Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday that voting to confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state was a “mistake.”
In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Murphy expressed disappointment with Rubio for wholeheartedly defending the Trump administration’s shift in Ukraine policy to favor Russia and President Putin.
“It was a mistake,” to support Rubio, Murphy told host Dana Bash. “I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this …Marco Rubio has not. And that’s been a great disappointment to many of his former colleagues in the Senate.”
Murphy’s comments came after a contentious meeting at the White House between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vice President JD Vance. Rubio was also at the meeting but kept quiet and tried to disappear into the Oval Office’s sofa.
After the clash Trump reportedly ordered Rubio to tell the Ukrainian delegation to leave the White House.
“It is absolutely shameful what is happening right now,” Murphy said Sunday. “The White House has become an arm of the Kremlin. Every single day you hear from the National Security Advisor, from the President of the United States, from his entire national security team, Kremlin talking points.”
Rubio, a former senator from Florida, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate for Secretary of State in January.
Also on Sunday, another Democrat, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reiterated his regret over voting for Rubio.
“I regret that vote” to confirm Rubio, Van Hollen said on Fox News Sunday. “As a member of the Senate, Secretary Rubio was somebody who stood up for American values, American principles.”
“[N]ow he’s simply taking his directions to the State Department from Elon Musk and essentially parroting the president’s position, which I understand, but it’s very different than what Senator Rubio used to talk about,” he added.
