Tillerson: 'No Change' to US Military Position On Syria After Bombing

"We are asking Russia to fulfill its commitment and we're asking and calling on Bashar al-Assad to cease the use of these weapons. Other than that, there is no change to our military posture," Tillerson told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview that will air Sunday on "This Week."

..."I think the president was very clear in his message to the American people, that this strike was related solely to the most recent, horrific use of chemical weapons against women, children, and as the president said, even small babies. So the strike was a message to Bashar al-Assad that your multiple violations of your agreements at the UN, your agreements under the chemical weapons charter back in 2013 that those would not go without a response in the future.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was hired to be America’s top diplomat, but less than three months on the job has proven he is definitely not. As president of Exxon Mobil, Tillerson, 65, was one of the most powerful people in the world, enjoying lucrative work away from the spotlight. A few months later, the secretary of state has found himself in a job-share with a 36-year-old foreign policy neophyte married to the president’s daughter.

The administration’s airstrikes in Syria Thursday night brought the low-profile secretary out of hiding, and he became a star of the show, issuing aggressive warnings to the Russian and Syrian governments, seated at President Trump’s side in every photograph. He even plans to shock official Washington Sunday by making his debut on the talk shows.

But as valuable as Tillerson “The Titan” may appear in a high-profile crisis moment, he has been generally relegated to outsider status within the small power circle centralized in the West Wing. Jared Kushner, who like his father-in-law is a real estate heir, has the more final word on foreign policy. And Nikki Haley -- who thus far has been more visible and outspoken than Tillerson in her role as ambassador to the United Nations -- is now viewed as the next secretary of state, prepared to step in after Tillerson bails. Thursday morning, hours before the airstrikes, Axios noted that Tillerson operates in Kushner’s shadow and added a quote from “a friend” who said, “I don't know what Rex does every day.”

Tillerson had vast experience with the Chinese at Exxon Mobil, yet the summit at Mar-a-Lago in Florida this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping was Jared’s project. Indeed, he raced back from a surprise trip to Iraq -- beating Tillerson to the critical hot spot -- to oversee it. Jared, the Boy Wonder, is “in charge” of many things, including a reinventing-government project that will use technology to innovate the bureaucracy, domestic agendas to address the opioid crisis and improve veterans affairs, serving as top envoy to Mexico and Canada, and brokering a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Yup.