Stephanopoulos Confronts Marco Rubio About Jan. 6 Pardons: ‘What Message’ Do They Send ‘Around the World?’

George Stephanopoulos confronted America’s new chief diplomat Tuesday morning about President Donald Trump issuing roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 pardons.

In an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, Stephanopoulos quizzed newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio about how the international community will receive the pardons.

“Back when this happened, you called it a ‘national embarrassment’ — saying ‘we now have third world countries that are lecturing us and we have tinpot dictators that are mocking us,'” Stephanopoulos said. “Of course, you’re now America’s top diplomat. You’ll be speaking with your counterparts around the world. What message does that pardon send to them?”

Rubio completely dismissed the notion that the pardons will be an issue abroad.

“I don’t anticipate a single one of our partners will ask about it, obviously,” Rubio said.

“But as a senator, you did say that it affected our standing in the world,” Stephanopoulos said, following up. “You don’t believe that anymore?”

“Well, as a senator, I had an opinion on all kinds of domestic matters,” Rubio replied. “But now, I’m focused singularly on foreign policy and how I interact with our allies. For example, my first meeting right out of the box as soon as I’m sworn in and get over to the State Department is what the members of the so-called quad — which are important allies in Australia, and Japan, and India — and we’ll be talking to them and we’ll be focused on that. None of these domestic topics are going to come up.”

Stephanopoulos also asked Rubio about Trump’s move to keep TikTok operational for 75 days to give current owner Bytedance an opportunity to divest.

“As a senator, you led the charge in warning that the app poses a major national security risk and exposes the data of millions of Americans to the check to be stolen by the Chinese government, the army,” Stephanopoulos said. “So why give TikTok a break now? Do you endorse this move?”

“In the end, this was never a TikTok ban,” Rubio said. “This is a ban on companies controlled by foreign entities and the risk it poses to the United States. As part of that law and what it previews, what it hopes to achieve in many ways, is it either stops operating or it is no longer controlled by a company under the control of the Chinese Communist Party or any other foreign power, for that matter. And so it gives the president a 90 day window in which to now hopefully find someone that will buy it or some arrangement that will deal with this.”

Watch above, via ABC.