‘Do They Get Two Questions?’ Marco Rubio Jests With Reporters As He Briefly Steps Into Press Secretary Role

Secretary of State Marco Rubio jested with reporters during a press conference Monday afternoon as he jokingly asked, “Do they get two questions?”

Rubio held a White House press briefing — his first as he fills in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

As he adapted to the new role, Rubio worked to navigate the press and determine which reporters to call on.

“All right, can I — there’s no way I can figure out who to call on,” he said as he pointed to the center of the room. “I’m just going to, like, press right in the middle. Right there. You right there? Yeah, in the back row.”

The reporter accidentally misspoke, saying, “Thank you, Mr. President,” before quickly correcting himself, “Thank you. Secretary Rubio. Welcome to the White House.”

“I have two questions on two separate issues—” began Gray Television correspondent John Decker as Rubio looked over to the side and jested about the quantity of questions.

“Do they get two questions for these?” he jested. “I thought it was one. There’s a lot of people in here, man.”

Rubio joked that Decker could ask him two questions, and “I’ll pick the one I like better” to answer.

Decker proceeded to ask both questions.

“The first has to do with the blockade: There are lawmakers from both parties who claim the blockade is an act of war,” he said. “What do you say to that? And my second question has to do with the fuel embargo of Cuba: How long, Mr. Secretary, will that last?”

Rubio changed his mind about only answering one question.

“Okay, two things,” he said with a smile. “Alright. Good. I’ll answer both your questions, because I like the second one, too.”

“We have a blockade because they shut down the straits,” Rubio said as he began answering the questions. “So I don’t know which members of Congress you’re talking to, but here’s what I would ask them, I would ask everybody here, it’s very simple: These guys have shutdown the Straits of Hormuz. This is what Iran is saying: We will shut down the straits. No one can go through. No country in the world can go through unless we allow you to go through, and you have to pay us, but our ships can go through, meaning the Iranian ships, as much as they want. That’s crazy. Who would agree to that?”

Watch above via CNN.

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