All Hell Breaks Loose When Chris Van Hollen Tells Sec. Marco Rubio To His Face, He Regrets Voting To Confirm Him

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke to Sec. Marco Rubio about the work being done at the State Department.

Transcript

00:00Senator Van Hollen.

00:01Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:03Mr. Secretary, you and I served together in Congress for 15 years.

00:07We didn't always agree, but I believe we shared some common values.

00:12A belief in defending democracy and human rights abroad

00:16and honoring the Constitution at home.

00:19That's why I voted to confirm you.

00:21I believed you would stand up for those principles.

00:25You haven't.

00:26You've done the opposite.

00:27And you used to speak with conviction about the importance of foreign aid

00:32as a tool to advance American values and interests.

00:35Then you stood by while Elon Musk took a chainsaw to USAID and other assistance programs.

00:42That has left a staggering toll.

00:45Broken trust with countries, openings for China and other adversaries,

00:50and countless preventable deaths of children and others.

00:54Take Sudan, for example.

00:56The freezing of U.S. humanitarian assistance forced the closure of nearly 80 percent

01:01of the emergency food kitchens there.

01:04Two million famine-affected people were left without access to food.

01:08People died because of those actions.

01:11Mothers, fathers, and children.

01:13Tons of emergency food that could have saved their lives was left rotting in warehouses

01:19because you and Elon Musk refused to let USAID do its job.

01:24Sudan is a country whereby the administration's own determination,

01:28a genocide is unfolding in Darfur.

01:31But here's where it goes from cruel to despicable.

01:34While cutting off food aid to Sudanese families living through an actual genocide,

01:41you're fast-tracking white South Africans for refugee status under a manufactured claim

01:46that they are the victims of genocide.

01:49You tried to block the admission of individuals who had already been approved to come here as refugees

01:54while making bogus claims to justify granting such status to Afrikaners.

02:00You've made a mockery of our country's refugee process,

02:04turning it into a system of global apartheid

02:06where political ideology and race more than truth or need matter.

02:12And while you've turned away from a genocide in Sudan and invented one in South Africa,

02:17you teamed up with President Trump to throw the Ukrainian people under the bus

02:21and have been played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin.

02:25Of course, Donald Trump not only said he would end the war in Ukraine on day one,

02:29he also said he would end the war in Gaza on day one.

02:33And yet, last week, you were all running around to Gulf states

02:36giving away very sensitive American AI and ships technology

02:40but doing nothing to end the war in Gaza and get the remaining hostages returned.

02:47You know that for 78 days, the Netanyahu government did not allow a scrap of food

02:52to enter Gaza to reach over 2 million civilians.

02:5657 children have died from malnutrition so far,

02:59and more than 14,000 children are in imminent danger of dying of starvation.

03:05As Cindy McCain said last week, and I quote,

03:07families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border.

03:13That is a gross violation of both U.S. and international law.

03:18What did you do?

03:19Nothing.

03:20Not once did you publicly call upon the Netanyahu government to end the blockade.

03:26Fortunately, other countries spoke out, and now we see a tiny trickle going in.

03:31Where have you focused your energy instead, Mr. Secretary?

03:35Well, your first trip as Secretary of State was to El Salvador,

03:39not to promote democracy, but to cozy up to President Bukele,

03:44who calls himself the world's coolest dictator.

03:48The result was a cash-for-collusion deal

03:51to deprive people living in America of their constitutional rights to due process.

03:57The Supreme Court, in a nine-to-zero decision,

03:59instructed you to facilitate the return to the United States of Abrego Garcia,

04:04who the administration admitted was wrongfully deported to El Salvador.

04:09Your response?

04:10You've openly flouted judicial orders.

04:12When asked whether you have been in touch with El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia,

04:18you boasted, quote,

04:20I would never tell you that.

04:21And you know who else I would never tell?

04:24A judge.

04:25Clearly, you don't care about the Fifth Amendment right to due process,

04:29and you don't care about the First Amendment either,

04:32since you've been very busy snatching students off of college campuses

04:37for exercising their right to free speech.

04:39You dredged up a relic from the McCarthy era

04:43to claim that student protesters posed a threat to the foreign policy of the United States.

04:49Give me a break, Mr. Secretary.

04:51You know as well as I do, this isn't about national security.

04:54It's about punishing free speech.

04:56And you know that in America,

04:58the government doesn't get to use its power to punish speech it doesn't like.

05:04Yet in March, you boasted about revoking student visas, saying, and I'm quoting,

05:08We do it every day.

05:11Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa, unquote.

05:16Let's look at one of those lunatics, Mr. Secretary.

05:19Ms. Ozturk.

05:20Her crime was co-authoring an op-ed in her college paper,

05:24critical of Tufts University's response to the war in Gaza.

05:28Your own department found zero links to terrorism, no anti-Semitic statements,

05:33but you still yanked her visa and shipped her off to detention in Louisiana.

05:39And the list goes on and on.

05:42The federal judge in the case of Mohsen Madawi,

05:46who is the Columbia student who was ambushed by federal agents at his citizen appointment,

05:50said, and I quote, this is the judge,

05:52Legal residents not charged with crimes or misconduct

05:56are being arrested and threatened with deportation

05:59for stating their views on the political issues of the day.

06:04Our nation has seen times like this before,

06:06especially during the Red Scare and Palmer Raids.

06:10Like the McCarthy-era witch hunts of the 1950s,

06:14your campaign of fear and repression is eating away at foundational values of our democracy.

