Secretary of State Marco Rubio stammered out an explanation when cornered by reporters about the presence of President Donald Trump's son-in-law at a high-level meeting with foreign officials.
Michael Boulos, the husband of the president's younger daughter Tiffany Trump, sat beside the secretary of state during a meeting on Wednesday with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Rubio appeared to be caught flat-footed when asked Thursday in Kuwait about his role in the talks.
"Oh, he was there to see – his brother lives here," Rubio told reporters. "He was just there to see me and catch up."
Another reporter followed up and asked whether the meeting was a working lunch.
"There was, but he wasn't, the conversations around him had to do with – he was just here because his brother lives here and I'm a good friend of Michael's, so we had a chance to catch up," Rubio said.
Social media critics weren't satisfied with Rubio's explanation.
"Puh-leese," groaned Alan Eyre, a former State Department official and distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute.
"Trump’s son-in-law just happened to sit next to the Secretary of State at a meeting with the leader of the UAE," pondered Josh Dorner, a Democratic communications specialist. "And Rubio basically says he was just there to see his brother who lives there and to see Rubio (?), which still doesn’t explain why he was at this meeting."
"This is ridiculous from @marcorubio," slammed Tommy Vietor, a former National Security Council staffer under President Barack Obama. "He had to catch up with Trump's son in law DURING a meeting with the president of the UAE?"
"Casual corruption is a regular part of this Administration and the Republican Doormat Congress has no interest in stopping it," opined Democratic congressional candidate Fred Wellman.
"Listen, Marco Rubio has a thousand jobs, so probably the only time he has to catch up with friends is in official meetings ok," joked journalist Jessica Huseman.
"Does every ancillary Trump family member need to be shoehorned into Middle East diplomacy," wondered geoeconomics analyst Ali Ahmadi.
"Team Trump is just a bottomless pool of corruption," sneered economist Dean Baker.
"This no way explains why this non-entity is sitting in an official meeting btw our govt+another nation," noted author and journalist Bill Carter.. If he's along for the ride to visit his brother he better be paying his way. Ivanks once SAT IN as Trump. No other Admin has treated official US actions like family gatherings.