00:00Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with Pope Leo tomorrow at the Vatican,
00:04which is bound to be interesting considering the Pope and the Trump administration
00:07haven't exactly had a love thy neighbor approach as of late.
00:11Before leaving for the Holy See, the jack of all trades of the Trump administration
00:15stepped into the press secretary's role, covering for Caroline Levitt, who's on maternity leave.
00:19He was asked about his upcoming meeting, given the harsh words his boss,
00:23President Trump, has had for the leader of the Catholic Church.
00:25Rubio suggested that was not the purpose of this trip.
00:28The Pope is obviously the vicar of Christ, is a Roman Catholic, you know,
00:32but he's also the head of a nation state.
00:36And it's an organization that has a presence in over 100-something countries around the world.
00:41And we engage with the Vatican quite a bit because they're present in many different places.
00:44We have a lot to talk about with them, and I engage with them quite a bit on that front.
00:48So the trip is really not tied to anything other than the fact that it would be normal for us
00:53to engage with them,
00:54and other secretary states have done that in the past.
00:56Rubio has also asked a lot about Iran, as you can imagine.
01:00The secretary of state confirmed negotiations are ongoing,
01:03noting that the fate of existing nuclear material is a significant part of the talks.
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