The Senate voted Monday to confirm Marco Rubio as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, making him the first Cabinet member of the new administration to be confirmed by the House.
The confirmation vote took place just hours after Trump was sworn in as president. The overwhelming bipartisan vote was 99-0, with not a single senator voting against the nomination.
Rubio has served as a Republican senator from Florida since 2011, and his nomination received strong support from many Senate Democrats, who said he was highly qualified for the role.
Mr. Rubio has gone from adversary to ally of Mr. Trump in a remarkable political shift in recent years. He will now play an important role as a senior official in the new Trump administration.
The two were bitterly opposed during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, with Rubio calling Trump a “con man” and Trump derisively calling him “Little Marco.”
After an unsuccessful bid in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Mr. Rubio honed his foreign policy skills as the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, building relationships within and outside the party.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has nominated state Attorney General Ashley Moody to fill the seat slated to be vacated by Rubio.
Rubio’s nomination received a warm reception from many Senate Democrats. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during her confirmation hearing that Rubio is “well qualified to be secretary of state.”
During questions from senators, Rubio expressed support for NATO and co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would prevent the United States from leaving the alliance without Senate approval or Congressional action. expressed support for.
Rubio also spoke during his confirmation hearing about the need for the United States to take a strong stance against China, calling the Chinese Communist Party a “powerful” and “dangerous” adversary.
“They are technological adversaries and competitors, industrial competitors, economic competitors, geopolitical competitors, scientific competitors. “I believe this is an extraordinary challenge and one that will define the 21st century,” Rubio said.
“We’ve allowed them to get away with it, but frankly the Chinese did what any country in the world would do given an opportunity like this, they took advantage of it, and now we have We are dealing with the effects of that.” .
“Much of what we have to do to confront China is here at home, not just abroad, but at home as well,” he said. “We must rebuild our domestic industrial capacity and ensure that the United States is no longer dependent on other countries for critical supply chains.”
In response to a question about Russia’s war against Ukraine, Rubio said it was “unrealistic to believe” that Ukraine could return the Russian military to its pre-invasion status in 2022 and that the war should end. That should be the official US position.
Rubio added that he agrees with Trump that the war needs to end, and criticized the Biden administration for not setting a clear “end goal” for the war.
“What[Russian President]Vladimir Putin did is unacceptable, there’s no question about it, but the U.S. official statement is that this war has to end and we want to see it end,” Rubio said. I think it should be a policy.” .
CNN’s Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.
