Democratic Senator Scolds Rubio About Flip-Flops Since Joining Trump Admin: ‘I’m Not Even Mad…Simply Disappointed’

Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) channeled mothers everywhere on Tuesday when she scolded Secretary of State Marco Rubio about recent actions of the Trump administration that conflicted with his own prior positions as a senator, saying that she wasn’t “mad” — just “disappointed.”

First elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 after serving in the Florida House, including a term as Speaker, Rubio was re-elected in 2016 and 2022. After President Donald Trump nominated him for Secretary of State, Rubio sailed through his confirmation process, being generally well-liked among his Senate colleagues and far less controversial than many of the president’s other nominees.

Rubio’s confirmation won unanimous approval — rare in this partisan era — in both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the Senate confirmation vote.

Rosen, who is a minority member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seemed to have some regrets about her votes to confirm Rubio as she questioned her former colleague during a contentious committee hearing Tuesday.

She began her questioning by telling Rubio she “was going to embrace my Jewish mother instincts for a moment.”

“So as a mother, a senator, and a fellow human being, I can tell you that I’m not even mad anymore about your complicity in this administration’s destruction of U.S. global leadership,” said Rosen. “I’m simply disappointed.”

“And I wonder if you’re proud of yourself in this moment when you go home to your family,” she said, “because I’ve always found you, Senator Rubio, to be a bipartisan, pragmatic partner, a true believer that the U.S. is stronger when we lead with diplomacy and development.”

Rosen continued, saying that Rubio had a “strong record” on this as a senator, but now “I don’t recognize Secretary Rubio.” She pointed out several conflicts between his past comments and the track record of the Trump administration on topics like Israel and the positive benefits of foreign aid, and commitments he made during his confirmation hearings.

“So help me understand how to square your past with your present,” Rosen said, asking him for a “yes or no” answer on if he still was in favor of programs that supported women’s economic development.

“This isn’t a game show,” Rubio retorted. “I’m not going to answer that with a yes or no.” Still, he acknowledged it was “an important question,” and insisted “we’re not abandoning women’s issues.”

Rosen pressed him to answer if he agreed that the global women’s issues office should be eliminated, and Rubio replied that the office might be ended but the “function” would continue and it “remains a priority,” but would be handled at the regional level, because the issues facing women in Africa were different than those in Central America, for example.

“And I have your commitment that you’re going to support women around the world?” asked Rosen, adding her belief that economic success for women was necessary for peace and stability. She asked several follow up questions about what the committee could expect regarding reports on how the regional offices and embassies were delivering on this issue, and when those might be completed.

She also asked about the cuts to other foreign aid programs, like those that provide vaccines for children, because “diseases don’t know borders” and “even a small investment from the U.S. can save American lives by stopping outbreaks, really, before they reach our shores.”

The conversation turned to the topic of Saudi normalization, and Rosen commented that on Trump’s last trip, “it was apparent that the president was more interested in making business deals than trying to move peace forward in the region,” and commented that the records the committee had showed that the childhood vaccine program had been terminated, asking Rubio to provide documentation it had been turned back on.

Watch the video above via C-SPAN. (Full segment of Rosen’s question time available here.)