Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave a humiliating defense as he tried to explain away jeopardizing Zelensky’s life.
Video of Rubio:
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TAPPER: You tweeted a photo of Zelensky during the virtual meeting,.
Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips said that the Ukrainian ambassador had explicitly asked lawmakers not to share anything on social media until after the meeting ended just for Zelensky’s security.
Is that true? Was it a mistake for you to tweet that picture?
RUBIO: Well, first of all, she asked that like 30 minutes into the call, after I had already done it.
The second is, I think she’s under the impression that no one knew that call was happening. That call had been widely reported. Actually, the specific time had been reported. There were over 300 people on it. All the call details had been e-mailed. So, there was nothing secure about that call.
And the picture is just a nondescript picture. It looks just like any of the other ones that you have seen out there publicly. So, I — there’s no risk posed.
But you’re always going to have a couple of people that want their name in an article somewhere and mentioned in the press. So…
If the warning not to tweet came 30 minutes into the call, why were the other 298 people on the call not tweeting?
None of Rubio’s excuses make sense.
Marco Rubio is the former chair and current vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He knows better than to tweet something like that could potentially disclose Zelensky’s location, especially when Putin has made multiple attempts on the Ukrainian president’s life.
Rubio could have apologized for the error, but he chose to keep this story going by offering such weak excuses that he is embarrassing himself.
Sen. Rubio tweeted the picture because he thought that it would help his reelection campaign. Such reckless behavior only proves that he does not belong in the U.S. Senate.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
