‘Everyone knew what Iran would do in response,’ Marco Rubio tells House committee – US politics live | Donald Trump
‘Everyone knew what Iran would do in response,’ says Rubio
In a heated exchange with Democratic ranking member Gregory Meeks, Marco Rubio initially skirted a question on whether he had warned Donald Trump that launching a war on Iran would drive up costs on gas, food, travel and shipments.
Rubio then refused to give a yes or no answer on whether or not he warned the president that starting a war against Iran “could result in the regime placing a chokehold on the strait of Hormuz”.
But he added: “The president and the administration was aware there would be consequences to action, but the consequences of Iran having a nuclear weapon were worse.”
He added: “All the risk factors were understood, but the important risk factor was Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Asked again if he warned Trump of the potential consequences, Rubio said: “Everyone was aware of what Iran might do in retaliation … but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
And asked if he warned the president that Iran would launch retaliatory attacks against US partners, allies and Americans living or working in the region, Rubio said: “Everyone knew what Iran would do in response, we were prepared for any response … but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
That the administration knew that attacking Iran would place the US’s regional allies in the line of fire and drive up costs but went to war anyway is quite an admission from the secretary of state.
I wonder what Gulf allies who have come under attack and lost residents during this war, such as Kuwait today, will make of that, not to mention everyone else around the world who has been affected by the crisis in the strait, among them Americans who will be voting in the midterms in a few short months.
Key events
Trump’s intelligence chief pick puts Fisa surveillance program renewal in doubt
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump’s appointment of a close political ally with no intelligence experience to lead the nation’s spy agencies has thrown last-ditch efforts to renew a critical surveillance program into doubt.
Bill Pulte, currently head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), major Republican donor and heir to a home construction fortune, was tapped by Trump to serve as acting director of national intelligence days after Tulsi Gabbard departed the role.
Senior Democrats immediately said the move could doom a fragile bipartisan agreement to renew section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is due to expire next week.
Section 702 permits US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets operating outside the country without a warrant. Congress is working toward a deadline of 12 June.
More here:
Rubio refuses to say who won the 2020 election
Jacobs then asked Rubio who won the 2020 presidential election.
Rubio declined to answer, insisting that he was “not here to answer” questions about that because “this is a foreign affairs committee”.
“I don’t answer the question because as secretary of state, I do not participate in domestic political issues,” he said.
Jacobs replied that the question wasn’t about a political issue but about democracy.
Back at Marco Rubio’s hearing, Democratic representative Sara Jacobs questioned the secretary of state on why he believes that Iran is losing the war if, by the metrics he laid out, the US is facing similar pressures.
Rubio said the Iranian regime was “deeply fractured”, the currency was devalued, the country had sustained “hundreds of billions of dollars” in damage to its military infrastructure and a worse economy than before the war.
Jacobs then hit back, highlighting that the Iranian leadership was intact with a more hardline leader in place, the strait of Hormuz is now closed because of the war, and that the United States is also suffering with inflation and high gas prices “with no end in sight” on day 97 of the war.
“Does this look like winning to you?” she asked Rubio.
She later added: “The American people are not stupid, Mr Secretary, we all know that this war is not over.”
Trump threatens tariffs on 60 trading partners including UK and Canada over ‘forced labour’
Lisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump has threatened tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners including the UK, the EU and Australia over alleged forced labour failures, in the latest attempt to revive his signature trade policy.
The European Union immediately hit back, saying it expected the US to respect the tariff deal it entered into last July and arguing that stealth tariffs breached the spirit of that agreement.
The proposed levies on partners accused of allowing imports of goods produced by workers under coercion come after the US supreme court ruled in February that the president’s “liberation day” tariffs were illegal.
Trump responded by imposing 10% across-the-board tariffs, but last month the US trade court found those were also unlawful, although they remain in place during the appeal process.
The latest proposal for tariffs on the grounds of forced labour, which would affect major partners including Canada, Japan, Norway, Taiwan and China, would enable Trump to skirt those previous court-imposed limits on his protectionist agenda. They come as the US threatens to impose fresh levies of 25% on Brazil.
The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said: “The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field. We will no longer tolerate this disparity.”
Here’s Lisa’s full report:
Marco Rubio earlier admitted that he had never heard the name of Bill Pulte, Donald Trump’s controversial pick to be acting director of national intelligence, during his years of experience with the US intelligence community.
Democratic representative Bill Keating cited Rubio’s background and expertise in intelligence matters from his years on the Senate intelligence committee and his current roles as top US diplomat and Trump’s national security adviser.
“Have you ever specifically, in the context of the intelligence community, heard the name Bill Pulte?” Keating asked.
“In the context of intelligence?” Rubio repeated. “No.”
