AP reporter disputes Washington Post’s Tillerson eye-contact report

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A veteran State Department reporter is throwing cold water on a bombshell report that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instructed some staff members “not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact.”

The Hill reports that last Thursday’s Washington Post story portrays Tillerson as a reclusive figure who is "isolated, walled off from the State Department’s corps of bureaucrats in Washington and around the world." 

The piece says Tillerson has instructed his staff to warn "career diplomats" not to speak or make eye contact with him. 

Chief diplomatic writer Matt Lee with AP disputed that claim on Twitter Friday saying, “This is not true and people repeating it are making it more difficult to address very real issues."

Lee called the allegations “compelling gossip."  

Corrie O'Connor