All posts tagged "marco rubio"

'Let me ask the question again': Marco Rubio stumbles when pressed on Venezuela takeover

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was pressed Sunday by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos after dodging a question about the Trump administration’s authority to control a foreign nation following its hostile takeover of Venezuela on Saturday.

Stephanopoulos asked Rubio “under what legal authority” could the United States government control Venezuela, with President Donald Trump announcing Saturday that his administration would “run” Venezuela until a transfer of power can take place.

Rubio dodged that question, and instead spoke to how the Trump administration’s aggressive operation would halt Venezuela from acting as “the crossroads for many of our adversaries around the world, including Iran and Hezbollah.”

Undeterred, Stephanopoulos repeated his question.

“Let me ask the question again,” he said. “What is the legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela?”

Rubio defended his previous response, but ultimately provided a single legal justification for the Trump administration’s hostile takeover.

“As far as what our legal authority is… it’s very simple, we have court orders!” Rubio proclaimed. “I don’t know, is a court not a legal authority? The legal authority is the court orders that we have!”

The only court order that could reasonably be construed as supporting the Trump administration’s hostile takeover of Venezuela is the Justice Department’s indictment of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, though nothing in the order would authorize the U.S. government to seize control of a foreign nation, nor due U.S. courts have the authority to do so.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Trump said the US is going to 'run Venezuela.' Under what legal authority?

RUBIO: We want a better future for the people of Venezuela

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'll ask again -- what is the legal authority?

RUBIO: We have court orders pic.twitter.com/WFAQIQGcqK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2026

Rubio's shocking decision makes RFK Jr.'s cuts look like child's play

For much of 2025, public-health debates in the United States have focused on the damage being caused by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with his reckless vaccine policy decisions, deep funding cuts, the wholesale firing of experienced public health professionals across Health and Human Services agencies, and the loss of trust in public health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His actions weakened domestic health protections and further eroded trust in science, evidence based decision making and the scientific method itself.

But even accounting for all of Kennedy’s harm, the most destructive public health decision of 2025 didn’t come from his agency. It came from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio via elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

That decision will cost more lives, undermine more health systems and increase global health risk more than any other public health policy choice made this year. It also delivered a severe blow to America’s ability to lead through diplomacy.

USAID provided key global public health infrastructure

For decades, USAID was one of the most important public-health institutions on the planet, arguably more consequential than the World Health Organization or the Gates Foundation. It served as a core pillar of global disease prevention and health-system stability. Today, it’s gone.

USAID funded (and held partners accountable for) infectious disease surveillance, HIV treatment, tuberculosis and malaria prevention, maternal and child health services, clean water and sanitation systems, nutrition programs for mothers and infants, vaccine delivery infrastructure and health workforce training in developing nations.

USAID’s work stopped outbreaks before they became pandemics. It reduced mass displacement. It stabilized regions where collapsing health systems fuel hunger, conflict and migration. It improved women’s health, helped families plan their futures and helped entire populations escape poverty.

USAID focused on upstream prevention on a global scale. It was also one of our most effective tools for building diplomatic influence.

Hard power, soft power: why USAID mattered

In international affairs, countries project power in two ways. Hard power relies on forces like military strength, sanctions and the threat of punishment. Soft power relies on trust, humanitarian aid, scientific cooperation and being seen as a reliable partner acting in good faith.

USAID was a cornerstone of American soft power. When the U.S. helped countries prevent disease, strengthen health systems, and keep children alive and families out of poverty, it built credibility. We earned cooperation and trust. It made American leadership legitimate rather than coercive.

Eliminating USAID didn’t just dismantle public health infrastructure; it dramatically weakened our soft power. It broadcasts that the U.S. is transactional, unreliable and disinterested in shared global responsibility.

That erosion of trust will make cooperation during future emergencies far more difficult not only for this administration, but for future ones that may want to restore America’s role as a force for good.

Damage is under way

Thanks to Secretary Rubio disease surveillance is collapsing, meaning outbreaks are detected later or not at all. Interruptions in HIV and tuberculosis treatment are fueling drug resistance, which will inevitably reach us as well.

Gaps in maternal and child health services are translating into preventable deaths. Weakening vaccine infrastructure invites the return of diseases that were on the decline.

Responsibility for this decision is clear. As Secretary of State, Rubio presided over, defended, and even trumpeted the dismantling of USAID. President Donald Trump supported it. Elon Musk helped drive the ideological and operational wrecking ball that made it possible.

Together, they reframed global public health as expendable “foreign aid” rather than what it is: A frontline defense against disease, instability, humanitarian catastrophe and a key source of American soft power.

