Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been unanimously approved by the Senate as the next Secretary of State, becoming the first of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees to receive Congressional approval.
Rubio, who has served in the Senate since 2011, was confirmed in a floor vote by the full Senate on Monday night, hours after President Trump took the oath of office earlier in the day. The full Senate vote followed a separate vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which also voted unanimously in favor of Rubio’s nomination on Monday.
Mr. Rubio comes to the post of secretary of state with a strong foreign policy background as a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. He is also a first-generation Cuban-American.
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Marco Rubio attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, ahead of his confirmation vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and then the full Senate.
His path to confirmation was less controversial than many of Trump’s other cabinet picks. At Rubio’s first confirmation hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee last week, the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, said Rubio has the “ability to serve” on the Foreign Relations Committee. He said he believed he was “well qualified” to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee. The next Secretary of State. She made similar remarks Monday night before the full Senate vote.
“I have had a great working relationship with Senator Rubio over the years and was very impressed with his policy understanding during the hearing,” Shaheen said Monday night. “We may not always agree, but I believe he has the skills, knowledge and qualifications to be Secretary of State.”
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During his first confirmation hearing last week, Rubio said the State Department’s “number one priority” under President Trump is to put America first.
“This is not going to be easy,” Rubio said. “And, again, we can’t do that without a strong and confident America that engages the world by putting our core national interests above all else.”
Mr. Rubio will face some major challenges in his new role, particularly Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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Rubio said during his confirmation hearing last week that the fighting between Ukraine and Russia is a “stalemate” and “must end,” and that both countries would have to make “concessions” under Trump’s proposed peace deal. He added that there is. Despite Trump’s past criticism of NATO, Rubio called the alliance “very important” and insisted that Trump is also a NATO supporter.
On the Gaza issue, Mr. Rubio supported Israeli action to protect the country from Hamas, but stopped short of indicating whether he supported Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank. .
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“The idea would be that there would be no conflict and that our people could coexist with each other without conflict and with the ability to pursue prosperity,” Rubio said. “Unfortunately, unfortunately, the conditions for that to exist have not been in place for quite some time.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) walks to the stage during the second day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Rubio repeatedly singled out China in remarks to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. “We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this world order, and the Chinese Communist Party took advantage of all its benefits. But the Chinese Communist Party ignored all its obligations and responsibilities,” Rubio said at the hearing. “Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen to achieve global superpower status, and they have paid the price.”
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Although there was no major opposition to Mr. Rubio’s certification, some pro-Trump Republicans criticized Mr. Rubio’s intention to certify the results of the 2020 election, which Mr. Trump claimed was “stolen.” expresses contempt. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who has been an outspoken supporter of reducing U.S. intervention, also questioned Rubio’s hawkish stance on U.S. intervention following his confirmation as secretary of state.
