As the position has often done the week of the annual United Nationals General Assembly (UNGA), Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the rounds Tuesday on the broadcast network flagship morning news shows. Unsurprisingly, ABC’s Good Morning America was the worst, thanks to co-host and former Clinton flack George Stephanopoulos shouting at Rubio, accusing the U.S. of killing innocents around the globe because of cuts to foreign aid.
Looking back at the 2023 and 2024 UNGAs, ABC was soft with Stephanopoulos checking the proverbial box that he chatted with Biden Secretary of State Tony Blinken.
Stephanopoulos started with a pompous proclamation that “you and others in the administration have said several times that no one has died because of the administration’s cuts to humanitarian aid and the shuttering the Agency for International Development,” but “a host of international aid organizations have disputed that” along with far-left New York Times columnist Nick Kristof’s “extensive piece on Sunday.”
Asked “how do you account for that” and “respond,” Rubio pushed back that this was memorialized by “somebody who wrote an email giving their opinion internally. Stephanopoulos tried to pivot: “It does cost money to shut down USAID, doesn’t it? That is a fact.”
Rubio replied “we didn’t shut it down” but “moved it under the State Department” and “we are going to do more foreign aid than any country in the world — than any country in the world...but we’re gonna do it the right away...as part of an integrated foreign policy.”
“We are not going to fund an NGO industrial complex that built itself up, that was taking a substantial percentage of the money, and not going directly to the recipients...We’re going to empower our embassies and our ambassadors to direct which projects we fund,” he added.
Stephanopoulos seethed: “[A]re you standing by that comment that you’re saying no one has died? No one — no one has died because of aid cuts? Are all those aid organizations lying?”
Rubio blasted Stephanopoulos’s games as “ridiculous” and argued needless death could be attributed to any other country, whether it be a close ally or adversary.
Stephanopoulos kept pressing with this claim that a lack of USAID and foreign aid under previous administrations mean “someone’s going to die” (click “expand”):
STEPHANOPOULOS: You’re no longer disputing that aid cuts have cost peoples’ lives? You are no longer disputing that?
RUBIO: I — I — I think anybody who tells you that somehow the United States — if we cut a dollar somehow, we’re responsible for some horrific thing going on the world is — is just not true. Beyond that, I would say that, in some of these places that they cite —
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, but that dollar is going to feeding —
RUBIO: — the reason why aid didn’t get there —
STEPHANOPOULOS: — someone food or medicine —
RUBIO: — no, excuse me, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: — someone’s going to die, aren’t they?
RUBIO: One of the reasons why these 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’s a war zone. The aid is stolen, the aid impeded and, in fact, they use aid as a tool against the people instead of — blocking aid as a tool and an arm of war. So, in some places, the reason why the aid isn’t getting there is and can’t be distributed. Look at Haiti. One of the reasons why aid can’t be distributed in Haiti is because 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’s happening there, not us who provided more aid than anybody else —
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me — just try one more time.
RUBIO: — to Haiti, in Africa, and in virtually every part of the world.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you standing by — are you standing by your contention that no one has died?
RUBIO: No one has died because the United States has cut aid. 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. And we’re going to continue to do it, but we’re gonna do it 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.
Prior to this blowout, Stephanopoulos had begun with Russia’s war against Ukraine, arguing Trump has let Russian dictator Vladimir Putin skirt by: “How much more time is he going to give him?”
Rubio had replied by pointing out additional tariffs on countries funding Russia’s war effort by purchasing their oil, but Stephanopoulos didn’t care about that, wondering why Trump’s not “directly” punishing Russia.
The secretary doubled down on this explanation and the coming together of Europe for a framework of security guarantees for Ukraine, but again the leftist tool didn’t think this mattered: “It doesn’t appear to be making any difference President Putin.”
Rubio gave another long answer pointing out Trump’s “deep disappointment” with Russia and noted the generational toll it’s had on the country. From there, it was off the wild claims about mass death.
Rubio’s interviews on CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today were both respectful while also pressing on multiple issues.
On CBS Mornings, co-host Tony Dokoupil started with two on Israel vs. Hamas and western countries recognizing “Palestine” (while insisting this is not meant to reward Hamas) then one each about Russia’s war against Ukraine and the legality of the U.S. shooting drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean.
Dokoupil concluded with a question alluding to the Kimmel hullabaloo. Rubio initially demurred by citing the tradition of secretaries of state focusing on foreign policy, but he did make clear “[n]o country in the world do people express themselves more freely” and “[n]o one is going to jail in this morning this morning because of an X post or Instagram post”:
Today co-host Craig Melvin also started with two on Israel vs. Hamas, but then one on Ukraine that became a brief back and forth. From there, Melvin brought up the preliminary deal between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist government to take over the TikTok from Chinese-owned ByteDance. Specifically, Melvin wanted to know:
We’ve been repeatedly told the reason this is happening is because there’s concern that the Chinese are using the algorithm to manipulate folks in this country and also steal data from folks in this country. What can you tell us about how this deal is going to address those concerns?
Just like Dokoupil, Melvin wrapped with a Kimmel question:
Amid all of the political violence we’ve seen in this country over the last few months, are you at all concerned that it may be impacting America’s reputation abroad? There was a Republican senator who said we’re starting to look like a third world country.
Rubio wasn’t having it, stating in part “we certainly aren’t treated like one” and “[e]very country in the world...want[s] us to do is get more involved in solving some problem important in their region, so I think the United States today stands not just stronger but more influential..despite media reports, despite idiotic commentary — commentators that know nothing about what’s happening here.”
To see the relevant transcripts from September 23, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).