Washington — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, engaged in a heated exchange Tuesday as the nation’s top diplomat defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy while testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
For seven minutes, Van Hollen criticized Rubio on his handling of issues ranging from the freezing of humanitarian assistance in Sudan during a genocide, deportations to El Salvador without due process and revoking student visas.
“You and I served together in Congress for 15 years,” Van Hollen said. “We didn’t always agree, but I believe we shared some common values — a belief in defending democracy and human rights abroad and honoring the Constitution at home. That’s why I voted to confirm you. I believed you would stand up for those principles. You haven’t. You’ve done the opposite.”
Van Hollen continued, “You used to speak with conviction about the importance of foreign aid as a tool to advance American values and interests. Then you stood by while Elon Musk took a chainsaw to USAID and other assistance programs.”
The senator said people have died as a result of the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Earlier this year, Rubio said 83% of programs funded by the federal agency were being canceled after it became a target for the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
Van Hollen also said that Rubio has “made a mockery of our country’s refugee process, turning it into a system of global apartheid where political ideology and race more than truth or need matter.” The criticism was in reference to the Trump administration granting refugee status to White South Africans over claims that they have faced discrimination by the country’s post-apartheid government.
“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for as secretary of state,” he said.
Rubio said Van Hollen’s regret “confirms I’m doing a good job.”
He then ridiculed the senator for traveling to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.
“We deported gang members, gang members, including the one you had a margarita with,” Rubio said, referring to false claims that the senator and drank margaritas during their April meeting. “And that guy is a human trafficker, and that guy is a gang banger.”
Van Hollen interjected, “Mr. Chairman, he can’t make unsubstantiated like that!”
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
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