All posts tagged "marco rubio"

'I was stunned': Ex-CIA senior official left 'speechless' by Marco Rubio's 'stupid' move

A former senior intelligence service official said on Tuesday that Marco Rubio's latest comments about the Iran war left him and other observers "speechless."

Rubio raised eyebrows with his comment on the Iran war, which largely pointed to Israel as the chief reason for the US involvement.

CNN's Alayna Treene reported this:

"Rubio speaking to reporters now says the 'imminent threat' the administration has referred to to justify US strikes on Iran was that they knew Israel was going to attack Tehran, and believed such an attack would prompt Iran to strike US bases and assets in the region."

Pod Save The World's Ben Rhodes shared Treene's reporting and replied, "America doesn't have to go to war just because Israel was going to go to war."

National security expert Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz also chimed in, adding, "If there is a strategic risk greater than Iran itself for Israel, it is the perception that Israel pushed the United States into a discretionary and open-ended war. In the current American political environment, perception matters as much as operational reality."

"Israel’s standing among younger Americans, within significant parts of the Democratic Party, and even among segments of the Republican coalition, is already under strain," he added in response to comments by Rubio.

That led to ex-CIA senior official Marc Polymeropoulos to speak out. He said, "Rubio in his statement and the admin’s decision to toss this war all on Israel may have catastrophic effects on future American support for Israel."

The expert further added:

"I texted an Israeli friend right after Rubio’s presser and said just that-it’s a step away from essentially blaming Israel (which he did) to saying ‘blame the Jews.’ I was stunned at the abject stupidity of this tact from the admin and it left me speechless. All the anti semitic crazies feel validated now."

Rubio in his statement and the admin’s decision to toss this war all on Israel may hav catastrophic effects on future American support for Israel. Below analysis is spot on. I texted an Israeli friend right after Rubio’s presser and said just that-it’s a step away from… https://t.co/ul7WsAzYp4
— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) March 3, 2026

Rubio under fire over 'insane' 'imminent threat' remark on Iran: 'Dishonest as hell'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio's claims that the U.S. was under an "imminent threat" prompting American military strikes in Iran came into question Monday.

Rubio told reporters the Iranian military was growing its nuclear weapons program and planning to launch attacks against America, its assets in the Middle East, and its allies in the region — namely Israel. In the days since, Rubio said Iran has attacked civilian areas in the Middle East in retaliatory strikes since the attacks started Saturday.

"There absolutely was an imminent threat," Rubio told reporters Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C.

People were critical of Rubio and the Trump administration amid the conflicting information around the military actions.

"So now the 'imminent threat' was that Iran would hit back after being attacked by Israel? That’s why the US launched this devastating war and plunged the region into chaos — instead of pressuring its closest ally not to attack in the first place.
Impressive logic: start a war to stop the retaliation you expect from starting a war. That’s a very creative definition of 'imminent threat,'" Ghida Fakhry, producer and host of TRTWorld, wrote on X.

"The whole thing is dishonest as hell but if you take them at their word: 1) the imminent threat was created by Israel's attack on Iran 2) they say Israel made that attack using U.S. intelligence 3) Trump said he authorized the attack They admit to creating their own pretext!" Aaron Fritschner, Rep. Don Beyer's (R-VA) deputy chief of staff, wrote on X.

"Netanyahu got what he wanted but what about the American people? What about the service members who died? What about the nearly 200 schoolchildren killed? There's a reason why past presidents didn’t go to war with Iran: they refused to risk American lives to open Pandora’s Box," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) wrote on X.

"There was no imminent threat to the United States by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the US, then we are in uncharted territory," Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said in an interview with reporters, which was shared by journalist Aaron Rupar on X.

"This is the most insane and absurd definition of an ‘imminent threat’ I have ever heard in my life. Our ally and proxy, Israel, that we arm and fund, was about to illegally attack Iran so we joined in the attack because that illegal attack would have led to an attack on us," journalist and editor-in-chief of Zeteo Mehdi Hasan wrote on X.

National security expert slaps down Rubio's 'implausible rationale' on Iran bombing

A historian and national security specialist was skeptical Monday of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's first public comments defending the Trump administration's decision to launch strikes against Iran.

CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen expressed doubt about Rubio's argument of an "imminent threat" and what could happen next in the war with Iran, which has left six American service members dead.

"Casey, I'm extremely skeptical," Bergen told CNN anchor Kasie Hunt.

"I mean, the Israelis and the United States are very closely allied. And their operations, as we've seen just now, are very closely integrated," Bergen added. "And Netanyahu has been in D.C., repeatedly. We've been moving massive amounts of military assets into the region since January, so I just find that kind of an implausible rationale."

