Marco Rubio on Ukraine:

Trump suspended the sanctions for 60 days because he wants to see if there's an opportunity for the talks that are going on right now.

Q: What evidence do you actually have that Putin is open to peace talks?

Rubio: What evidence? This is not a criminal case. This is about diplomacy. In diplomacy, you continue to try.

Marco Rubio on Ukraine:

A few nights ago, there was a software problem involving Ukraine's early warning system. EUCOM is looking at it.

I can't comment on what happened last night.

Marco Rubio on Ukraine War:

Underlying factors that led to the Ukraine War and have persisted are not easy ones to address.

But we will continue to try.

Q: Zelensky said that the U.S. had paused some intelligence sharing earlier this week.

Rubio: I don't know where he's getting these things from or why he's saying these things to the press. There's been no pause.

Zelensky should be focused on bringing an end to this war.

Marco Rubio on Europe:

Their dependence on Russian energy is one of the reasons why Putin went into Ukraine because he thought he could.

Because he believed Europe wasn't going to do anything about it. So, I hope they've learned that lesson.

It seems like they are now, but reversing 20 years of green hyperbole, neglecting domestic energy development, and overreliance on one energy source takes time.

Marco Rubio:

For a long time, we demanded countries be friendly to us but we didn't reward them.

There was no reward for being nice to the US.

And oftentimes we seem to pay more attention to our adversaries than we did to our friends.

That has changed under President Trump.

Marco Rubio on Palestine:

If there were no radical Shia clerics in Iran, if they didn't exist, if that wasn't there, none of these problems would exist.

You may still have a Palestinian issue. I would argue that issue would be easier to deal with if Iran didn't exist.

Marco Rubio:

It is important for us to remind ourselves that we too are heirs to a great civilization that has done great things for humanity and for the world.

Many of the things we take for granted in our everyday life, whether it's the size and wealth of our country, whether it's our democracy and our republic, they didn't come from nowhere.

They came from a shared history that we need to rediscover and embrace. We're doing that here in this country under President Trump. We want more Western leaders to do the same.

Marco Rubio:

President Trump, in his first term, said that the Germans had left themselves vulnerable to Russian energy as a tool of blackmail in case of conflict.

And they laughed. They mocked him.

Our media mocked the president for saying that, and our media celebrated European leaders who laughed at the president.

Well, guess what? That's exactly what happened.

Marco Rubio:

Anything bad that happens in the Western Hemisphere is going to impact us faster than if something bad is happening in Africa or in the Middle East or in Asia, or anywhere for that matter.

So we need to care about it just from our national interest.

America's foreign policy, at its core, has to be about what's in the national interest of the United States.

Marco Rubio on U.S. foreign aid and Latin American elections:

We're still the most generous country in the world in foreign aid.

The difference is our foreign aid is now designed specifically to further the national interest.

We are not going to pay for things that are bad for America. We are not going to give money to people or organizations that hate America.

Whether I can prove to you that's had a direct impact on Latin American countries' elections, I'm not sure. We've studied it. But I don't think it's a coincidence, in my personal view.

Marco Rubio on Latin America:

Understand, these are not puppet presidents. These are elected by their populations.

They're going to make decisions, as they should, that are in the national interest of their respective countries.

But what they are is they are not leaders that hate America.

They are leaders that would prefer to partner with us than any other country in the world and who share our same priorities.

Marco Rubio:

I'm just not answering any more 2028 questions.

Some of these reporters, that's all they ever ask me about. I'm just done with it.

I'm doing my job. I have two jobs, and I'm focused on them, and they take every hour of the day.

Marco Rubio:

I'm just doing my job.

The vice president right now is out there campaigning for candidates. He's doing his job.

The Secretary of Treasury is crushing Iran with sanctions. He's doing his job.

Everyone's doing their job. We're all part of the same team.

Marco Rubio on Latin America:

I don't think it's a coincidence, to some extent, that pulling foreign aid into the State Department and away from the sort of independent, do-whatever-they-want organization which was USAID has had a direct impact on what's happening in the region.

There are groups in that region that are clearly aligned with anti-American leftists.

Now, they may be dressed up as an environmental NGO or a group that works for the indigenous population in these countries, but the reality is they are part of this anti-American global network of NGOs.

Marco Rubio:

Right now, this economy, given what's going on around the world, needs a bigger diesel supply in the global economy.

We've already done this once before, and the president chose to do it again, which is a 30-day moratorium on sanctions to allow more Russian delivery of diesel into the global marketplace.

That'll impact and help the United States. It'll help other countries as well.

That's a decision he made not because it's bad for Ukraine or good for Russia, but because it's good for America, and it's important for America.

Q: Is it time to have an election in Ukraine?

Rubio: Look, the election issue comes up, and I'm not saying it's irrelevant, but that's not at the core of why there's still a war going on.

Marco Rubio:

Months ago, we have seen strikes on energy vessels in the Black Sea.

And there's been complaints, a lot, because we have American companies calling us and saying, "Hey, that was our oil on that ship that was hit by Ukraine."

Now, I don't believe Ukraine intentionally targeted them, but those ships got hit.

And we already have a world that is facing an energy crisis because of what's happening in Hormuz, what's happening in the Red Sea, what's happening in different places.

We don't need any exacerbating situations.

And there's been frustration that despite these asks, that has happened.

Marco Rubio on Iran:

They chose to take the straits hostage. They would have done it anyway.

Imagine if Iran had a nuclear weapon.

At that point, they could say, "And by the way, we own the Strait of Hormuz, and you guys can't do anything about it because we won't just hit ships. We'll use a nuclear weapon against you if you try to do anything about it."