What history will remember

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done real damage to public health in 2025. But history will judge the elimination of USAID as something even worse: an abdication of public health responsibility trading several decades of disease prevention and diplomacy for personal ambition and professional survival.

History will remember Rubio’s decision as an abandonment of global public health and soft power, not dollars “saved.”

Will Humble is a long-time public health enthusiast and is currently the Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association (AzPHA). His 40 years in public health include more than 2 decades at the Arizona Department of Health Services, where he served in various roles including as the Director from 2009 to 2015. He continues to be involved in health policy in his role as the Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association.

'Failed this moral moment' CNN analyst bashes JD Vance's speech at MAGA 'Super Bowl'

A CNN analyst on Monday described how Vice President JD Vance dropped the ball during his address at the Turning Point USA event this weekend, an event billed as the MAGA "Super Bowl."

Vance was speaking at the right-wing group's AmericaFest and had the opportunity to denounce MAGA influencers who are anti-semitic or racist — and that he missed the mark, said CNN analyst Kate Bedingfield, former White House communications director under the Biden administration.

Vance has signaled a potential 2028 presidential run — possibly with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a running mate — which Trump has said would have his full support. During the MAGA event this weekend, Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, noted that the conservative group would endorse Vance in the upcoming presidential election.

"Well, it does seem to me like an all eyes on JD Vance situation, and Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, frankly, if the leaders of the MAGA movement are willing to tolerate the platforming of an avowed Hitler apologist in Nick Fuentes, that seems to me like where the pressure should be," Bedingfield said. "I certainly agree with Scott [Jennings] that Ben Shapiro and others who are calling out the anti-semitism, the conspiracy theories of the likes of Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, frankly, Megyn Kelly as well, you know, I think that is an important and good thing for them to be doing."

"JD Vance, to me, he really failed this moral moment. He failed in this moral moment," Bedingfield added. "He had the opportunity to say, 'I disavow this.' He has said that in the past, by the way. He has said he disavows Nick Fuentes. This was clearly a stage where that was called for, and he did not do it. And that I think he is going to have to continue to answer for."

The MAGA movement has been marked by recurring incidents of antisemitism and racist rhetoric, with critics pointing to antisemitic conspiracy theories, white nationalist rhetoric, and exclusionary messaging circulating online and among some prominent figures. Civil rights organizations and watchdog groups have documented a rise in hate speech and extremist content associated with MAGA rallies and online spaces, including antisemitic tropes about Jewish control of media and finance, as well as racist attacks targeting immigrants, Black American,s and other minority groups.

‘Say that’s what it is’: Dems demand answers on Trump's Venezuela regime change push

WASHINGTON — Turns out, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aren’t very good actors.

Congress doesn’t agree on much, but when it comes to Venezuela and U.S. military strikes on purported drug smugglers, on Tuesday Congress was basically all questions, even after receiving classified briefings from the two members of the Trump cabinet.

Only after President Donald Trump took to Truth Social in the evening, to announce "a total and complete" blockade of oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, did Congress finally get the clarity lawmakers had demanded.

Now members of Congress say they know the real goal of U.S. intervention in Venezuela — and lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol are vowing to hold President Trump accountable.

‘More questions than answers’

Rubio and Hegseth, along with a phalanx of aides and security, traversed the U.S. Capitol, trying to sell Congress on President Trump’s war footing in the waters off Venezuela.

“This briefing left me with more questions than answers,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters after a classified briefing.

It was the same on the other side of the Capitol, where lawmakers complained the two powerful secretaries provided “no real answers about whether or not what we’re about to enter into is a war in Venezuela,” Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters after his own chamber’s briefing.

“If this is about regime change, it seems to me that the administration should say that’s what it is, and should come to Congress to ask for that authorization, which has not taken place.”

It wasn’t just Democrats who were left confused as to what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish with regards to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“Most Americans want to know what’s gonna happen next. I want to know what’s gonna happen next. Is it the policy to take Maduro down? It should be,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters.

“If it’s not, and if he goes, what’s gonna happen next? I’d like a better answer as to what happens when Maduro goes.”

For his part, Secretary Rubio told the congressional press corps the briefings were on the “counter-drug mission” that is “killing Americans, poisoning Americans.”

For his part, Secretary Hegseth tried to tamp down criticism as he promised to let members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees view a controversial video of a second missile strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea, on Sept. 2.

“This is the 22nd bipartisan briefing on a highly successful mission to counter designated terrorist organizations, cartels, bringing weapons — weapons meaning drugs — to the American people and poisoning the American people for far too long,” Hegseth told reporters.