Rubio claims US faced 'imminent threat' that forced Iran bombing campaign

Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued Monday that the U.S. faced a significant and "imminent threat" that prompted strikes in Iran.

Reporters asked Rubio in Washington, D.C., whether Congress was notified about the national security threats, and Rubio said he told the "gang of eight" leaders that strikes were coming.

"There absolutely was an imminent threat," Rubio said Monday afternoon.

He claimed that the Iranian military was growing its nuclear weapons program and planning to launch attacks against America and its allies in the region. In the days since, Rubio said Iran has attacked civilian areas in the Middle East in retaliatory strikes since the attacks started Saturday.

"We would love to see this regime be replaced. And ultimately, as the president has said, he would love for the people of Iran to use this as an opportunity to rise up and remove these leaders," Rubio said. "They've been wanting to remove them for a long time, we've seen successive waves of protests and we've seen them slaughter people. But the objective of this mission is to make sure they don't have these weapons that can threaten us and our allies in the region. That's why we're doing what we're doing now."

"And while we would love to see a new regime. The bottom line is no matter who governs that country, a year from now, they're not going to have these ballistic missiles and they're not going to have these drones to threaten us.

Rubio said he knew that oil prices would be impacted as a result of the strikes and that the Trump administration was aiming to mitigate against that.

"They are a terroristic regime," Rubio said. "They sponsor terrorism and they participate in terrorism."

He did not know how long the conflict would last.

"The hardest hits are yet to come from the US military," Rubio said. "The next phase will be even more punishing than it is right now."

Rubio: “No presidential administration has ever accepted the War Powers Act as constitutional…We've complied with the law 100%.” pic.twitter.com/ewfIuHBKod
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) March 2, 2026

This soulless 2028 hopeful just signed a deal with the devil

If there was ever any doubt that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is nothing more than Donald Trump’s glorified messenger boy, look no further than his smarmy interaction with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest last Monday.

Rubio hailed a “golden age” of U.S. relations with Hungary, emphasizing Orbán’s strong personal relationship with Trump, and enthusiastically endorsed the autocrat’s bid for a fifth term in an April election.

To earn Rubio’s praise and endorsement, Orbán has systematically dismantled Hungary’s democracy over the 15 years he has wielded power. As far back as 2022, European Union lawmakers declared Hungary “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy,” its undermining of EU’s democratic values taking Hungary out of the “community of democracies.”

Orbán has eroded Hungary’s pillars of democracy. He has limited the voice of opposition groups, passed anti-immigration laws, suppressed the freedom of the media and educational institutions, manipulated the election system, controlled the legislative branch through his Fidesz Party’s super-majority, and weakened judicial oversight by court packing and forced retirement of senior judges.

Orbán has provided Trump a blueprint for democratic demolition that Trump has followed with alacrity.

Rubio disgraced himself by wrapping America’s arms around the most autocratic leader in the European Union. A political chameleon, Rubio is a poster boy for why millions of Americans view politicians as the lowest of bottom feeders. He sold his soul for political gain and scrapped whatever values he may have had to serve Trump, hoping to position himself as a presidential contender in 2028.

As a Florida senator, Rubio criticized the erosion of democracy in Hungary under Orbán and signed a letter with colleagues that decried the “significantly eroded” state of democracy there. Today, Rubio hails that same Orbán as a great leader worthy of continuing to serve the Hungarian people.

As a senator, Rubio was known as a “Russia hawk” who labeled Vladimir Putin a “gangster,” “thug,” “tyrant,” and “war criminal.” Today, Rubio has refused to put any blame on Putin for invading Ukraine, made nice with Orbán, Putin’s one ally in the EU, and advanced Trump’s efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war quickly at great expense to Ukraine and benefit to Putin.

As a senator, Rubio was widely regarded as a staunch defender of democracy at home. Today, Rubio is helping Trump dismantle American democracy while lavishing praise on Hungary’s democratic destroyer who Trump seditiously emulates.

As Secretary of State, Rubio must carry out Trump’s agenda or be fired. However, Rubio had the choice of accepting the appointment, and he knew exactly what he was signing up for: serving at the pleasure of a narcissistic authoritarian bent on taking apart America’s democracy piece by piece and spreading Orbán’s brand of anti-democratic right-wing nationalism.

