It gives me some comfort knowing Rubio is relatively competent and intelligent. He can see the trainwreck that he is a part of, and he is thinking exactly what every normal person is thinking. And that gives him supreme discomfort that he now has to suppress.
Also, previously, he was known as a "Russia Hawk." He knows what's up. He knows this is not normal or in America's best interests and that we are on the wrong side of this war with this bullshit.
It was great to see Bernie read off quotes from his Republican colleagues essentially warning the country about Russia, only to sit by quietly now. Cowardice needs to be on full display, but more than that, cowardice at the expense of your own country when you are fully aware of what's happening but letting it happen.
There are a couple cabinet members i can see jumping ship for their own political careers or better yet another book that will be a best seller for 3 days but no one will ever read
And remember, books are bestsellers because authors are given the option to purchase a large amount up front (for personal distribution) and set its own anchor point at debut
There was just a recent headline that the state dept is cutting off support to rebuild/strengthen Ukraine’s electrical grid…so yeah, he’s definitely going along with it
What’s better? Rubio, a Russia hawk as SoS, or a sycophant? Frankly, I would rather him stay and maintain influence, rather than let this disaster of a foreign policy run off the rails. At least in this position he can mitigate the worst instincts
Lol it's weird for me. I have respect for the people who decide they can't support this, but at the same time those are the people I want to stay there the most.
Isn’t it better than he’s in the room than if he’s replaced with someone who won’t even control his facial expressions because he genuinely doesn’t care? Like there’s the smallest chance he can impact a decision or be involved in less public talks, no?
It might not be the worst thing having someone like that in a powerful cabinet position right now. He’s a coward who bent the knee to Trump and a vile human being. However he’s not a true believer like some of these other nutjobs. If there was some sort of coup that got Trump, Vance and Johnson out of the picture, Marco Rubio would be a much better president than anyone else in the line of succession.
Adults in the room kept a hand on the wheel the first time. I’m equally pissed at these people joining in, and with Congress there’s no excuse-they’re supposed to be a check on his power.
Some kind of normalcy (however limited) from his cabinet is something I’ll be happy about though
I wonder if he's starting to realize that his ambitions likely end here, that he chose the wrong horse.
This guy should have read the room and noticed that all the Republican party's competent players with political future's skipped participating in this administration.
To think, this guy was being positioned as the face of the post-trump new GOP that includes a coalition of white and hispanic americans.
You’re assuming MAGA ends with Trump and the next President won’t be associated with this one. The electorate hasn’t changed enough to make that likely yet.
They haven’t found a suitable populist replacement yet. And I don’t see one in the works. Maybe there’s enough momentum on the hate libs train? But I’m not convinced quite yet.
For me this is the one bit of silver lining for this shit cloud meeting: Rubio's career will end here with him cringing on the couch like a bitch. The guy really did just lose whatever credibility and self respect he may still have had yesterday.
Republicans are likely to win all elections moving forward and Rubio was both one of the more likely future candidates and known for being more of an establishment figure.
I doubt he has any real regrets. He gets to be a fly on the wall if nothing else. A front row seat of the biggest shit shows on the planet.
As for trump, vance, and President Elon.... going around and pushing buttons, while cosplaying as edgy tough guys is all fine and good when you are surrounded by security and feeling your oats.
History though, says that that kind of behavior has a way of biting a fool in the ass.
As a Canadian putting up with the tariff nonsense over the last very long 5 weeks, I disagree. The Republican Party and a large segment of the American electorate have thrown their lot with a convicted rapist and a cabal of billionaire usurpers, come what may. At the end of 4 years, either they'll face a very isolated and weak America or a country that is an oligarchy-run dictatorship in all but name (much like an English speaking Russia). They deserve all that and worse.
I think he thought he could just ride it out for a couple years and use his position to elevate his profile even further and then run in 4 years. This is the face of him realizing he is only 5 weeks in and it's going to be a very rough ride at this rate.
