QUESTION: Here with the very latest, our Secretary of State Marco Rubio is with us. Mr. Secretary, good to have you. Thank you for being with us.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thank you.
QUESTION: You were in the room last Friday. It was somewhat surreal, and I said on Friday and I think I've been proven correct that he will be back, and that letter and that post on X yesterday said everything that I think needed to be said to get this thing back on track. Your thoughts?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think an important thing to understand about last Friday is not last Friday. It's everything that led up to it. It's been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted, stalemated conflict. And frankly, it's a proxy war between nuclear powers - the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia - and it needs to come to an end. And no one has any idea or any plan to bring it to an end. The plan of the Ukrainians up to now and their allies on Capitol Hill and the people you talk to in other countries is let's just keep giving them as much as they need for as long as it takes. That's not a strategy.
On the Russian side, obviously, they struggled early on in this conflict. They're a bigger country. They've made some progress. But by no means are the Russians running away with it either. So it's a stalemated conflict.
This was explained to everybody and it was made very clear. All the President is trying to do here is figure out if there's a path towards peace. We have to engage both sides, the Russians and the Ukrainians. And we asked the Ukrainians not to sabotage it. When the Vice President made the point that it's going to take diplomacy to get things like this solved, President Zelenskyy unfortunately made the decision to challenge the Vice President and start questioning whether diplomacy is even possible; in essence, sabotaging and undermining the President's plan.
And so that led to the dust-up. I'm glad to see that there's been a reconsideration of that position because I truly believe that this is a conflict that we need to find a way to end. And it's going to require concessions from both sides, but we have to get them both to the table. The Ukrainians have to be there, obviously. It's their country. The Russians have to be at that table. And only President Trump can make that possible. That's been the goal, that remains the goal, and that's what we're focused on now.
QUESTION: Okay. And you're right; it's been a stalemate but it's been a stalemate of hundreds of billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Correct.
QUESTION: And this is not going to go on in perpetuity and it's - there won't be a country left, and how many more people have to die? How many people died from last Friday to today, for example?
So my understanding is Putin said he is willing to get into a negotiated settlement. Is that your understanding?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Look, I mean, we met with them two weeks ago, and the point of our meeting with them was very simple: Are you interested in talking about ending this war or not? Because there can't really be much of a change with our relationship as long as this war is going on. Their answer was we are interested in talking about it. We now need to follow up. It's hard to follow up when the other side of the conflict is saying they're not interested in peace at all, and that was the message that was coming across. Hopefully, that's been corrected. I hope that's going to be corrected more clearly. And then I think that opens the door to figure out whether this is possible.
By the way, this should be a mystery to no one. The President, when he was a candidate and he was running, he said very clearly this is a war that never would have happened - and I believe that to be true - had he been president, and we need to bring it to an end. He's working to become - he wants to be a peacemaker. Usually - and I've made this point in multiple interviews - usually people are happy when our president, the president of the most powerful country in the world, is looking to prevent wars and to end wars. Somehow, when it's Donald Trump that's doing it, it's somehow a horrible thing.
So as I've said, it's important for us to understand we should be - we are blessed and fortunate to have a president that is looking to bring an end, if possible, to a conflict that's cost billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives and destruction that will take a generation for Ukrainians and others to be able to recover from.
QUESTION: I've watched you in a couple of interviews, and it frustrates me. Call him an evil dictator thug. Nobody is disagreeing. But at this point, if you want to get a negotiated settlement - that was tried for four years by Joe Biden. At this point, it's time to hit the reset button. Would that deal be a mineral deal first that would ensure U.S. presence and also money for Ukraine to rebuild their country? Would the second phase be a ceasefire? Would the third phase be the negotiated settlement? Does that sound about right to you?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I'm not going to pre-negotiate it. Look, at the end of the day, the Ukrainians are going to have their demands, the Russians are going to have theirs. We have to see how far apart they are, if we get to that point in the process. And that's where diplomacy - that's what the Vice President's point was. That's where diplomacy kicks in. That's where the hard work of diplomacy comes into play when you have to figure out how do you bridge this difference. But this is not unique to this crisis. It's what we're going through right now with Hamas and Israel in Gaza. It's what's taken every war and every conflict that's ended in a truce, a ceasefire, whatever, has all - a peace plan - has all been the result of hard - the hard work of diplomacy of bridging those differences.
But we have to begin that process, and you can only do it if both sides are willing to do it. The Russians - look, they're not going to be easy to deal with either, right? But we have to - we have to figure out what they're willing to do by getting them to the table. We couldn't do that if the Ukrainians are saying that they're not interested. Now that's changed, and hopefully that's true, and so I think the opening is now there to see what's possible. And it would be in the benefit of everyone - the Russian people, the people of Ukraine, the people of the United States; frankly, our European partners and allies. It would be to their benefit as well to see this come to an end.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: But there's only one person on the planet that can make that happen, and his name is Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States. And we need to be - we should be cheering that on and we should be supporting that, not undermining it or calling it names the way some are doing in the media and some are doing internationally.
QUESTION: I want to put up on the screen Truth Social earlier today. President Trump: "Release all of the hostages now, not later… immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is over for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted! I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don't do as I say. I have just met with your former hostages" - by the way, I ran into them in D.C. as well; their stories are harrowing - "whose lives you have destroyed. This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance. Also, to the people of Gaza: A beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead! Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later!" Wow.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: I guess that's pretty clear and unambiguous, and I think both of us know President Trump well enough; he means it. What's going to happen?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Well, hopefully that - they're going to do exactly what he just said. You know how long we've been waiting - for a long time - in this country to have the kind of leadership with that kind of clarity. People get - don't realize the President meets with these people, he hears their stories; he's outraged and rightfully so. He's tired of watching these videos every weekend where hostages that are emaciated are released and bodies are turned over, and sometimes it's the wrong bodies and there's five here and three there and there's games that are being played. And he's lost his patience with it.
He's been very clear about this from the beginning. He's created space and time for this to be solved. And now it's time for seeing it come to an end. Enough of this already. These people have been in captivity now for over a year and a half. These are monsters. It needs to stop. And I wish there were more international pressure along the same lines here, but I'm glad he's putting those statements out. I think he's - he doesn't say these things and not mean it, as folks are finding out around the world. If he says he's going to do something, he'll do it. He'll do it. And so they'd better take that seriously.
QUESTION: Yeah. Last thing. You were - you were in the chamber last night. You saw the Democrats with the little temper tantrum. What was your reaction to it all?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I - look, I think it's bizarre anytime you're announcing that some young man has gotten into the U.S. Army academy, when you announce that a young boy who's survived brain cancer has been made a Secret Service deputy - these are usually things that people, when the first ladies announce - these are usually things that people stand up and they clap for, and whether you like the person who's speaking as president or not. To see that not happen last night was kind of shocking, to be honest with you. It was really surprising and petty, and I don't think it played well. But I'm a diplomat now, but I can tell you this: I didn't think it looked good on television, and I've heard from a lot of people who didn't think it looked good either.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: The President talked about ending a war yesterday, and instead the only cheers we heard from one side of the chamber was cheers for endless war and continue to move forward. These are bizarre things. We live in bizarre times, but I'm glad we have a President with moral clarity in Donald J. Trump.
QUESTION: Well, glad you are where you are. Although, I'm not going to lie, I kind of liked you as my senator in Florida. But I'm - I've got to be honest. I've got to be straight, but —
SECRETARY RUBIO: (Laughter.) Well, you're in good hands. You're still in good hands. Yeah.
QUESTION: I know. I agree. Anyway, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
