'What the hell happened?' MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in awe as Senate piles on to Marco Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced his former Senate colleagues on Tuesday, where he was repeatedly blasted for compromising his principles for power in President Donald Trump's administration.

MSNBC hosts Nicolle Wallace and Alex Witt spoke about the hearing that was supposed to be about his 2026 fiscal budget requests.

"What the hell happened to Marco Rubio is the most often asked question on and off television, from coast to coast and around the world," Wallace said.

The comment came after Wallace aired a clip of Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) telling Rubio that he "regrets" supporting him for the top cabinet post.

"Senate Democrats, all of whom voted for Marco Rubio, [took] him to task for falling lockstep behind Donald Trump on some of the darkest policy instincts, including defunding USAID, deporting student visa holders over speech the administration disagrees with, and deportations of people in the United States legally, including Kilmer Ábrego García," said Wallace.

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Rubio told lawmakers he refused to back down.

"From who?" Wallace asked. "The Supreme Court?"

During the hearing, Rubio attacked "judges," like those on the high court, who told the administration that it must "facilitate and effectuate the return of" Ábrego García.

"No judge — and the judicial branch — cannot tell me or the president how to conduct foreign policy," said Rubio. "No judge can tell me how I have to outreach to a foreign partner or what I need to say to them."

"We'll see," replied Wallace.

Witt highlighted that the senators who supported Rubio got personal when they went after Rubio.

"I'm so struck by the personal nature of these comments," said Witt. "This is Rubio's colleagues having the first chance to express their disbelief and disappointment. And I would say underneath it — like a certain amount of betrayal and hurt, that he is who he has become. And I, both Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and others are really going at him from like, I thought I knew you."

Witt said she thinks that the reason they're talking about it has to do with the broader conversation about democracy.

"And I think the reason they're doing that is because democracy ends, not just when you have craven transactional actors in the office making decisions for their own good as opposed to the greater good. But it's also when people who seemed like they had morals, that they were reasonable, that they were sensible, give those up in the name of the pursuit of power, which is what it seems Marco Rubio has done. There's no other explanation," she continued.

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