WHEN: Today, Wednesday, June 28th
WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Box"
Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a FIRST ON CNBC interview with former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on CNBC's "Squawk Box" (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) today, Wednesday, June 28th. Following is a link to the interview on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000631519.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
RICE ON REX TILLERSON
Every Secretary of State finds his or her own way and I have great confidence in Rex Tillerson, I know him well. He came to this work from his purchase as CEO and Chairman of ExxonMobil. The oil men know the world in ways that others don't and I am very confident in his leadership. And, I learned something when I was in Washington – don't always believe everything that you read in the newspaper about the relationship between the President and the Secretary of State. My understanding is that their relationship is actually very good.
RICE ON ROBERT MUELLER
I have a lot of confidence in Bob Mueller. I know him well. He was FBI Director when I was National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. This is someone who will go to where the truth leads him and once we have that report, I think we'll have more to act on. In the meantime, we need to get about the business of governing because that's really what the American people want.
RICE ON RUSSIA
Any interference in our elections by a hostile power – and I think we have to, in this case, consider Russia a hostile power sadly, because we need a decent relationship with Russia – but any interference in our election has to be investigated and not just investigated to see what happened, but to see how it doesn't happen again.
RICE ON PRESIDENT TRUMP
I believe every President of the United States stands for our values and ultimately, you see presidents begin to react in that way. You heard President Trump say, for instance after the Syrian chemical attack, we can't let that stand. What he was saying was the President of the United States can't let that stand. And so while the language may be different and we might talk about needing to deal with policy, I think you're going to see that the view that America's interests and values are always linked will come around.
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