‘Ridiculous!’ Marco Rubio Explodes at ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in Fiery Throwdown Over Foreign Aid Cuts
Secretary of State Marco Rubio exploded as ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed him on his denial that people had died as a result of U.S. aid cuts, as the cabinet member shifted blame from foreign nations for giving less to “gangs” who steal relief on the ground.
During the Tuedsay morning interview on Good Morning America Rubio painted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), shuttered by Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative this year, as having been bloated and corrupt.
A July report by the Lancet medical journal warned that cuts to the USAID could result in some 14 million deaths in the next five years, with children under 5 years of age making up a third of those likely to die.
“We shut down U.S. aid because it was a dysfunctional organization,” Rubio began. “We moved it under the State Department,” he said. “We are going to do more foreign aid than any country in the world… but we’re going to do it the right way.”
“That’s all in the future, but are you standing by that comment you’re saying that no one died because of the aid cuts are all those aid organizations?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“That’s ridiculous,” Rubio snapped back.
He continued: “Well first of all, well then they died because England didn’t give enough money or Canada didn’t give more or China did. Let’s blame the other countries that don’t do any foreign aid. How about China? I mean China’s the second largest economy in the world. They don’t give money to these projects.”
“So you’re no longer disputing that the aid cuts have caused people’s lives?” the anchor pressed. “You’re no longer disputing that?”
“I think anybody who tells you that somehow it’s the United States, if we cut a dollar, somehow we’re responsible for some horrific thing that’s going on in the world, it’s just not true,” Rubio replied.
The secretary of state pivoted to blame corruption and “gangs” in the countries receiving aid: “Beyond that, I would say that in some of these places that they cite –”
“Well if that dollar’s not going to feed someone or to medicine someone’s going to die, aren’t they?” Stephanopoulos cut in.
Rubio continued: “One of the reasons why some of the places didn’t get the aid is not because we cut the aid. It’s because there’s a war going on and the aid never got to the people. So in Sudan, for example, it’s not just a humanitarian catastrophe, it is a war zone. Okay, the aid is stolen, the aid is impeded, in fact they use aid as a tool against the people, and so blocking aid is a tool and an arm of war. So in some of these places, the reason why the aid isn’t getting there is it can’t be distributed.”
He added: “Look at Haiti, one of the reasons why aid can’t distributed in Haiti, is you can send all the aid in the world you want, it gets hijacked and stolen by criminal gangs that control the country. And so they’re the ones to blame for whatever happening there, not us who provided more aid than anybody else.”
Returning to his original question: “Well let me just say one more time, are you standing by your contention that no one has died?”
“No one has died because the United States has cut aid,” Rubio clapped back. “No, people have died because gangs steal the aid. People have died because the distributors of aid have not done well. People have died because other countries haven’t stepped up, but the United States has saved more lives and continues to save more lives than any other country in the world.”
He concluded: “And we’re gonna continue to do it, but we’re going to do the right way and in a responsible way. We’re not going to continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work and in some cases were flat out corrupt.”
Watch above via ABC.
