Jan 11, 2017

Three quotes to sum up Tillerson's morning

(AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Rex Tillerson, Trump's pick for Secretary of State, is spending his day getting grilled by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The big takeaways from his morning of testifying:

Marco Rubio pushed him on Russian involvement in Syria…

Rubio: Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?Tillerson: I would not use that term.

In response to Ben Cardin's query on defending NATO allies…

Tillerson: I think what Russian leadership would have understood is a powerful response that indicated — yes, you took Crimea, but this stops right here.

Getting testy with Tim Kaine on Exxon-Mobil's muddying of climate research…

Kaine: Do you lack the knowledge to answer my question or do you refuse to answer my question?Tillerson: A little of both.

Go deeper

Rashaan Ayesh

America's rundown roads add to farmers' struggles

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

American farmers are struggling to safely use the roads that cut through their fields; decades of neglect and lack of funding have made the routes dangerous.

The big picture: President Trump has long promised to invest billions in rural infrastructure, and his latest proposal would allocate $1 trillion for such projects. Rural America, where many of Trump's supporters live, would see a large chunk of that money.

Go deeper1 hour ago - Economy & Business

Axios

South Korea and Italy see spikes in coronavirus cases

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread to more nations, and the U.S. reports a doubling of its confirmed cases to 34 — while noting those are mostly due to repatriated citizens, emphasizing there's no "community spread" yet in the U.S. South Korea's confirmed cases jumped from 204 on Friday to 433 on Saturday, while Italy's case count rose from 3 to 62 as of Saturday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 2,362 people and infected more than 77,000 others, mostly in mainland China. New countries to announce infections recently include Israel, Lebanon and Iran.

Go deeperUpdated 1 hour ago - Health

Orion Rummler

Centrist Democrats beseech 2020 candidates: "Stand up to Bernie" or Trump wins

Bernie Sanders rallies in Las Vegas, Nevada on Feb. 21. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Center-left think tank Third Way urgently called on the Democratic front-runners of the 2020 presidential election to challenge Sen. Bernie Sanders on the South Carolina debate stage on Feb. 25, in a memo provided to Axios' Mike Allen on Saturday.

What they're saying: "At the Las Vegas debate ... you declined to really challenge Senator Sanders. If you repeat this strategy at the South Carolina debate this week, you could hand the nomination to Sanders, likely dooming the Democratic Party — and the nation — to Trump and sweeping down-ballot Republican victories in November."

Go deeper4 hours ago - Politics & Policy