Secretary of State Rex Tillerson dismissed reports on Monday that he submitted a resignation letter effective in January, calling a reporter’s question about the matter “ridiculous.”
“It’s a ridiculous question,” Tillerson told the reporter during a photo op with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
You can see exactly how the brief Q&A went down:
this is literally my favorite transcript ever pic.twitter.com/Q2QSI11U5h
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) December 18, 2017
This is not the first time Tillerson has had to dismiss reports of his departure from the State Department.
He called earlier speculation that the White House was looking to ouster him and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo “laughable” and told reporters to “get better sources.”
Tillerson and President Trump have not always seen eye to eye on issues, but some of the reports surrounding their differences have been particularly distracting.
In October, for example, Tillerson had to address reports that he called the president a “moron” and was thinking of resigning after a speech Trump gave to the Boy Scouts.
"Let me tell you what I've learned about this president, whom I did not know before taking this office," Tillerson said at the time. "He loves his country. He puts Americans and America first. He's smart. He demands results wherever he goes, and he holds those around him accountable for whether they've done the job he's asked them to do. Accountability is one of the bedrock values the president and I share."
In fact, he had to deny this report more than once, explaining that he’s “not going to deal with petty stuff like that.”
And the State Department dismissed the reports outright.
"The secretary did not use that type of language to speak about the president of the United States,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “He does not use that language to speak about anyone."