March 13, 2018

Rex Tillerson Out as Secretary of State

The president confirmed the change on what else, Twitter.

Andrew Harrer/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump has fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The president confirmed the change on Twitter, minutes after the Washington Post first reported the news.

The Post reports that Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday. The announcement Tuesday comes one day after Tillerson said that Russia was “clearly” behind the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy.

During a White House press briefing Monday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to specifically place blame on the Russian government for the assassination attempt. She instead said the White House gave its “fullest condemnation” for the attack.

This is a breaking news post. We will update as more information becomes available. 

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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