Rubio easily swept through the Senate with bipartisan backing. But as the early days of Trump 2.0 bring historic shifts in American foreign policy, some Democrats now see the former Florida senator in a different light.
He was in the Oval Office on Friday for the jaw-dropping argument between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump and Vice President Vance.
And after, he was one of the leaders who asked the Ukrainian president to leave, casting the minerals deal officials had gathered to sign into uncertainty.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday 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» on issues like Russia’s years-long war in Ukraine, 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.»
Rubio has stood beside the president as the administration leads an «America-first» shift away from European allies, rebukes the country’s northern neighbor and pushes plans to take over war-torn Gaza.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) shared Murphy’s sentiment on «Fox News Sunday,» saying, «I regret that vote» to confirm Rubio.
«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.»
In recent weeks, Trump falsely claimed Ukraine started the war, and other administration officials have declined to say whether Russia was the aggressor in the bloody war, which began in 2022 when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
«[N]ow 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 Senator Rubio used to talk about,» Van Hollen said.