On Thursday's edition of "The Situation Room," CNN commentators discussed President Donald Trump's attacks on former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for his closed-door testimony to Congress that the president was unprepared for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And special correspondent Jamie Gangel noted how dramatically Trump's characterization of Tillerson's intelligence has changed since his initial appointment.
"He did not only attack Nancy Pelosi today," said host Wolf Blitzer. "Rex Tillerson, his former Secretary of State, who appeared behind closed doors for several hours before the House Foreign Affairs Committee spoke at length — there is one report he suggested the president wasn't as well prepared for his conversation with Putin as Putin was."
"Today the president tweeted, 'Rex Tillerson, a man who is 'dumb as a rock' and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State, made up a story (he got fired) that I was out-prepared by Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany. I don't think Putin would agree. Look how the U.S. is doing!'" Blitzer continued.
"I have one question: who hired Rex Tillerson?" said Gangel. "How is that all of the 'best people' — they're are always the 'best people' — turn out to be lousy or liars. And I went back and looked at a tweet from December 13th, 2016. Donald Trump, 'I have chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world, Rex Tillerson.'"
She later added, "Rex Tillerson is not alone. We have heard from John Kelly, General Mattis, Gary Cohn, it goes on and on. You know, dozens of people who left the administration."
