American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden released the following statement in response to reports that President Trump plans to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him:

“Replacing one Putin lackey with another at the State Department should send a chill down every American’s spine regardless of their political party. Pompeo may not have been given a fancy award by Putin himself, but he still has spread fake news about the US intelligence assessment that Russia attacked the 2016 election, undermined new US sanctions on Russia passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and even met with a conspiracy theorist peddling the insane lie that the DNC actually hacked itself. This administration puts Russian interests ahead of everything else, and that sadly won’t change regardless of who is in charge at the State Department.”