Senate Democrats plan to run their Trump playbook against Tillerson

By Karoun Demirjian December 20 at 9:22 PM

Congress is preparing to do major battle next month over President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary-of-state nominee, Rex Tillerson, in a brewing proxy fight over Trump’s potential financial conflicts of interest and his unconventional foreign policy.

The official sparring is expected to take place on Jan. 11, when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to hold a two-part hearing to grill Tillerson over his tenure as ExxonMobil’s chief executive and what many lawmakers see as unseemly links to Russia.

But behind the scenes on Capitol Hill, the strategizing has already begun.

Democrats do not think they stand much chance of stopping Tillerson from being confirmed. But they plan to press the top diplomat-designate to commit to full divestiture from Exxon and detail how he would pursue a different approach to the world as secretary of state, in what one Senate Democratic aide who requested anonymity to candidly discuss strategy called a “very thorough, tough vetting.” As they have with Trump, Democrats plan to focus sharply on potential conflicts of interest deriving from Tillerson’s finances, as well as his views on critical foreign-policy matters.

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