Secretary of State Marco Rubio leapt to President Donald Trump's defense Friday on CNN while discussing Trump's shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that ultimately saw the latter tossed out of the White House with no security guarantees in the war against Russia.
Rubio, despite his strong and outspoken defenses of Ukraine when he served in the Senate, now pushes the administration line that Ukraine must make compromises with Russia and sue for peace, even though the war is a one-sided Russian invasion.
"We just heard from President Zelensky; he said he does not think that he owes President Trump an apology for what happened inside the Oval Office today," said anchor Kaitlan Collins. "Do you feel otherwise?"
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"I do, I do because you guys don't — see, you guys only saw the end," said Rubio. "You saw what happened today. You don't see all the things that led up to this. So let me explain. The president has been very clear. He campaigned on this. He thinks this war should have never started. He believes, and I agree, that had he been president, it never would have happened. Now, here we are. He's trying to bring an end to this conflict."
"We explained very clearly what our plan is here, which is we want to get the Russians to a negotiating table," Rubio continued. "We want to explore whether peace is possible. They understand this. They also understand that this agreement that was supposed to be signed today was supposed to be an agreement that binds America economically to Ukraine, which to me, as I explained, I think the president alluded to today, is a security guarantee in its own way because we're involved. It's not us, it's our interests. That was all explained. That was all understood. And nonetheless, for the last 10 days and every engagement we've had with the Ukrainians, there's been complications in getting that point across, including the public statements that President Zelensky has made. But they insisted on coming to D.C."
He added, "It should have been a very clear understanding. Don't come here and create a scenario where you're going to start lecturing us about how diplomacy isn't going to work, as President Zelensky took it in that direction, and it ended in a predictable outcome as a result. It's unfortunate that wasn't supposed to be this way, but that's the path he chose. And I think, frankly, you know, sends his country backwards in regards to achieving peace, which is what President Trump wants at the end of the day, is for this war to end. He's been as consistent as anyone can be about what his objective is here."
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