#TheBig3 - Rex Tillerson Out As Secretary Of State, 3 Deadly Package Explosions In Austin Appear To Be Connected & More!

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Rex Tillerson Out As Secretary Of State

Source: BEN STANSALL / Getty

On Tuesday US President Donald Trump axed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo.

President Trump thanked Tillerson in a tweet, in part, saying:

Rex Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the job just over a year ago. The president also nominated Gina Haspel to become the first woman director of the CIA.

A senior White House official told the BBC about the timing of the announcement: “The president wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations.”

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said, “We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things,” said the president. “When you look at the Iran deal, I think it’s terrible. I guess he thought it was OK.

“I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same. Trump continued “with Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it’s going to go very well.”

Austin Package Explosions That Killed 2 People Appear Connected, Police Say

Source: DenisTangneyJr / Getty

CNN- Three package bombs that exploded in Austin, Texas, over 10 days — killing a teenager and a 39-year-old man and critically injuring an elderly woman — appear to be connected, police said Monday.

Here’s what we know so far:

• Two of the explosions happened within hours of each other Monday, sending police scrambling from one crime scene to the next. The first blast happened March 2.

• The bombs killed a 39-year-old African-American man on March 2, killed a 17-year-old African-American male early Monday morning, and severely injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman midday Monday. A woman hurt in the Monday morning explosion had non-life threatening injuries, police said.

• The residents found the packages outside their houses, but none was delivered by the Postal Service or delivery services like UPS or FedEx, police said.

• Police also have not decided if these are hate crimes but said that’s a possibility because of the victims’ races.

• “The evidence makes us believe these incidents are related,” Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.

House Republicans End Russa Probe In Trump’s Favor

President Trump Unveils His Infrastructure Initiative With State And Local Officials In The State Dining Room Of White House

Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

On Monday, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee abruptly ended their investigation into Russian election meddling.

The GOP claim there’s no evidence that the Kremlin tried to get Donald Trump elected, breaking with the U.S. intelligence community’s unanimous conclusion.

Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.), who oversees the House probe, also charged that his committee has found no proof that Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government, even as special counsel Robert Mueller is expanding his investigation and actively pursues criminal charges against at least four associates of the President.

“The bottom line: The Russians did commit active measures against our election in ’16, and we think they will do that in the future,” Conaway told reporters.