Trump Secretary of State Nominee Tillerson Questioned by Sen. Murphy

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy directly questioned Secretary of State nominee and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson on his past business dealings and foreign policy priorities Wednesday.

Murphy, a Democrat, opposes Tillerson's nomination for the position. Murphy is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He asked Tillerson if he was briefed on allegations made in multiple media reports that Russia has a dossier of damaging information on President-elect Donald Trump.

Tillerson said he wasn't briefed and went on to say that he wasn't aware of any personal or Exxon-related business dealings or relationships with Paul Manafort or Carter Page.

Related: Donald Trump Compares Intelligence Community To 'Nazi Germany,' Says He Won't Divest

Murphy also pressed Tillerson on Trump's use of Twitter and whether his tweets are "red lines" on U.S. foreign policy. He specifically mentioned a tweet where Trump said a North Korean ICBM launch was "not going to happen."

"I don’t know that I would interpret that to be a red line. I could interpret that to mean a lot of things...It’s not going to happen because the president views that North Korea’s aren’t going to do one. It could be interpreted that way," Tillerson said, adding that it was a far extension for Murphy's red line conclusion.

"I think many have interpreted it that way. And I think to Senator Young’s question, therein lies the challenge.," Murphy said. "When you conduct foreign policy by 140 characters, it does become a little opaque as to what you mean. I don’t think there’s as much confusion there, but that will certainly be a challenge that you will have.

Watch the full questioning by Murphy below.

Image via Murphy press office