U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not receive a warm welcome from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he served for fourteen years. Instead, he faced withering criticism from Democrats for embracing President Donald Trump’s policies—many of which he once opposed. One senator told Rubio he regretted voting to confirm him, while another accused him of betraying his own conscience, saying she believed he knew in his heart that his actions had been wrong.
“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told the Secretary of State (video below).
Rubio snapped back: “Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job.”
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Later, on social media, Senator Van Hollen wrote: “The Marco Rubio who testified today is not the one I served with in the Senate. He has had a full MAGA lobotomy.”
After much back-and-forth during his Senate testimony, Rubio told Van Hollen, “I’m actually very proud of the work we’ve done with USAID. For example, I don’t regret cutting $10 million for male circumcisions in Mozambique. I don’t know how that makes us stronger and more prosperous as a nation.”
Circumcisions dramatically reduce the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Rubio read from a list of other programs he now opposes, including, he said, “$14 million for social cohesion in Mali, whatever the hell that means.”
“Here’s another point, okay?” a defiant Rubio continued. “There is a division in our government between the federal branch and the judicial branch. No judge, in [the] judicial branch, [can] tell me or the President how to conduct foreign policy. No judge can tell me how I have to outreach to a foreign partner or what I need to say to them.”
He went on to say, “What I do is revoke visas, and it’s very simple. A visa is, it’s not a right, it is a privilege. People apply for student visas to come into the United States and study. And if you tell me that you’re coming to the United States to lead campus crusades, to take over libraries, and burn down, try to burn down buildings, and [commit] acts of violence —”
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After more heated discussion, Rubio said, “The bottom line is if you are coming here to stir up trouble on our campuses, we will deny you a visa.”
“We’re gonna continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities.”
“We’re going to do more,” he vowed. “There are more coming. We’re going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests, and are disrupting our higher education facilities.”
Senator Van Hollen interjected, saying, “Writing an op-ed to the Tufts’ school newspaper is disrupting foreign policy? That’s pathetic!”
Critics slammed the Secretary of State.
“Rubio’s spineless arrogance was on full display in this hearing,” declared author Rachel Louise Snyder, a contributing writer to the New York Times opinion section.
“It’s telling that Rubio chose to bluster and grandstand rather than offer an actual argument for why it was legal to revoke Rumeysa Ozturk’s visa because of an op-ed she wrote,” remarked The Atlantic’s James Surowiecki. “It’s because he doesn’t have an actual argument.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
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