But last night, when President Trump announced a blockade of Venezuelan oil — arguing the South American nation is “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America” — lawmakers got the clarity they’d been seeking.

And many weren’t happy.

‘Unquestionably an act of war’

While Congress is demanding answers to more questions, many members also feel lied to, if not duped.

“Trump is threatening a naval blockade of Venezuelan oil, an act of War,” Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) wrote on X.

“We have seen this playbook before. This is not about drugs or making America safer; it’s about regime change.

“Americans do not want war with Venezuela. Congress must act now and stop this.”

While the administration likened targeting alleged drug smugglers to going after pirates of old — thus evoking all the lenient maritime laws regarding marauders on the high seas — Democrats say the gig is up.

They’re demanding the administration halt intervention unless Congress explicitly grants the president war powers.

“A naval blockade is unquestionably an act of war,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) wrote. “A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want.

“On Thursday, the House will vote on Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), and my resolution directing the President to end hostilities with Venezuela.

“Every member of the House of Representatives will have the opportunity to decide if they support sending Americans into yet another regime change war.”

'Heated dust-up' erupts between Pete Hegseth and top Senate Dem

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) got into a fiery argument Tuesday over the Trump administration's lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela.

The two were at a classified briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth and House lawmakers when Kelly, who was apparently sitting in the front row, asked about the ongoing operations, Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on X.

Hegseth — whose Department of Defense is investigating Kelly over a video he made with other Democratic lawmakers warning active military members not to follow unlawful orders — reportedly responded and referenced the difference between lawful and unlawful orders. The lawmakers in the video, including Kelly, are all veterans.

"Kelly interrupted Hegseth as Hegseth was going after him for the video, noting his question had nothing to do with that," Desiderio wrote.

"INSIDE THE ROOM -- MARK KELLY and PETE HEGSETH get into heated dust up during classified briefing," Jake Sherman, Punchbowl News founder, wrote on X.

An attorney representing Kelly, who has questioned Hegseth's decisions, fired off a warning letter to the Department of Defense on Monday, saying the Arizona Democrat is prepared to take whatever legal action is necessary to stop what they regard as an illegal and politically motivated investigation into him.

Hegseth has faced scrutiny over his role in the lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean during military operations, which some legal experts warned amounted to war crimes or outright murder. The boat strike incidents raised concerns among lawmakers and military observers about rules of engagement, civilian casualties, and whether appropriate oversight and accountability measures were followed during these operations under Hegseth's command or purview.

Trump admin eyes yanking visas of Musk critics: report

The Trump administration has considered revoking visas of two prominent critics of billionaire Elon Musk — a once close ally of President Donald Trump — and his X social platform, according to a new Zeteo report on Thursday.

New documentation viewed by Zeteo indicated that high-level talks were underway among top government officials to decide whether to make the decision.

"Per a draft for an action memo outlining options for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the administration is weighing a move to revoke the visas of former European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton and Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate," according to the outlet.

It could be the first attempt for the Trump administration to revoke visas of people it deems are censoring Americans.

"Just last week, the State Department reportedly directed officials to screen out applicants for skilled worker visas who have previously worked to combat online misinformation and disinformation," Zeteo reported.

The news comes as the Trump administration on Wednesday signaled it would begin a new Department of Homeland Security policy that would require visitors to undergo social media inspections. Under the new rule, international travelers would have to provide their social media history over the last five years.

'Mad King Trump' picking petty fights with his admin over internal memos: analysis

Donald Trump has been dubbed a "mad king" by a political commentator who says the president is picking fights with his own administration.

After a ban on several words being featuring in internal reports, including "equality" and "at risk", Trump went a step further and has outlawed a specific font type from featuring on documents. Political commentator Timothy Noah dubbed the changes a "font fight" for the Commander in Chief and his staff. Writing in The New Republic, Noah suggested Trump had "run out of large abuses of power" and was now focusing on the minute details of his office.

Noah wrote, "...autumnal patriarchs run out of large abuses of power to initiate (indiscriminate deportations, selling pardons) and turn to petty ones. Two examples of the latter are Trump’s gilding the Oval Office and erecting a 90,000 square-foot White House ballroom that dwarfs the executive mansion."

Trump has now turned his attention to typeface and banning words from internal documents. It was reported that words including "equality, inequality, underprivileged, climate science," and "at-risk" were barred from use.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears to have been tasked with updating font regulations in the White House too, sending an "action request" to internal members to tell them Sans Serif is now a banned font type. The memo asked workers to "restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work."