06:19Back then, it took one voice,

06:21Attorney Joseph Welch, to cut through the hysteria with the simple question

06:24that marked the beginning of the end of that shameful era.

06:28He asked Senator McCarthy,

06:29Have you no sense of decency?

06:32And I would ask you the same, Secretary Rubio.

06:34But you have shown your words and your actions what the answer is.

06:40And I have to tell you directly and personally

06:42that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State.

06:45I yield back.

06:47Can I respond?

06:48You may, sir.

06:49Well, first of all, your regret for voting for me confirms I'm doing a good job.

06:53That's just a flippant statement, Mr. Secretary.

06:55Can I respond, Mr. Chairman?

06:56You may.

06:57I didn't ask.

06:58Senator, please let the Secretary have the floor.

06:59I'd be happy to, but then I can respond to his response.

07:02Your time's up, Senator, and woefully used, I might add.

07:06Your remarks do not represent the view of this committee.

07:09Well, Mr. Chairman.

07:09Secretary, please.

07:10Well, I'd like to.

07:11I can't respond to everything he said because much of these are untrue,

07:13but I'll go through a few.

07:14First of all, I'm actually very proud of the work we've done with USAID.

07:17For example, I don't regret cutting $10 million for male circumcisions in Mozambique.

07:23I don't know how that makes us stronger and more prosperous as a nation.

07:26I don't regret psychosocial support services.

07:29I raise to the end, Mr. Secretary.

07:30Can I respond?

07:31Senator, I'd ask you to suspend.

07:34You had seven straight minutes.

07:36I chose to use my time that way, Mr. Chairman.

07:39That's my right to use my time that way.

07:40Please suspend, Secretary Rubio.

07:42Well, I can go on.

07:43I mean, there's other things here.

07:44We spent $227,000 for Big Cat's YouTube channel from USAID.

07:49We spent $14 million for social cohesion in Mali, whatever the hell that means.

07:54So I can go on and on.

07:55I got the list here, and there's more.

07:56I didn't even bring the whole list.

07:57In the case of El Salvador, absolutely.

08:00Absolutely.

08:01We deported gang members.

08:02Gang members, including the one you had a margarita with.

08:05And that guy is a human trafficker, and that guy is a gangbanger,

08:09and the evidence is going to be clear.

08:11In the days to come, you're going to see who you went to defend.

08:13Senator, please.

08:14Secretary Rubio has the floor.

08:16Mr. Chairman, he can't make unsubstantiated comments.

08:18Senator, Secretary Rubio has the floor.

08:21You had your time.

08:21Secretary Rubio should take that testimony to the federal court in the United States

08:24because he hasn't done it under oath.

08:26Here's another point, okay?

08:28There is a division in our government between the federal branch and the judicial branch.

08:33No judge, and the judicial branch cannot tell me or the president how to conduct foreign policy.

08:37No judge can tell me how I have to outreach to a foreign partner, what I need to say to them.

08:41And if I do reach to that foreign partner and talk to them,

08:44I have them under no obligation to share that with a judiciary branch.

08:47Just like a judge cannot order me to negotiate with a foreign minister of Russia,

08:51they cannot order me to negotiate with a foreign minister or the president of El Salvador.

08:55And if I did negotiate with them, which we have responded to them,

08:58and we've told them we've had communications with the president of El Salvador,

09:01I am under no obligation under our division of powers in this country

09:05to share with the judicial branch how I conducted diplomacy of the United States.

09:11It would actually be counterproductive.

09:13If I started sharing with courts or, frankly, with the media,

09:16my conversations with foreign leaders and all of their details,

09:19no foreign leader would talk to me again, and we would break trust with them.

09:22So I have complied with every court order.

09:25What I won't comply with is in order to disclose what I'm saying

09:28and what we're talking about with a foreign leader, because then they won't talk to me.

09:31Diplomacy doesn't work that way.

09:34About the student visas, let me say this.

09:36I don't deport anybody, and I don't snatch anybody.

09:38The State Department does not have officers in the street snatching everybody.

09:41What I do is revoke visas, and it's very simple.

09:44A visa is not a right.

09:46It is a privilege.

09:47People apply for student visas to come into the United States and study.

09:51And if you tell me that you're coming to the United States to lead campus crusades,

09:54to take over libraries and try to burn down buildings and acts of violence,

09:59we're not going to give you a visa.

09:59Is that what Ms. Oztork did?

10:01We're not going to give you a visa.

10:02Is that what she did?

10:03Come on, Mr. Secretary.

10:04And every single one of these cases, the factors are different.

10:06The bottom line is, if you're coming here to stir up trouble on our campuses,

10:10we will deny you a visa.

10:11And if you have a visa and we find you, we will revoke you.

10:14And we're going to do more.

10:15There are more coming.

10:16We're going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests

10:19and are disrupting our higher education facilities.

10:22People are paying money.

10:23These kids pay money to go to school.

10:25And they have to walk through a bunch of lunatics who are here on student visas.

10:28Writing an op-ed to the top three papers disrupting the foreign policy of the United States.

10:29Simple as that.

10:29I want to do more.

10:30I hope we can find more of these people.

10:31That's pathetic, Mr. Secretary.

10:32In fact, the other day, some guys led a riot.

10:35I forgot what university it was.

10:36And I asked, please, can you find the arrest records of all the people that were arrested

10:40at that riot at that campus?

10:41Because if any of them have a visa, we're going to revoke it.

10:43I feel so much safer to lock up people like Ms. Oztork, Ms. Secretary.

10:47We've had enough time on the subject.

10:49Thank you very much.

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