that i think is what helped him get to perry as a pick for the Energy Department as convoluted as that may seem after watching that clip. Finally shelby, to you as far as the losers, i guess, of the revolving door process, you look at the rudy giulianis, the mitt romneys, governor romney tweeting kindly about the process. What do you make of that . Even if it is such a tough confirmation battle for Rex Tillerson could romney still be in play . Is that a crazy question . No, donald trump has run his cabinet process like the apprentice or the bachelor so hes been very vocal about it and a lot of these candidates have spoken publicly about going through the process. Rudy giuliani said he will help donald trump from the sidelines and the private sector. He wont have a job in the cabinet but i dont think its crazy to think mitt romney might be considered. They seem to have a warmer relationship over the past couple weeks and the one thing maybe the rnc chairmanship . People close to donald trump were very opposed to mitt romney being secretary of state. Just quickly, heidi, on rudy giuliani, shelby says hell help from the private sector. What do you think his future is with regard to the administration . I think he probably the only job he would have been interested in is secretary of state and he probably has a lucrative consulting business which he will continue to operate and continue to profit from and theres a lot of people as you know who donald trump tends to rely on who get kicked out of his circle like Corey Lewandowski and still have a direct pipeline to him, he likes to solicit those opinions so i think he will still be a surrogate for this admin