Of course, Rubio is just a slick extension of Trump, a more moderate-appearing face on Trump’s anti-democratic machinations. However, if it weren’t for Rubio and other unscrupulous lackeys like Kristi Noem, Lee Zeldin, Pam Bondi, Peter Hegseth, and Linda McMahon, Trump couldn’t carry out his multiple-front assault on democracy. If Hitler hadn’t had Goring, Himmler, Goebbels, and Hess, he too would have lacked the obedient functionaries to convert hateful rhetoric into nightmarish reality.

Rather than an anomaly, Rubio is representative of most bend-the-knee Republican politicians today. They are willing to forsake their values to keep their jobs or climb the political food chain like Rubio by prostrating themselves shamelessly before Trump.

By providing absolutely no pushback to Trump demolishing American democracy and promoting authoritarianism abroad, Republican politicians are complicit in supporting and enabling the most anti-democratic administration in US history. They have lost any right to represent the American people or our democratic republic and will be unceremoniously shown the door on Nov. 4.

Tom Tyner is a freelance editorialist, satirist, political analyst, blogger, author and retired English instructor.

'I'm very concerned': Marco Rubio triggers alarms of 'war' from intel lawmakers

Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an unusual briefing on Tuesday that raised concerns among intel lawmakers over whether the U.S. may launch military attacks on Iran.

Rubio's private meeting was held virtually just hours before President Donald Trump's State of the Union address and included both Senate and House lawmakers, including high-ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Politico reported. The move has raised questions over the Trump administration's decision to take military action in the Middle East.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) expressed alarm over Rubio's comments.

"Rep. Jim Himes, top Intel Committee Dem, on Trump and Iran: 'I'm very concerned. Wars in the Middle East don't go well for presidents, for the country, and we have not heard articulated a single good reason for why now is the moment to launch yet another war in the Middle East,'" Sahil Kapur, senior national political reporter for NBC News, wrote on X.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) shared his apprehension about Trump's previous statements on Iran and what could happen next. Last year Trump had claimed that U.S. military strikes in Iran had dismantled the country's nuclear program.

"What happened to Iran's nuclear program being 'completely and totally obliterated'?... Donald Trump's words, not our words. Clearly he was lying to the American people or he's lying right now," Jeffries said in an interview with reporters that was shared by journalist Aaron Rupar on X.

Far-right influencer melts down over Trump's push to war with Iran: 'Completely betrayed!'

Far-right white nationalist and Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes lost it on Wednesday amid growing national concern that America is moving closer to war with Iran.

Fuentes wrote on X about what he expected to happen if a war were to break out between the U.S. and Iran under President Donald Trump.

"If Trump brings us to war in Iran you can forget about 2026 and you can forget about a ticket with Vance or Rubio in 2028. This is literally Iraq 2.0. The GOP has utterly and completely betrayed America First," he wrote.

As military movement heightens in the Arabian Sea and more American air defense are repositioned closer to the Middle East, a Trump administration adviser reportedly told Axios, “I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action."

MAGA has been divided over the Trump administration's international focus throughout the first year of Trump's second term. Fuentes' most recent comment signifies his growing disdain over the Trump administration's pivot to international security versus the MAGA coalition's central push for "America First" policies.

Trump's meddling in foreign elections is no mere 'whim': analyst

Donald Trump's administration has overseen a shift in the mood of world politics, with the U.S. drifting further to the right and a question mark looming over its relationship with Europe.

The president's team has openly backed political candidates in elections across the globe, notably in Brazil and Honduras last year. Trump's meddling is targeted and shows how far the president will go to ratify his U.S. national security strategy, CNN analyst Stephen Collinson said.

Collinson wrote, "The Trump administration’s backing of Orbán in Hungary’s election is the latest sign of an institutionalized shift to the right in US foreign policy, and a rejection of traditional stances. Some Europeans now regard their longtime protector as a growing political threat.

"And it reflects the growing willingness of the White House — amid new Trump claims that the US election system is plagued by fraud ahead of the midterm elections — to insert itself into the domestic politics of foreign states.

"Trump has already tried to influence voters or shape elections in Argentina, Brazil, Honduras and Poland, and claims to be running Venezuela from the Oval Office after ousting President Nicolás Maduro.

"Trump isn’t acting on a whim. He’s codified his goals in the new US national security strategy, which praises the 'growing influence of patriotic European parties' in Europe. This refers to right-wing populist and anti-immigrant parties like the National Rally in France, Reform in the UK and the AfD in Germany, which are seeking to oust the global leaders with whom Trump deals every day."

Collinson went on to suggest these stress tests of European willingness could amount to the US withdrawing from defense agreements and severing ties with some countries.