Rubio's order reverses a 2023 directive from Antony Blinken, then-President Joe Biden's Secretary of State, which "had switched to Calibri, a modern sans-serif font, saying this was a more accessible font for people with disabilities because it did not have the decorative angular features and was the default in Microsoft products."

Rubio's memo makes the change to Times New Roman as the White House's "standard typeface". Columnist Noah suggested that, while preference over typeface is understandable, making it a pressing issue while running the country was a ridiculous notion from Trump.

He wrote, "I like serifs, but I don’t make a big thing of it because, unlike the president of the United States, I have better things to do with my time."

Trump's attack dog is barking at the wrong leaders. He's about to be put down

In late November, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent instructions to US diplomats, directing them to sell Trump’s immigration policies to allies who don’t want them.

In a barely reported move, Rubio instructed diplomats in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to start “raising concerns” about “immigrant crime” with foreign leaders, while encouraging them to adopt harsher entry restrictions.

Rubio’s directive suggests he is unaware that Canadian, and most European leaders, regard Trump as an undisciplined moron. Unable to read the global room, Rubio instructed American diplomats to “regularly engage host governments” on immigrant crime, and to “report back” on allies who seem “overly supportive of immigrants.”

The goal, Rubio said, is to build foreign support for Trump’s “reform policies related to migrant crime, defending national sovereignty, and ensuring the safety of local communities.”

The result, most likely, will be a collective eye roll.

Exporting lies

Trump, Fox News, and hard right politicians like Viktor Orbán have built their brands around fear mongering, portraying immigrants as dangerous criminals. But educated leaders outside the right-wing echo chamber instantly recognize these claims as false.

In 2024, the National Institute of Justice released figures comparing arrest rates between undocumented immigrants and native-born US citizens, tracked over a seven-year period.

The study found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born citizens for violent and drug crimes, and at a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes. For homicide, undocumented immigrants had the lowest arrest rates throughout the entire study, averaging less than half the rate of US-born citizens. Another multi-year study from Stanford shows the same, with immigrants 30 percent less likely overall to commit crimes than US born natives.

Studies in Europe show similar results. In Germany, where Elon Musk’s darling, the far-right Alternative for Germany party claims that “violent gang rapes” and “knife crimes” by immigrants are “skyrocketing,” media outlets' fact-checking teams showed those claims were false.

In early 2025, researchers found no correlation between immigration and crime rates in Italy, Germany, the UK, France and Belgium. The same results were reported in August for Canada and Australia.

Most importantly, disinformation is more tightly controlled in Europe, and the news media is not allowed to fearmonger the way Fox News does, so when Trump tries to export his playground bully diplomacy, members of the public are more skeptical.

Exporting economic failures

Setting aside perceptions, foreign leaders are aware, even if Trump is not, that his anti-immigrant push has hurt global and local economies.

In the US, no sector has been hurt more by Trump’s anti-immigration push than farmers. American farmers today say their No.1 challenge isn’t the weather, equipment costs, or even the mortgage — it’s finding enough labor. With more than 40 percent of American farm workers lacking legal status, people who used to do the heavy lifting are now staying home in fear while crops rot in the fields.

When ICE started raiding farms earlier this year, a large California farmer told Reuters that around 70 percent of the migrant workforce stopped coming to work, which meant “70 percebt of your crop doesn’t get picked.” She also said out loud what Trump refuses to admit: “Most Americans don’t want to do this (backbreaking) work.”

Although ICE’s effect on food supplies will take more time to assess, immigration policies that ignore regional labor requirements are a long-standing problem. Several years ago, the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association begged Congress to expand their accessible labor pool as the dairy industry faces “an acute national labor crisis” without immigrant labor. In 2025, farm labor, and the dairy labor crisis, have worsened.

Industry leaders in Europe say the same. Migrant workers are as crucial to construction, hospitality, and agriculture in the EU as they are in the US. Immigrants in Europe also comprise over 50 percent of the skilled workforce in technology. Overall, immigrant labor has become more crucial, not less, as Europe faces declining population trends.

Bad timing

Emphasizing foreign “sovereignty” in their anti-immigrant efforts, Rubio and Trump somehow miss that exporting Trump’s xenophobia, and dictating its ignorant spread, doesn’t respect our allies’ sovereignty, it offends it.

Trump and Rubio seem to project their own Fox News-based myopia onto the world, assuming foreign audiences accept their fact-free propaganda as blindly as MAGA does. But they don’t. Fox couldn’t hack the UK’s accuracy-in-the-news legal requirement and stopped trying to broadcast there several years ago. In result, EU audiences are better equipped to discern fact from fiction than far-right audiences in the US.

