Rubio’s Not Terrible, No Drama, Very Cordial Day

It was a blast from a kinder, gentler past.

Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), faced an unusually chummy Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday — a time capsule from a less-polarized political era before Trump gate-crashed the American political landscape.

Republicans and Democrats praised Rubio and talked up his qualifications to serve America’s chief diplomat. At the outset, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made clear she would vote to confirm him before Rubio even gave his opening remarks.

“You and I have also had a good working relationship for many years,” she said. “I believe you have the skills and are well qualified to serve as secretary of State.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a sharp critic of the incoming president who has lambasted other Trump Cabinet nominees, heaped praise on Rubio during the hearing, citing a time he supported her changing Senate rules so that she could have access with her wheelchair to bring her young daughter with her to vote on the floor.

“As someone who was new to the Senate, I was extremely grateful to you for that kindness,” Duckworth said. Rubio joked back: “I think what I exactly said is, ‘What’s the big deal? This place is already full of babies,’” to laughter from Duckworth and other senators.

It was a stark contrast from the fireworks that Trump’s Defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, faced in his contentious hearing Tuesday. And it set the stage for several hours of questions Rubio faced that ranged from mild to … slightly less than mild, giving Trump’s pick for top diplomat ample time to show off his substantial policy knowledge on Mexican cartels, the ongoing war in Ukraine, developments in Syria and U.S. ties with Africa.

The only real challenge Rubio faced came from sporadic protesters who would shout at him, sometimes in Spanish, before being escorted out. “Oh, I get bilingual protesters,” Rubio said after one such outburst, while the lawmakers chuckled and then dove right back into the hearing.

Democrats may have held back their punches for strategic reasons. They see Rubio as one of the few Trump Cabinet nominees they can work with — one with some traditional views. They know Rubio is likely to face plenty of challenges from within the Trump administration, especially a MAGA base that is suspicious of him. So there’s little value for Democrats in trying to weaken him.

Rubio had to walk a fine line, especially when he was asked about some of Trump’s more unusual ideas like buying Greenland.

“Putting aside all the things that are going on in the media, I think we need to understand that Greenland has been strategically important to the United States and the West for a very long time,” he said, putting a polished, State Department-y spin on Trump’s audacious plans. Rubio also stressed that some issues would not be in his purview at the State Department, a possible tactic to avoid showing too much daylight with his future boss.

He offered early clues on Trump’s agenda that foreign governments have been eagerly awaiting. He gave the first public indication that the Trump administration is fully behind the AUKUS pact focused on countering China militarily in the Indo-Pacific: “It’s something where I think you’re going to see a lot of support for in this administration,” he said of the nuclear submarine and technology pact with allies Australia and the United Kingdom.

He also previewed the new administration’s views on the war in Ukraine: Namely, that Ukraine can’t win back all its territory, and outgoing President Joe Biden’s repeated vow to back Kyiv for “as long it takes” isn’t viable.

“The problem that Ukraine is facing is not that they are running out of money, it’s that they’re running out of Ukrainians,” Rubio said. “There’s a size differential here that’s important. Now what [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has done is unacceptable, there’s no doubt about it but this war has to end.”

One of the most testy exchanges during the hearing focused not on Rubio himself, but Trump and his financial ties to wealthy Middle Eastern countries. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) brought up deals reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars the Trump Organization has inked with Saudi companies.

“That’s just extraordinary,” Murphy said. “Never before in the history of this country has a president literally been receiving cash from foreign governments and from foreign companies that are backed by foreign governments in the middle of their term. If you or I had done this as senators, we would be in violent violation of Senate ethics rules.”

Murphy then asked Rubio: “Do you see how this fundamentally compromises your diplomatic efforts?”

Rubio responded: “I am neither authorized nor in any position to give you any insights into any of these arrangements.” Rubio added that he understood that other members of Trump’s family — not Trump himself — managed the business and that the incoming administration would focus on what’s best for the American interest and not what’s best for the Trump family’s commercial dealings.

“I just wish that this president applied to this incoming administration the same rules that we hold ourselves to as United States Senators,” Murphy said — before pivoting Rubio safely away from the fraught topic of Trump’s business empire to much safer questions on China.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.