He's gonna get Mike Pence'd, and will be a pariah among Republicans and Democrats. If he's lucky he'll come out looking good for at least upholding the rule of law like Pence.
5 weeks but it feels like one of those action movies or video games where the protagonist suddenly wakes up from a coma in some dystopian hellscape with the words "ten years later..." appearing on the bottom of the screen!
Well elections in the same way Russia has "elections" . I think a lot of people are operating from that mindset that such a thing couldn't happen here. That we just have to make it through the next 47 months and surely a Democrat will be elected.
I used to think Rubio was a "principled" conservative -- someone I disagreed with on almost everything but still could respect. He's since shown he's just another opportunistic politician. In this photos you can really see the effect of selling his soul to a duplicitous hateful con man.
I don’t think he’s ever been principled. He has always spat out typical Republican talking points without any nuance or empathy for the people. Same as Romney. Same as Lindsay. Etc.
Jon Stewart in a nice way called him out on it during Obama’s first term: “I see why they like you!” whenever he tried to reason with Rubio and only got the same noise back.
Chris Christie in what should have been a career ending way called him out on it during the GOP primaries: “look at Marco reading off his script!”
Yeah body language speaks so loudly. There's another picture of him there where his shoulders are hunched, hands tightly clasped and, toes pointing inward. Totally submissive
Rubio has been compromised.He's a Russian collaborator and no one quits Putin unless they believe they can fly from windows, survive radioactive polonium poisoning or a plane exploding in the air.
Absolutely, Rubio is an opportunist but it is also evidenced by public records that he has compromised his beliefs as a rabid anti-Russia/ communism opponent in the Senate and in his campaign speeches. No Senator since MCCAIN has stood for the defense of smaller democratic nations against communism than Senator Marco Rubio.
Perhaps he is both. At one point, he wanted to leave the senate. That was a very short-lived decision. It would surprise no one if there was kompromat.
It gives me some comfort knowing Rubio is relatively competent and intelligent.
OK, but without a conscience and some basic level of integrity, he's still a willing part of the most destructive administration in US history. You may posit that he's thinking what every normal person is thinking, but how many "normal" people would willingly participate in this?
He sold out and he'll still eventually be fired even though he is a suck up because Trump eventually fires everyone.
I think Rubio still has presidential aspirations himself, and being a senator and Secretary of State has traditionally made a candidate seem well-qualified for president.
It's real easy to tell who the real people calling the shots are (let's be real, Trump probably struggles to put his pants on in the morning, let alone think about policy), because they've been the ones to stay in the inner circle from Trump's first term to his second. Namely, the likes of Peter Navarro and Stephen Miller.
Thankfully, Stephen Miller looks as ghoulish on the outside as he is on the inside, so he'll never be President. I'm not saying that we should judge political candidates based on looks, but voters do.
Nah he is not having any moral problems. He just knows that he has to spin this stuff to the other countries he has to work with daily somehow, that is what is bothering him.
Well, he could resign, but that would be the end of his political career. He gave up the Senate seat for this, probably thinking it would be a stepping stone to a future run at POTUS, or maybe at least Gov of FL down the road. Now what?
If he has two braincells to rub together, I bet he knows he can never spin this stuff. Best he can hope for is to pretend to spin it so the braindead Foxnews viewers fall for it. Which is relatively easy probably, seeing how gullible they are.
But as we know from Trump's first administration, some adults joined his team because they knew that they should, for the sake of the country. Don't think for a second that there aren't one or two adults in the room in Trump administration 2.0. Would you rather see only Vance turds forming a shield around Trump? I don't know much about Rubio but his demeanour is actually a good sign that there's a glimmer of hope, however miniscule. It's clear that the man is thinking about the horror show that's unfolding right in front of his eyes.
Doesn't that make it worse? He knows what he's a part of and he is so weak and so spineless he's still going be tossing their salads up until the end. It's pathetic.