“Never heard his name?” Keating interrupted. “Thank you for answering that. Never even heard his name, given all your years of experience and your position now. Never heard the name.”
Trump’s appointment of federal housing regulator Pulte, a political ally with no national security experience to lead the sprawling US intelligence community at a time of war and global tensions, set off alarm bells in Washington yesterday.
John Thune, the Senate majority leader, told reporters that “we don’t need a weaponized” national intelligence director and Pulte would have “a lengthy road ahead of him” if he were nominated to take the post on a permanent basis.
Rubio then came back to answer Castro’s question.
He insisted that Israel has been targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and “taking territory in the south to deny them launching space”.
The US got “multiple indications” that Israel was considering conducting strikes on Beirut (well, for one, Netanyahu said they were going to). At that time, Rubio said, the Lebanese authorities had reached out to the US to say that Hezbollah had contacted them and said that they would stop attacking Israel if Israel did not attack Beirut.
He said Hezbollah later launched rockets towards northern Israel anyway, “so, it’s an ongoing challenge”. (In fact, attacks from both sides were reported after Trump’s announcement, and both Israeli officials and Hezbollah made statements that cast doubt on the durability of the agreement – you can brush up on our story here).
Asked whether he agrees that Israel should end its military campaign in Lebanon and support Trump’s negotiations for a peace agreement with Iran, Rubio accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire agreement.
Pulled up by representative Joaquin Castro that “Israel has also been bombing throughout”, Rubio claims these are “two separate things”.
He defended Israel as having not “massively” bombed Beirut “for some time”, and also defended its ongoing invasion and occupation of swathes of southern Lebanon as part of its “right to self-defence”.
Castro began to ask, “So why did the president have to tell Israel to stop?” but his time expired before Rubio could respond.
Regime change ‘was not the goal’ of war on Iran, says Rubio
The secretary of state then claimed that changing the government of Iran was not a goal of the operation.
“Look, we would love to see a change in Iran … but that was not the goal of our mission,” Rubio said.
As you might remember, that is contrary to Donald Trump stating regime change as an objective in the early days of the war and repeatedly (and dangerously) urging Iranians to overthrow their government.
Marco Rubio then told lawmakers that the aim of the war against Iran was to degrade a “conventional shield” of missiles, drones and a navy, “behind which they could build their nuclear program”.
That was the purpose of Epic Fury, it achieved its purpose in degrading that conventional shield.
‘Everyone knew what Iran would do in response,’ says Rubio
In a heated exchange with Democratic ranking member Gregory Meeks, Marco Rubio initially skirted a question on whether he had warned Donald Trump that launching a war on Iran would drive up costs on gas, food, travel and shipments.
Rubio then refused to give a yes or no answer on whether or not he warned the president that starting a war against Iran “could result in the regime placing a chokehold on the strait of Hormuz”.
But he added: “The president and the administration was aware there would be consequences to action, but the consequences of Iran having a nuclear weapon were worse.”
He added: “All the risk factors were understood, but the important risk factor was Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Asked again if he warned Trump of the potential consequences, Rubio said: “Everyone was aware of what Iran might do in retaliation … but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
And asked if he warned the president that Iran would launch retaliatory attacks against US partners, allies and Americans living or working in the region, Rubio said: “Everyone knew what Iran would do in response, we were prepared for any response … but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
That the administration knew that attacking Iran would place the US’s regional allies in the line of fire and drive up costs but went to war anyway is quite an admission from the secretary of state.
I wonder what Gulf allies who have come under attack and lost residents during this war, such as Kuwait today, will make of that, not to mention everyone else around the world who has been affected by the crisis in the strait, among them Americans who will be voting in the midterms in a few short months.
From 10am ET, secretary of state Marco Rubio is due to testify before the House foreign affairs committee on the president’s foreign policy agenda and his department’s 2027 budget request amid the war against Iran.
In back-to-back hearings before a House and Senate panel yesterday, Rubio was grilled over the ongoing Ebola outbreak, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, deadly US strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, and the delayed sale of arms to Taiwan.
He’s likely to face more of the same today and I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
Karen Bass heads to LA mayoral runoff after falling short of majority
Uwa Ede-Osifo
Also last night, Karen Bass came out ahead in the heated primary for Los Angeles mayor, but with less than 50% of the vote will have to defend her seat in November’s general election.
She will face either former reality TV star Spencer Pratt or city council member Nithya Raman, in November. As of yesterday evening, it was still unclear who would move on.
In remarks to voters yesterday evening, Bass said she would spend the next four years addressing homelessness and building more housing units.
She described LA as a rebounding city, and vowed to build on the progress made over the last three and a half years. Invoking the “dark day” a year ago when Donald Trump sent immigration troops into the city, Bass declared: “We are a city that is unified.”
Here’s Uwa’s full report: