Rex Tillerson, former secretary of state, told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that President Donald Trump was less prepared than Vladimir Putin for their first meeting, allowing his Russian counterpart to promote his own agenda and leaving US officials at a disadvantage. In the meeting that lasted for nearly seven hours, Tillerson went on to say how Trump assumed that it would be a short meeting where the leaders would only exchange pleasantries, but it turned out that Putin was ready to talk about major issues and the meeting ended up lasting for two hours.
Tillerson, who was fired by Trump last March, delivered his assessment of Trump's approach to the talks in Hamburg in 2017, in remarks to a Congress committee Tuesday. He later said he got along with Putin "very, very well" at the meeting.
The Hamburg meeting was supposed to be a brief meeting, but went on for two hours where various global issues were discussed.
"I don't think I have to prepare very much... It's about attitude, it's about willingness to get things done," Trump had said ahead of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year at Singapore. The President dismissed Tillerson's remarks, claiming he was "perfectly prepared" for meetings with Putin.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee's Democratic Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel and ranking Republican Rep. Michael McCaul met with Rex Tillerson to interview him regarding his experiences in the Trump cabinet. After Tillerson was fired, he was replaced by Mike Pompeo.
