‘I Wouldn’t Name Them on Your Program!’ Marco Rubio Snaps Back at Reporter’s Trump-Putin Summit Question
Secretary of State Marco Rubio grew frustrated on Sunday as ABC News’ Martha Raddatz pressed for specific “concessions” made during Friday’s summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rubio joined Raddatz on ABC’s This Week on Sunday following Trump meeting with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. The president has said they are working towards a peace agreement, but no deal was struck to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the summit.
Raddatz pushed for details on the meeting during her interview with Rubio, but received pushback from the secretary.
“Can you name any concessions that Vladimir Putin made during this meeting?” Raddatz asked Rubio on Sunday.
“I wouldn’t name them on your program,” Rubio shot back. “Why would I do that?”
“Where is the pressure?” Raddatz pushed further.
Rubio said there were “concessions asked,” but declared he wasn’t going to turn the negotiations into a “pay-per-view” event for the media.
“But what utility would there be of me going on a program and tell you we wagged our finger at Putin and told him you must do this and you must that?” Rubio said. “It’s only going to make it harder and less likely that they’re going to agree of these things.”
Check out the exchange below:
MARTHA RADDATZ: Can you name any concessions that Vladimir Putin made during this meeting? Has he, have any concessions —
MARCO RUBIO: I wouldn’t name them on your program.
RADDATZ: Have any concessions been asked?
RUBIO: I wouldn’t name them on your program. Why would I do that?
RADDATZ: Where is the pressure?
RUBIO: Because you can’t have a peace agreement unless both sides give and get. You can’t a peace agreements unless both side make concessions. That’s a fact. That’s true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it’s just called surrender. And neither side is going to surrender. So both sides are going to have to make concessions. So of course concessions were asked. But what utility would there be of me going on a program and tell you we wagged our finger at Putin and told him you must do this and you must that? It’s only going to make it harder and less likely that they’re going to agree of these things. So these negotiations, as much as everyone would love it to be a live pay-per-view event, these discussions only work best when they are conducted privately in serious negotiations in which people who have to go back and respond to constituencies, because even authoritarian governments have constituencies they have to respond to, people have to back and defend these agreements that they make, and figure out a way to explain them to people. So, we need to create space for concessions to be made, but of course, concessions were asked.
Watch above via ABC.