Democratic Senators Regret Voting To Confirm Marco Rubio As Secretary Of State After He Defends Trump’s Attack On Zelensky

Two Senate Democrats have expressed regret for their vote to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio after an aggressive display of his alignment with President Donald Trump during a tense confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. Rubio was among the leaders who asked the Ukrainian President to leave, casting a wave of uncertainty about the minerals deal officials had gathered to sign.

When Rubio was under consideration as Trump’s V.P., he refused to say if he would accept the results of the election. Still, Rubio swept through the Senate with bipartisan support in a 99-0 vote on Jan. 20.

On Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said on CNN’s State of the Union that voting to approve Rubio’s nomination in January was “a mistake.”

“I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump,” Murphy said. “I thought when Donald Trump decided to do that, when Donald Trump would come to him and say, help me move America closer to Russia …. Marco Rubio would stand up to him,” he said. “Marco Rubio has not.”

 Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) shared Murphy’s attitude on Fox News Sunday.

“As a member of the Senate, Secretary Rubio was somebody who stood up for American values, American principles,” Van Hollen said, noting that his former colleague “acknowledged that Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine.”

“Now he’s simply taking his directions to the State Department from Elon Musk and essentially parroting the president’s position, which I understand, but it’s very different than what Sen. Rubio used to talk about,” Van Hollen said.

Rubio rejected the critics who have rebuked the Trump administration for the public display of hostility toward Zelensky. Rubio told the New York Times on Sunday that he was “puzzled” by the “absurd” pushback on the administration and said Trump was being unfairly criticized for trying to bring peace, blaming Zelensky for hindering Trump’s efforts.

Rubio expressed support for Ukraine when Russia invaded in 2022. After the Russian attack, he said on MSNBC that he could not understand why the United States could not openly tell Ukrainians that “we will support them as long as they are willing to fight.”

At the time, Rubio said if Russia could expand its territory in Ukraine by outlasting the support of Western nations “the message would be pretty clear. If you want to invade a smaller neighbor and take their land, then you can do it, and there won’t be many consequences for it.”