Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, accusing her of pushing a “stupid media narrative” during a fierce exchange on Sunday.
“You know there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelensky is going to be bullied into signing something away. That’s why you have these European leaders coming as backup tomorrow,” Brennan said before being cut off.
“That is not true,” Rubio interjected, as the two spoke over each other.
“But that’s not true, they’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied.”
President Donald Trump recently hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for a highly anticipated summit focused on ending the war in Ukraine.
The conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, has resulted in an estimated two million casualties, including both military and civilian losses on both sides. Putin previously seized Crimea and backed Russian separatists in 2014.
Trump has been working to secure a ceasefire in the war, often claiming it would never have broken out had he been president, and vowing he’d end the conflict on “day one” during his campaign.
The presidents failed to secure a ceasefire during the summit. However, both sides said they made good progress and planned to meet again.
Trump scheduled a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, with other European heads of state, to discuss what was agreed to at the summit and determine next steps.
Trump has signaled his intention to schedule a trilateral meeting involving himself, Putin, and Zelensky, or at least get the two warring leaders in the same room to negotiate an ultimate deal.
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the concessions made at the summit were substantial, particularly regarding Ukrainian security guarantees.
“We agreed on much more robust security guarantees, the Russians agreed on enshrining legislatively language that they would attest to not attempting to take any more land from Ukraine after a peace deal, where they would attest to not violating any European borders,” Witkoff said.
Brennan pressed Rubio over the contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump, Zelensky and Vice President J.D. Vance, where the Ukrainian leader was “dressed down” after he openly mocked the idea of negotiation with Putin.
“What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are [sic] speaking about?” Zelensky asked, triggering a total meltdown between the three leaders.
“We gave you, through this stupid president, $350 billion. We gave you military equipment… If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks… you don’t have the cards,” Trump fired back.
The conversation ended with Zelensky leaving Washington, D.C. early and an expected minerals deal not being signed — though it was later ratified.
Rubio, continuing to talk over Brennan, rejected the idea that Zelensky needed protection from being bullied and insisted that the White House and their Ukrainian counterparts have had dozens of meetings since the infamous meeting.
“We had one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelensky… They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. They are coming here because we’ve been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week… The President talked to these leaders as early as Thursday… This is such a stupid media narrative,” Rubio said.
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