Former U.S.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Saturday that
Republicans and
Democrats need to work together for the good of the
United States, while avoiding a direct reference to the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
Tillerson, whom Trump fired in a tweet in March 2018 amid friction between the two over
North Korea,
Iran and
Russia policies, has largely refrained from discussing politics publicly since leaving Washington.
Speaking in Houston at a fundraiser for the UCross Foundation, an artists and writers residency program, Tillerson urged a "civil and thoughtful discourse," saying that the current political rancor is widely viewed as equal to that during the Civil War.