Intelligence chiefs did not get specific with these allegations. Thats why i hope at the press Conference Today people are more general. Jake, you also saw trump in his tweets seems to be blaming the u. S. Intelligence community for these leaks. Blames a lot of people, talking about fake news, talking about nazi, germany. As evan points out, there was no complaint from mr. Trump or the trump team when it was russian intelligence leaking information about Hillary Clinton and democrats and Donna Brazile and the like. Hes not denying the core of what the reporting is, and that this was presented to him and president obama last friday with a classified briefing. I think the fact that the Intelligence Community included this twopage synopsis shows that theyre taking the allegations, some of them, at least, serious to a degree. Their assessment that the russians hacked and released this information to hurt Hillary Clinton and help donald trump was completely independent of these allegations. And it doesnt take away from the extraordinary nature of this, the idea that an incoming president will be presented with this kind of information before he even takes office. Essentially takes office under the cloud of this. Its one way in which we know this is going to hangover him. We know this is not going to go away because the intelligence agencies and Law Enforcement agencies are going to keep looking at it. I want to point out, these are live pictures were showing our viewers from the Senate Foreign relations committee, senator bob corker of tennessee is about to gavel this hearing into session. Rex tillerson is the next nominee to become the next secretary of state. Corker will have an opening statement. Ben cardin, the n rahhinging democrat will make a statement as well. In fact, its beginning right now. One of the most important responsibilities is to give advice to nominees put forth by a president. We thank all of you for being here. Obviously theres a lot of interest in this hearing. We would ask those who, like us, have the privilege of being in this room, we would ask you to respect democracy, respect the right for us to have a hearing to control yourselves in an appropriate manner. Im sure that is going to be the case. This is the best of america here serving with outstanding members of this committee. Because of so much happening in the world today and because of the role this committee has played over the last several years, demand on this committee has grown, and with that, i want to Welcome New Members who i know will play a big role in the future of our country. Mr. Todd young, newly elected to the senate, we welcome you here. This is our first public appearance. We thank you for the interest in our countrys future and for being here. Mr. Rob portman who also joins the committee. I think he serves on more committees here than anybody in the senate. We thank you for your responsible thinking and leadership. Want to thank jeff markly who i know cares very deeply about these issues, for joining this committee, for your principled efforts in so many regards, and i know they will continue here, and cory booker, new star to the senate who i know will play a very vigorous role here. We thank you so much for being here today. Just to give you a little bit of a sense today, we have four very distinguished people, two of whom are colleagues, who will introduce the nominee, and then we will move to Opening Statements. I will give an opening statement. Our distinguished Ranking Member will give an opening statement. And then our nominee, mr. Rex tillerson will give his. Each person here will have ten minutes to ask questions, a little more than the norm. Weve coordinated the schedule with the Ranking Member, but also with senator schumer and others just to ensure that the American People and certainly all of us have the opportunity to ask the kind of questions that people would like to ask. I would say to members, i know some of us have an art form of being able to ask about nine questions and time ending about five seconds before the respondent responds. The ten minutes includes the response. In order to be respectful of everybodys time, which is a little bit unusual here, were going to hold to that in a very rigid way. Our plan is that we will go until about 1 c 00 today if everybody uses their time. We will take a break out of showing mercy to our nominee for about 45 minutes and to many of us up here. Well come back and resume until such a time as we have the voterama which begins about 6 00 this evening. To make sure all questions are answered, the Ranking Member and i have agreed that should there be another day necessary, well begin in the morning at 10 00. Hopefully with all that will happen today, that will be unnecessary. But our nominee is very aware that that may well occur. I think all of you know that our business meeting, again, in order to show respect for all who are here, is moved until tonight when we have the voterama at which time well take up the ascension, month nag gra ascension to nato and well take up the resolution relative to israel. Well do that off the floor this evening. Mr. Chairman, could i just thank you for the acted dagss for this hearing. I know you started it at 9 00 as an accommodation so we could all have a little more time in the morning for asking questions. I thank you very much for that, accommodating a tenminute round. The chairman and i have worked closely together to make sure this hearing was the type of hearing wed be proud of in