Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday vehemently defended President Trump's approach to negotiating a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, saying that if he were a Democrat he would praise his efforts.
“Are we all happy that there's a president trying to stop the war and is blocking them instead of starting them?” Rubio said in an interview with ABC News “This Week” in a tense exchange with George Stephanopulos about Trump's peace deal efforts.
“I don't know. I'm not really that way except for the fact that I'm Donald J. Trump,” he continued.
“Any Democrat who was doing this would say, 'Well, he's heading for the Nobel Peace Prize,'” Rubio added. “This is ridiculous.”
Rubio defended Trump's approach. This is a departure from calling the three-year name directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Rubio explained, and instead an effort to achieve peace.
“We're trying to end the war,” he said. “We can't end the war unless we start with the Russians and both sides come to the table. And that's the point the president did. And we have to bring them to the table and do whatever we can to see if that's possible.”
The interview comes after President Trump and Vice President Vance challenged Trump and Vance about Putin's history of foreign leaders ignoring the ceasefire deal after Ukrainian President Vokraine Voldymir Zelensky blow up at an explosive oval office meeting on Friday.