As the administration calls for a travel ban on entire countries full of “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” Rubio’s timing could not be worse. He is pushing Trump’s hatred just when EU allies are credibly accusing him of blackmail, and South America leaders are accusing the administration of murder.

Rubio obviously misapprehends how little regard Europeans and Canadians have for Trump’s uninformed bellicosity. Poor timing on his immigration cable alone suggests our allies will soon start letting his calls go into voicemail.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

'Major error' by Trump has created formidable opponent to MAGA's reign: analyst

President Donald Trump's violent threats aimed at several Democrats, and specifically Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), have now positioned the lawmaker for a potential presidential run in 2028, a commentator said Monday.

In an analysis published by Salon's Jason Kyle Howard on Monday, the writer described why Trump's move could be a "potential risk" for Republicans after the president had a vicious response to a Nov.18 video featuring Kelly, a retired Navy captain and combat pilot, and five other Democrats — all veterans and former intelligence personnel — who gave a direct message to veterans: "You can refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

Trump took to Truth Social and called the Democratic lawmakers "traitors" who should be imprisoned or face the death penalty. Later, he denied that he made those threats.

And then on Nov. 24, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Pentagon was investigating if Kelly had violated military law, saying the Arizona senator could be called back to active duty and could face “court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.” The next day, an FBI probe was reportedly underway to investigate "the lawmakers’ conduct." The agency apparently wanted to schedule interviews with each of the six lawmakers in the video.

But the series of attacks has backfired on the Trump administration and Kelly has used the maneuvers to his advantage, making television appearances, sending out fundraising emails and speaking out against the president, Howard wrote. He "also seized the opportunity to go on the offense and talk about other issues."

"By virtue of the Pentagon investigation, as well as rumors of his presidential ambitions, Kelly has received the lion’s share of attention," Howard wrote. "That’s bad news for Republicans and constitutes a major error on the part of Trump, whose actions have had unintended consequences: He has elevated Kelly as a potential 2028 rival, if not for himself then for his MAGA successor, whether that ends up being Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr. — who’s in second place behind Vance according to a recent poll — or even Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently announced her retirement from Congress."

Trump might not have considered how his attacks on Kelly would pan out and how Americans would react.

"For all his achievements, Kelly is not a natural showman. A sober presence in interviews and on the stump, he has tended to fade into the background in the Senate," Howard explained. "But Kelly also has an unquantifiable quality that more voters, at least over the past couple of decades, have associated with Republican politicians: BDE. This understated confidence is something that Trump, with his hurricane of narcissism and swagger, has never possessed. It’s a trait that has been on full display in every interview Kelly has given since he became the target of the administration’s ire."

The multi-billion dollar liability that could sink JD Vance's presidential dreams

Vice President JD Vance is facing a multi-billion-dollar liability that could sink his presidential dreams — and it's tied to his relationship with Peter Thiel.

The MAGA billionaire and Palantir co-founder helped get Vance elected and now potential voters are growing more "suspicious of big tech and the surveillance state – and they are very wary of the Trump administration’s deepening ties to Palantir," Arwa Mahdawi wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian Tuesday.

Vance, who is strongly viewed as a potential heir to the MAGA movement, is eyeing a presidential run in 2028. President Donald Trump called a Vance and Marco Rubio pairing "unstoppable" and Rubio has apparently told his inner circle that he would support Vance's run for the job.

But Vance has to face tough reality.

"In his role as vice-president, Vance is already under constant scrutiny. But, as 2028 approaches, he will be put under the microscope. And if he wants to get the top job there are a few liabilities that he should probably sort out," Mahdawi wrote.

"His personality is one of them: Vance can come off as smug and obnoxious. But that’s something he can work on. This is a man, after all, who has changed his name many times; a former atheist who converted to Catholicism in 2019, a few years before running for political office. A man who once called Donald Trump 'America’s Hitler' and now calls him boss. Vance is adept at shape-shifting," Mahdawi explained.

Even the podcast bros and other right-wing figures are starting to take notice of Palantir.

Joe Rogan called the relationship between Palantir and the Trump administration "kinda creepy," citing the government's collection of Americans' personal data and asking "who signed off on this?" Tucker Carlson has also expressed concern over the company's motives and what the administration could use the data for.

"All this is a big problem for Vance because, as he recently acknowledged while speaking to university students: 'I get asked about Palantir a lot because there’s this internet meme out there that somehow I am super in bed with Palantir.' Meme or not, it’s hard to ignore the links between the two, which are, increasingly, generating headlines. You’ve made your bed, Vance; now you’ve got to lie in it," Mahdawi added.