U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a meeting between President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
Vice President JD Vance was put off by a joke that Secretary Marco Rubio tried to tell during a "very serious" conversation about the Middle East.
According to a Daily Beast report, the story came from Katie Miller, the wife of top Trump adviser Stephen Miller. On her debut podcast episode Thursday night, Miller spoke with Vance and gave him a series of "Marco questions." Specifically, she wanted to know the "funniest joke" Rubio had ever told him.
"He started this joke totally deadpan,” Vance said, noting it happened in the middle of their chat.
Rubio claimed a constituent called, noting that her husband had died while they were visiting Israel, and she needed help repatriating his body back to the United States.
Rubio then said that the woman changed her mind and decided to leave her husband’s body in Israel.
“The last time somebody died over here, they rose from the dead three days later." It's a reference to Jesus Christ "rising" after three days.
"I didn’t know until the very end that it was a totally bulls--- joke,” Vance confessed.
He also noted, “[Rubio’s] got a lot of Florida Man jokes. Because, you know, you’ll take some crazy story from the Jacksonville Times, and then it ends up—you think it’s a joke—but it’s actually something that actually happened in the Florida Panhandle.”
Jacksonville is on the east coast of Florida, not the panhandle.
The Beast characterized the interview as "awkwardly stifled."
See the video clip below or at the link here.