Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not directly respond to an Oct. 4 news report that he referred to President Trump as a "moron," saying, "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that." Asked whether she was saying Tillerson never called Trump a "moron," Nauert said, "He did not say that, yeah." NBC is not backing off its report, and CNN has now also confirmed Tillerson called Trump a "moron." Hammond had reportedly already denied both the resignation claim and the “moron” claim, according to NBC. And finally, Tillerson did somewhat address the “moron” claim in his prepared remarks, at one point saying of Trump: “He's smart.” So again, why nod to that claim but not address it directly?

Source: Washington Post October 04, 2017 15:53 UTC