Secretary of State Marco Rubio erupted at a Senate hearing Tuesday after Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) accused him of attending a party with President Donald Trump in Miami instead of joining high-stakes Iran peace negotiations in Pakistan — an exchange that quickly devolved into one of the most combustible moments of his first congressional testimony since the Iran war began.
"This is why I was shocked to see that you were at a party with President Trump in Miami instead of accompanying Vice President Vance to Pakistan for negotiations," the Nevada Democrat told Rubio before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rubio cut her off immediately.
"What party was I at?" he fired back. "I was at a party? That's an absurd statement. I was not at a party."
Rosen pressed on, arguing that Rubio had left unconfirmed civilians — Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff — to handle negotiations that Rubio himself was confirmed to lead.
"It's just unthinkable to me that you are missing high-stakes negotiations," she said. "It's sad."
That set Rubio off.
"You people are going to slander me," he snapped, before delivering a lengthy rebuttal insisting he was "co-located with the president" to relay real-time intelligence to the negotiating team in Islamabad. He said he spoke to Witkoff and Kushner at least six times that evening, twice on a secure line.
What Rosen called a "party" was, in fact, UFC 327 at Miami's Kaseya Center on April 11 — where Trump and Rubio sat ringside as the Pakistan talks collapsed after 21 hours without a deal. House Democrats called it "amateur hour."
