Summary
Secretary of State Marco Rubio grew visibly frustrated during an ABC News interview when questioned about the Trump administration’s approach to Russia.
Defending Trump’s push for peace talks with Putin, Rubio insisted negotiations were necessary but admitted the administration didn’t know Russia’s demands.
He clashed with host George Stephanopoulos over Trump’s refusal to call Putin a dictator and the U.S. siding with Russia in a recent UN vote.
Rubio also compared Trump’s handling of Ukraine to Biden’s approach to Israel, further escalating tensions.
Compare the way he talks about Putin with the way he talks about Zelenskyy.
With Putin, we have to see what he wants, we have to try to work with him and understand his position, we can’t do anything that might make him uncomfortable so he doesn’t decide he doesn’t want to talk to us, and his broken agreements are in the past while we need to be moving forward.
On the other hand, he repeatedly states that they’ve “explained this” to Ukraine, that we can’t discuss what they want or what their concerns are, we need to focus on getting peace first, and Zelenskyy is at fault because was disrespectful which apparently we can’t ignore for the sake of peace the way we can ignore a history of Putin violating peace deals.
If they actually meant what they are saying and this was all about diplomacy and achieving peace, they wouldn’t be picking a fight with Ukraine, they wouldn’t be publicly undermining them and trying to coerce them, and they wouldn’t be refusing to acknowledge any of their concerns. These motherfuckers think that it’s a good look for them to be throwing a tantrum about the way Zelenskyy dresses and getting pissy about him not being thankful enough for the way they are so generously pursuing a peace that carves up Ukraine and comes without security of any kind. That’s the way they want to spin this. Because apparently they think acting like thrid grade bullies who try to pick on the smaller kids is admirable, that people will see it and think they look smart and tough.
The only thing I even find remotely believable in this interview is Rubio’s mantra of “I don’t understand.” Just in general I think it’s pretty clear that there’s a hell of a lot he doesn’t understand. Things like human decency, geopolitics, basic negotiation tactics, and parables about riding tigers and giving rides to scorpions. But I think he probably does understand that his position is pure bullshit and that his only job here is to try and tow the line while defending the indefensible. That’s why he got so panicked when a tweet from a fellow republican came up, because his strategy was to avoid details and try to frame the backlash as partisan politics, so he can’t really respond to Republican criticism.
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