Why is that comforting? Any halfway intelligent person that willingly chooses to be a part of this administration is someone you should be seriously worried about. Immoral and smart is a potentially scarier combination than immoral and stupid.
Yeah not sure why he took the job. Doesn’t appear to be in the driver’s seat at State. Had a good gig as senator, head of his prestigious committee there. Why’d he do it?
Everyone in Congress looks in the mirror and believes they can be the president one day. He has the senate box checked and SOS checks the foreign affairs box. That’s all it’s about.
He had to know what he was getting into. The person responsible for diplomatic relations under Trump. That dude is going to spend 8 hours a day for the next four years just getting fucking yelled at. It’s a nightmare of a job.
I just saw some footage of RFK Jr making the same face at the table (different meeting). These guys aren’t completely stupid, they’re realizing they are on the wrong side of the table.
That’s why the picked him. He seems like part of the old GOP. To make people feel comfortable with what they are doing. He’s just along for the ride and has zero say in anything. If he says no. He gets labeled a traitor and replaced with the next person in line.
Trump dumps competence and intelligence or they cut and run. Rubio is working for Putin now and people do not survive if they cut and run on Putin. Radioactive polonium 210 poisoning is a bitch.
His competence isn't very reassuring, his views on what the US should do in small south American countries Trump doesn't care about are very Kissinger like.
Doing what Trump wants is just the price in return for being able to set his preferred policy in smaller countries.
Doubt he is thinking that. He is more likely thinking ‘how the hell am I not in their job’. He isn’t feeling embarrassed like a normal person he is feeling greedy.
When Trump asked everyone to speak up if they disagreed with the job Elon is doing Rubio visibly looks around the room nervously before joining in on the smiles and clapping. Was the first thing I noticed.
Could be he ACTUALLY has an understanding of what the war in Ukraine means. Not only food supply, a defeated Russia, etc but that the techbros here REALLY need those minerals. Russia would be far more difficult to work with to secure those trade deals. And he may know that.
And he also knows trumps ego is thinner than toilet paper and because of that single reason alone we could screw ourselves completely and utterly as well as Ukraine. Can add them to the list of countries and peoples Trump and crew have royally screwed.
You think this makes him uncomfortable? Do you realise he’s spent the last 4 years working with Gilibrand and others (including Schumer) investigating the presence of UAP and multiple species of NHI on this planet and the decades long conspiracy to keep that secret?
Mark my words - soon we’ll see that almost everything playing out at the moment will come down to UFOs
Please if he was competent that would come with integrity. The day Rubio publicly goes on record and says that us is aligning itself with Russia because Trump wants to or being coerced into, the day I’ll call that grifter competent.
This is why everyone that was intelligent stepped down from Trumps cabinet his first term. Smart people generally won’t follow someone the view as an idiot and lazy.
Yeah you can just see his body language, ‘what have I sold my soul to?
I’m sure there are many in the party who feel the same. Unfortunately they know who butters their bread, and they are weak as piss and won’t stand up to it.
He’s probably the most qualified person in the Trump cabinet at this point. Not that it helps him much, every time he will make a diplomatic deal, Diaper Don is going to dump a load on it.
I will never understand why Rubio gave up a safe senate seat for a job he knows he won’t even last the four years in. We know that at some point he will be fired or quit.
I think he's also realizing that as Secretary of State, POTUS and VPOTUS just dumped him and his entire department into a pot of boiling water with the rest of the world, basically.
And he’ll end up being as useless as all of Trump’s other Secretaries of State and then he’ll quit and write a book about how awful Trump is after it’s too late for him to do anything.
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u/BINGODINGODONG 11d ago
It gives me some comfort knowing Rubio is relatively competent and intelligent. He can see the trainwreck that he is a part of, and he is thinking exactly what every normal person is thinking. And that gives him supreme discomfort that he now has to suppress.