the Senate Foreign relations committee. I want to thank you for that and welcome our four new members to the committee and with that ill withhold until after introductions. Thank you. This committee has certainly been a beacon of bipartisanship as was mentioned. Sometimes an island of bipartisanship, but i think all of us understand the importance of us being united, especially when we leave the shores edge, and i know that we will continue and conduct the hearing today in that manner. With that we have four very distinguished individuals who would like to introduce the nominee. We thank each of them for being here. I know they plan to spend about 2 1 2 minutes each to do so. We distinguished senator cornyn from texas, distinguished senator cruz from texas, the distinguished sam nunn from georgia who we miss but thank him for his service, and the distinguished secretary gates who has served eight president s. Im actually surprised hes not serving a ninth. But we thank you for being here. Each of you, if you would, please give your comments and then we will move to Opening Statements. Thank you for being here. Chairman corker and Ranking Member cardin. Members of the committee, im proud to be here today with my colleague, senator cruz, to introduce a fellow texan, Rex Tillerson as the nominee for the secretary of state. Without a doubt, Rex Tillerson is an inspired choice by president elect trump for this critical position. The depth and breadth of his experience as an accomplished and successful Business Leader and skilled negotiator give him a solid understanding of our current geopolitical and economic challenges, making him uniquely qualified to serve in this important office. After graduating from the university of texas with a degree in engineering, mr. Tillerson joined the Exxon Corporation eventually moving up the ranks and into overseas combinements in asia, the middle east and europe. In 2006 he assumed command of exxonmobil helping exxon weather complex geopolitical obstacles to make the company into one of the worlds most profitable corporations. As a lifelong texan, rex has been recognized for something you dont ordinary associate with being a powerful business lead erd and head of one of the largest corporations in the world. Hes been recognized for his humility and his altruism. One of my constituents recently wrote a piece in the Dallas Morning News talking about serving on a jury with mr. Tillerson recently. She noted on that jury his natural leadership ability and charisma helped them deliver justice in a delicate and difficult case of sexual assault. Following the trial mr. Tillerson then donated to the local nonprofit that helped support and counsel the victim after the trial. Mr. Tillerson understands how to separate friendships and business. He knows who he works for. My First Encounter with rex was when i was attorney general. I dont know if he remembers this. But we were on opposite sides of a lawsuit. I was representing in my capacity as attorney general the state of texas. We had the tum mayority to sue exxon mobil. Lets say our First Encounter was a little awkward to say the least. Over the years ive grown to admire and respect rex. He didnt let our differences get in the way of what we could agree on. Since then ive seen him none straight an uncanny ability to serve our country well. Thats an ability to handle Business Matters while maintaining and building relationships, a further testament to his integrity and strength of character. Once hes confirmed, im confident he will be instrumental in shaping American Foreign policy as we face a broad array of diplomatic challenges that will define the security and success of our nation for generations. So thank you, chairman corker, Ranking Member cardin and members of the committee for letting me introduce Rex Tillerson. Thank you for being maybe the first prompt senator ive witnessed here. Thank you so much. Trying to set the standard. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member cardin, members of the committee, good morning. It is a privilege to joan you this morning and have the opportunity to help introduce my fellow texan and the secretary of state designee Rex Tillerson. As many of you know, rex is a texan born and raised in wichita fal falls, a proud texas long horn which john and i might think is plenty enough alone to qualify him for secretary of state, but i recognize you all might set a higher bar than that. The good news is that is only the beginning of a long substantive list of qualifications, achievements and International Relationships that rex brings to the table. A list that i believe has prepared him to be a strong candidate to lead our state department as we face the Monumental Task of restoring americas influence across the world. As all of us know, this is no easy task. We live in a dangerous year and a dangerous world. And after the last eight years, we face a circumstance where many of our friends no longer trust us and many of our enemies no longer fear us. Rex tillerson is a serious man who understands the value of perseverance, and he knows what it takes to accomplish difficult tasks. From an early age he worked to climb the ranks in boy scouts to become an eagle scout, and he started as a Production Engineer at exxon in 1975, eventually climbing his way to the top as ceo of the fortune ten company. At exxon he led one of the worlds most respected companies with over 75,000 employees and over 250 billion in revenue. Exxon, a proud texas company, does business