Secretary of state Marco Rubio threatened to "move on" from efforts to end the war in Ukraine if meaningful progress can't be made in the next few days, and CNN panelists tried to make sense of his remarks.
Rubio warned the U.S. would abandon talks "in a matter of days" if a deal cannot be reached, and Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer noted how dramatically the secretary of state had apparently changed his position on the conflict.
"I just think back to that really chaotic Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, and the message that was being sent there was that we are running out of patience here," Fischer said. "I hear that echoed in Marco Rubio's statement. They came a long way to get to the point where they are this close to a deal."
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Ukraine signed a memorandum of understanding late Thursday on a possible deal to give the U.S. access to its rare earth minerals, which Trump has said would be a necessary component for a peace agreement, and Fischer said Rubio's remarks seem to put pressure on the beleaguered nation.
"I was shocked," she said, "so I think now what you're seeing is the same type of tactic moving forward, which is you need to move fast, Ukraine, or else we're going to lose patience. This is just sort of the deal-making process that you're seeing with the Trump administration."
Fischer was struck by the change in Rubio, who drew attention during that Oval Office meeting in February by sitting slumped in apparent discomfort as Trump and vice president JD Vance hectored Zelenskyy.
"Quickly, though, the one thing that's interesting to me, Rubio being the person coming out with this message, do you remember him during that meeting?" Fischer said. "He was sitting there slumped, not saying a word. Now he's the spokesperson. How the cards have turned over."
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