DES MOINES –In response to Donald Trump’s selection of Exxon oil tycoon, Rex Tillerson, Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director, Ben Foecke, issued the following statement:

“The United States intelligence community, including the CIA, has assessed that Russia intervened in our 2016 presidential election in an effort to help Donald Trump win the presidency. Responsible leaders from across the political spectrum, including John McCain, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and even Mitch McConnell, agree that this assessment needs to be taken seriously.

“Yet Donald Trump has just nominated an oil executive with close ties to Vladimir Putin to be our next Secretary of State.

“If Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama nominated a Secretary of State with ties to Putin, especially under the circumstance that Russia intervened in our election, the Republican calls of ‘treason’ would be deafening.

“We at the Iowa Democratic Party believe the Tillerson nomination cannot stand. Further, we call on Republicans in Congress to investigate the Trump Administration’s ties to Russia and other Trump conflicts of interest with the same fervor with which they investigated Benghazi and Hillary Clinton’s email server.”