He wrote, "At Munich last year, Vice President JD Vance conjured an idealized view of Western Europe rooted in Christianity at risk of being destroyed by a wave of immigration from Muslim and majority non-White nations. This year, Rubio delivered a similar message, albeit cushioned with more diplomatic finesse.

"He insisted that Washington doesn’t want “vassal” states but strong EU partners and that it is committed to ending the Ukraine war threatening the continent. But his speech was also a broad hint that unless the continent adopted MAGA’s view of Western civilization, America’s defense of Europe would be in question."

'Have they lost their minds?' Standing ovation for 'ugly' Rubio speech shocks analyst

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered an unsettling speech to European leaders at the Munich security conference Monday, receiving a standing ovation that left an analyst stunned.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian published Tuesday, Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, described the "disturbing" 3,000-word address from the Trump administration's top diplomat. Hasan questioned Rubio's "love letter to conquest and colonialism" and called out his "gaslighting" as the son of Cuban immigrants who once called President Donald Trump a "con artist" and "lunatic." He's now telling European leaders they should support America's president.

"Did they not realize that they may have been clapping for their own demise? That despite Rubio’s gentler tone and polished language, despite all his talk of transatlantic comity and unity, he was advocating for a geopolitics of vicious authoritarianism. That Rubio may be good cop to Trump’s bad, but their goal is one and the same: to make empire great again," Hasan wrote.

Hasan pointed out that it wasn't just what Rubio said — it's what he didn't say.

Rubio did not mention Russia or China once in his comments, and despite the concerns of European leaders, he also never spoke of Greenland. And after reports that Trump is still considering acquiring Greenland, Rubio reiterated that Trump hasn't let go of the idea of using military force to take the Denmark territory.

"Astonishingly, Trump has refused to rule out the use of military force against Denmark, a Nato ally," Hasan wrote. "He has dismissed concerns about international borders and national sovereignty. And, this weekend, he sent his secretary of state to a conference in Europe that was supposed to be about collective security to deliver a speech that amounted to: America must dominate. Trump must lead. And Europe must get onboard – or else."

Instead of praising Rubio, European governments should be wary, Hasan argued.

"Again, I cannot emphasize this enough: European officials actually stood up in Munich and applauded a US official praising empire, while serving a US administration whose stated foreign policy goals include the imperial seizure of European territory," Hasan wrote.

"Have they lost their minds? The Europeans in that audience may have told themselves that they were applauding a return to stability and even friendship with the United States," Hasan added. "In reality, they were offering a standing ovation for the return of something much uglier, bloodier, and more dangerous. Empire. And this time, it may not stop at Europe’s own borders."

Trump ally's 2028 dreams in chaos as MAGA infights on thorny issue: 'He can't say a word'

Republicans have reached a significant challenge ahead of the 2028 elections — infighting over the party's stance on artificial intelligence — a clash that has put potential presidential hopeful and Vice President JD Vance in the middle of the GOP's ranging ideology on the burgeoning technology.

Among MAGA, it's unclear where the party will land as far as support or disdain for AI and what that could mean for 2028 presidential contenders within the Republican party, according to a Politico Magazine report. Those conflicting attitudes have resulted in questions over what will happen post-President Donald Trump, who has generally opposed any regulation on tech companies and AI technology.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who has generally been an ally of Trump but has broken with the president in the past, has raised his own concerns about the tech industry and could also be a potential presidential hopeful.

“The AI revolution is proceeding on transhumanist lines. It is working against the working man, his liberty and his worth,” Hawley said during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in September. “It is operating to install a rich and powerful elite. It is undermining our most cherished ideals. And insofar as that keeps on, AI works to undermine America.”

With Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio expected to be potential front-runners to lead the Republican party, following a soft endorsement from Trump in 2025, it's unclear which direction the GOP will take on its views or critiques of the tech industry.

"That’s because AI is poised to strike directly at the contradictions embedded within the new coalition that Trump has built: It will pit the new blue-collar members of the GOP base against the business-aligned sector that Trump has increasingly won over in his second term. It will pit family-values and religious conservatives against the newly emboldened tech wing," Politico reported.

"And it is a policy issue that could prove particularly problematic for the 2028 contenders who are closest to Trump, because the Trump White House is pursuing an agenda on AI that is out of step with what many Trump-aligned voters and influencers want — especially the more populist elements that are increasingly prominent in the GOP’s ranks," according to Politico.

This could create a conflict for Vance, who has aligned his policies with the Trump administration.

"Vance is handcuffed because he can’t say a word," a former Trump administration, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to openly discuss the dynamics among the White House insiders, official told the outlet. “Hawley can spend the next three years railing against AI.”