Washington (CNN) The White House is contemplating a scenario to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo within the next few months, multiple government officials tell CNN. But multiple sources close to the White House and across government said Pompeo is the leading candidate to take over at the State Department. Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday that "there's nothing to" the rumors about Tillerson being forced out by the White House. Tillerson aggressively pushed back against those claims in a November 28 appearance, portraying it as an insult to State Department staff. "I'm offended on their behalf when people say somehow we don't have a State Department that functions," Tillerson said.

Source: CNN November 30, 2017 15:33 UTC