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| Rex Tillerson denies he wants to resign, but doesn't deny calling Trump a 'moron' | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said he will stay in the Trump administration as "long as he is useful," but he did not deny reports that he had called the president a "moron". | |
| The former Exxon CEO organised an impromptu briefing at the State Department to address a report that broke just hours earlier via NBC News that Mr Tillerson had also considered leaving his post and had to be counselled by Vice President Mike Pence to stay "on board" with the Trump administration. | |
| Staff were only told about the briefing about 15 minutes ahead of his appearance on camera. | |
| "The vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state because I have never considered leaving this post," Mr Tillerson said, reading from prepared remarks. | |
| The NBC News report indicated he had called the president a "moron" after Mr Trump's controversial speech to the Boy Scouts of America in July of this year. | |
| Mr Trump's speech sounded like a political rally as he spent a vast majority of it discussing the "millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again." | |
| The scouts gathered were under 18 and traditional presidential remarks that include comments on service to country, learning leadership skills, and honour - not references to the salacious New York lifestyle the city's moguls in the 1980s and 1990s that Mr Trump also referenced. | |
| Mr Tillerson once led the Boy Scouts organisation and it was reported that his comments were made during a meeting at the Pentagon to national security officials around the time of the speech. | |
| During this morning's comments however, Mr Tillerson said the reports of his comment and Mr Pence's role were "erroneous". | |
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