RISE When We Fall, a citizen watchdog organization with over 25,000 members, opposes the nomination of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. Tillerson, if confirmed for the post, would be the least experienced Secretary of State in our nation's history. Tillerson, despite his high-profile positions at Exxon Mobil, is an unknown quantity when it comes to his values and interests. He has been a company man for decades, and the conduct of Exxon under his leadership show a strong willingness to undermine and work against U.S. national interests around the globe. Due to Tillerson's lack of any public office experience, his deep web of conflicts of interests, and his clear record of actions taken against the interests of the United States, we strongly call on Senators to oppose his nomination.

Tillerson's extremely close ties to Russia are well documented, which generates significant concerns given Russia's intervention to influence the U.S. election. Tillerson has publicly stated that he has "a very close relationship" with Russian President Putin. Putin himself pinned an Order of Friendship medal on Tillerson's suit after the signing of a $500 billion deal in 2011 that called for Exxon to drill for oil on the Arctic shelf and the Black Sea, and to develop shale oil deposits in Siberia. Moreover, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Exxon, under Tillerson's leadership, signed major deals with the Russian state-owned oil company. That year, Tillerson, at a company meeting, said, "We do not support sanctions, generally, because we don't find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented comprehensibly, and that's a very hard thing to do."

What has been less frequently reported is that while Tillerson was at the helm of Exxon, the company took serious actions in defiance of U.S. government policy and interests, even after the State Department specifically urged them not to proceed. Exxon blatantly circumvented a well-known U.S. government policy in Iraq that sought to prevent intervention in oil disputes between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq. Despite a clear warning from U.S. government, Exxon inflamed tensions in Iraq by signing a unilateral oil deal with the Kurdish regional government that did not have the support or approval of the Iraqi government. Furthermore, at a time when we face the unprecedented threat of climate change, our credibility will suffer if our lead negotiator is someone who has represented the interests of fossil fuel energy companies for his entire career. The American people cannot trust that such a person with a lifetime devoted to the promotion of fossil fuels can suddenly shift and represent the values of environmental protection.

Beyond his positions at Exxon Mobil, the American public has no idea what values and interests Tillerson represents. We had hoped he would be more forthcoming during the confirmation process, but his refusal to release full tax records raises suspicions about transparency and openness. This secrecy greatly concerns us not only because it raises concerns that he has something significant to hide, but also because it demonstrates a managerial preference for concealment, which goes against our belief that a strong government is a transparent government that shares information with its citizens.

The Secretary of State position is our nation's highest ranked cabinet post, one that has unparalleled power to shape our nation's engagement with the world. At a time of significant global upheaval, appointing a man with no national security or government experience – a man who has defied U.S. national interests in serious and credible ways – is a serious risk for our nation and its interests. He is unprepared, unproven, and unapologetically uncooperative with the American people.