Democrats unanimously confirmed former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Donald Trump’s secretary of state earlier this year, but the top diplomat faced several hours of attacks from his former colleagues on Tuesday condemning his first months on the job.
“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for secretary of state,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has drawn intense criticism from the administration after traveling to visit a wrongly deported Salvadoran father shipped to a hellhole prison in his home country.
“Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job,” Rubio fired back.
“That’s a flippant statement,” Van Hollen replied.
Rubio faced a barrage of criticism from Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Van Hollen, who worked alongside the Florida Republican for more than a decade.
“I’m not even mad anymore about your complicity in this administration’s destruction of U.S. global leadership,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) told him. “I’m simply disappointed. I wonder if you’re proud of yourself in this moment when you go home to your family?”
Van Hollen lashed into Rubio’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the end of refugee resettlement, cancellation of international student visas over criticism of Israel, and the summary removals of dozens of immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The senator faced attacks from administration officials and Trump allies after traveling to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran father living in Maryland who was wrongly deported to his home country more than two months ago, igniting a fierce legal battle with judges and a unanimous Supreme Court demanding the administration “facilitate” his release.
Rubio asserted that he has “no obligation” to answer questions from a judge about the government’s relationship with El Salvador and arrangements to imprison Abrego Garcia and others.
“We deported gang members — including the one you had a margarita with,” said Rubio, referencing debunked claims that Van Hollen drank cocktails with Abrego Garcia during a brief visit. Aides for El Salvador President Nayib Bukele placed glasses on a table dressed up like cocktails to mock their meeting, according to Van Hollen.
“That guy is a human trafficker, that guy is a gang member,” Rubio said.
Van Hollen tried to cut him off, telling committee chair James Risch that Rubio was making “unsubstantiated comments.” Administration officials have repeatedly sought to justify Abrego Garcia’s ongoing detention with allegations of criminal activity and gang membership, which were largely raised only after he was deported. The claims are absent in court documents in the legal battle for his return.
“Secretary Rubio should take that testimony to the federal court of the United States because he hasn’t done it under oath,” Van Hollen snapped.
Rubio claimed “no judge” can force him to respond to questions about his conversation with foreign leaders.
“I am under no obligation, under our division of powers in this country, to share with the judicial branch how I conducted diplomacy of the United States,” Rubio said.
He said he “won’t comply” with court orders for “what I’m saying, and what I’m talking about with a foreign leader.”
In court, Rubio and lawyers at the Department of Justice have raised a “state secrets” privilege to try to avoid answering questions about what steps, if any, the administration is taking to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Responding to Van Hollen’s criticism of Rubio revoking student visas over pro-Palestine protests, a furious Rubio said: “I don’t deport anybody. I don’t snatch anybody. What I do is revoke visas. It’s very simple: A visa is not a right, it’s a privilege.”
Van Hollen repeatedly interrupted, asking whether Tufts University scholar Rumeysa Ozturk — who is accused only of co-writing an op-ed critical of Israel’s war in Gaza — should be imprisoned and deported.
“C’mon, Mr. Secretary. You’re just blowing smoke,” Van Hollen said. “That’s pathetic, Mr. Secretary. … I feel so much safer with you locking up people like Ms. Ozturk.”
