Secretary of State Marco Rubio was put on defense Tuesday over his boss Donald Trump’s claim he would end the Ukraine war on “day one.”
He was confronted with the reality that the war is raging months into Trump’s second term as he appeared on NBC News’ Today show, where he had intended to hype the president’s address to the United Nations in New York.
Trump campaigned on a promise to stop hostilities between the two nations after Russian President Vladimir Putin green-lit a full-scale invasion in February 2022. And Trump, who is forcefully stuffing his hat into the ring for a Nobel Peace Prize following his dubious peace-keeping efforts, took it upon himself to act as the peace-maker.
However, Putin has led him on a merry dance, and the bloody conflict has continued unabated.
On the Today show, anchor Craig Melvin bluntly told Rubio that, nearly 250 days into Trump’s second term, his promise remains unfulfilled.
“The president repeatedly, though, did say that he would end the war on day one, and we are some 250 days into the administration,” the host said.
A cornered Rubio snapped, “Yeah, but that’s not up to us to end the war; the Russians have to stop the war, and the Ukrainians have to agree to a peace deal.
“What the president expressed is that it would be a priority of his, and it has been. I don’t think anyone could argue that it hasn’t been a priority.”
“Yeah, but again, repeatedly on the campaign trail, he said he would end it on day one; we’re 246 days into the administration,” Melvin pushed back at Rubio’s defense of his boss.
Rubio replied, “Which is an indication that he repeatedly said that he would make it a priority.”
Then, reaching for a move straight from the MAGA playbook, he took a pot shot at former president, Joe Biden. “He certainly has done more than Biden ever did to end the war, Biden didn’t even have a plan for the war.”
As he was ranting, Melvin decided to move the segment on. “Let’s talk about the U.S. and China and the TikTok deal,” he said.
Trump had, on many occasions, literally declared that he could halt the conflict within hours of taking office—the opposite of what Rubio told NBC viewers.
On one of those occasions, in May 2023 during a CNN town hall event, he boasted: “They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done—I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”
He said that would happen after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has since met both men, infamously melting down at Zelensky in the Oval Office in February this year before rolling out the red carpet for the Kremlin dictator in August.
The post Rubio Cornered on Trump’s Failed Keystone Campaign Promise appeared first on The Daily Beast.
