Spotlight: Trump's pick for U.S. top diplomat sparks division within GOP

With the announcement of his pick for secretary of state, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump again sparked division among the Republican Party.

Calling Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson "one of the truly great business leaders of the world," Trump announced Tuesday morning his pick for U.S. secretary of state, moving past 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a choice favored by the party establishment.

"The thing I like best about Rex Tillerson is that he has vast experience at dealing successfully with all types of foreign governments," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Tillerson, 64, is the Texas-based oil company's CEO since 2006. Like Trump, he has no government experience and so far little is known of Tillerson's views about foreign affairs.

However, as Exxon's CEO, Tillerson oversees business operations in over 50 countries and has known Russian President Vladimir Putin since 1990s when they first met.

Tillerson was awarded Russia's Order of Friendship in 2013, a state decoration to reward foreign nationals whose work is aimed at the betterment of relations with Moscow.

Some Republicans in the U.S. Congress immediately raised concerns about the close relations between Tillerson and the Russian government despite Trump's efforts to line up high-profile establishment Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to back his pick.

"The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity, is free of potential conflicts of interest, has a clear sense of America's interests, and will be a forceful advocate for America's foreign policy goals to the president, within the administration, and on the world stage," said Senator Marco Rubio, one of Trump's rival in the GOP primary in a statement on Tuesday.

Though Rubio's remarks were more measured compared with his comments on Monday, when he wrote on Twitter that befriending Putin "is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState," it still signaled a potentially uphill battle for Tillerson to pass his nomination vote in the U.S. Senate early next year.

Rubio is one of the 10 Republicans sitting on the 19-member Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and for Tillerson to get a full Senate vote, he must first get the greenlight from the committee.

Even he passes the hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson would need a simple majority in the full Senate vote, meaning that he could only lose up to three Republican votes if no Democrats vote for him.

So far, Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham, both Republican leaders in the upper chamber, have expressed their concerns about Tillerson's tie to Putin.

"Based upon his extensive business dealings with the Putin government and his previous opposition to efforts to impose sanctions on thew Russian government, there are many questions which must be answered," said Graham in a statement after the announcement.

Despite reservations among some Republican lawmakers, Tillerson on Tuesday won endorsement from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky.

"We need a full review of our national security policy, and I know Rex will face each problem head on with American interests and security as his top priority. I look forward to supporting his nomination," said McConnell in a statement. Endit