in 52 countries, and rex has traveled the globe negotiating business deals with World Leaders, effectively advocating for the interest of his company, shareholders and employees. The numerous achievements that rex has earned, they dont come without hard work, dedication and passion for ones mission. This is the work ethic and spirit that America Needs in its secretary of state. That is the attitude that gives me confidence in the opportunity rex has to chart a different, better and stronger course in national diplomacy. We need a secretary of state that understands america is exceptional, who will establish policies upon that foundation of exceptionalism and put americas interests first. Repeatedly oorps the Current Administration has used the United Nations to try to circumvent the will of congress and the American People. I look forward to a president and secretary of state who will instead vigorously defend u. S. Sovereignty. I believe that rex has an Incredible Opportunity to defend the Foreign Policy principles upon which president elect trump campaigned, to strengthen our friendship and alliances and to defeat our enemies, and i look forward to all of us working with him in the years ahead as we restore American Leadership across the globe. Thank you. Thank you, also, for those concise comments. Much appreciated. Thank you both for being here. Should you need to leave to go to other hearings, please feel free to do so. Senator nunn, sir. You need to turn your mike on, sir. Youve been out of practice, leaving here i thank you chairman corker and senator cardin and my friend, senator isakson. I wish i had thought of this clock a long time ago. It would have saved a lot of agony for our committee. Ill try to cut my statement as short as possible and ask the whole statement be put into the record. Without objection, thank you. Mr. Chairman, Rex Tillersons resume is well known. Let me tackle two points that i know have been raised with the committee as well as the senate. First, Rex Tillersons knowledge of and experience in russia, and second, how hes worked in the private secretary, preparing him to be our top diplomat and run one of the most important departments in our government. With respect to russia, certain facts are clear. Russias recent flagrant actions indicate that its National Interest sharply differ from americas National Interests in important places, most acutely, ukraine, europe and syria. Russias values differ from americas values, in particular our form of government, our commitment to personal freedom, human rights and rule of law. These fundamental differences are very important. The fact that our interest and values differ should always inform our policy towards russia. Mr. Chairman, the important facts dont end here. It is also a fact that russia today deploys hundreds of Nuclear Warheads on Ballistic Missiles that could be fired and hit their targets around the globe in less time than it will take to have Opening Statements at the hearing today. It is also a fact that for both the United States and russia the risk of an accidental, unauthorized or mistaken launch of a missile is unnecessarily high, particularly in our rule of increasing cyber vulnerability. Its also the fact that the United States and russia, like it or not, are bound together in areas of unavoidable common interest, including the prevention of nuclear and biological terrorism, the prevention of nuclear proliferation, false warnings of Nuclear Attacks and the hacking of command and control systems our nuclear facilities. These facts lead me to an inescapable conclusion, it is dangerous for the United States and russia and the world to have virtually no dialogue on reducing nuclear risk and very little military to military communication. If this continues and were guided by zero sum logic on both sides, we and russia may be rewarded at some point with catastrophe. This is my judgment even when we have start disputes including strong evidence from my Intelligence Community that russia has interfered in u. S. Elections, a finding that Congress Must fully examine including its ominous implications for our political process and our security. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, there have been other moments in history where voices in both washington and moscow argued that our areas of disagreement were so great that we should not work on issues even of common interest between our two countries. For those who are considering this point, i would suggest rereading president kennedys commencement address at American University delivered just month after the cuban missile crisis. President kennedy spoke of the pursuit of peace as necessary and rational. Quoting him, in an age where a single Nuclear Weapon contains almost ten times the explosive power delivered by all the allied forces in the second world war. President kennedy rejected voices saying it is useless to speak of peace until the leaders of the soviet union adopt a more enlightened attitude. Kennedy warned, let us not be blind to our differences but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which these differences can be resolved. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, these words remain true today. I know Rex Tillerson pretty well, and i am confident he is well prepared to do what is essential for the security of our nation, to hold firm and tough where our National Interests and values demand it and to build on our common interest in working with other nations including russia on p