Stephen A's Take: Stephen A reacts to Marco Rubio clashing with Democratic senator in heated testimony.

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senator Chris Van Holland,
a Maryland Democrat, engaged in the heated exchange Tuesday as
the nation's top diplomat defended the Trump administration's foreign policy.
While testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Van Holland
criticized Rubio on his handling of issues ranging from the
freezing of humanitarian assistance in Sudan during a genocide, deportations

(00:26):
to El Salvador El Salvador without due process, and revoking
student visas. Rubio did it back down. Take a look
at this exchange.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
We didn't always agree, but I believe we shared some
common values, a belief in defending democracy and human rights
abroad and honoring the Constitution at home. That's why I
voted to confirm you. I believed you would stand up
for those principles. You haven't. You've done the opposite, and

(00:56):
I have to tell you directly and personally that I
regret voting for you for Secretary of State. I yield back.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I respond, well, first of all, your regret for voting
for me confirms I'm doing a good job. First of all,
I'm actually very proud of the work we've done with USAID.
For example, I don't regret cutting ten million dollars for
male circumcisions in Mozambique. I don't know how that makes
a stronger and more prosperous as a nation. I don't
regret psycho social support services.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I raised the dame. I respond, Senator, I'd ask you
to suspend. You had seven straight minutes. I chose to
use my time that way, Mister Chairman, that's my right
to please suspend that way.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Secretary review, Well, I can go on. I mean, there's
other things here. We spent two hundred and twenty seven
thousand dollars for Big Cat's YouTube channel from USAID. We
spent fourteen million dollars for social cohesion in Mali, whatever
the hell that means. So I can go on and on.
I got the list here, and there's more that I
didn't even bring the whole list. In the case of
El Salvador, absolutely absolutely we deported gang members, gang members,

(01:57):
including the one that you had a margarita with. That
guy is a human trafficker, and that guy is a gangbanger,
and that and and the evidence is going to be
clear in the days that Rubio has the floor Chairman.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
He can't make unsubstantiated like that. Secretary Rubio has the
floor ru should take that testimony, the federal senator states,
because he hasn't done it under oath.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Good Lord, let me say this. Perhaps will reflect on
some of the decisions that the Trump administration has made
and will continue to make regarding El Salvador, regarding Sudan

(02:42):
and other nations regarding foreigner foreign relations, and we may
find that we are appalled by some of those decisions.
With respect however, to Chris van Holland, Senator Chris van Holland,
their administration has the right to make it. You lost

(03:07):
their party one, and we will see through the prism
of history what decisions were right and what decisions was
wrong based on an administration. I am not getting into
specifics about what Senator Chris van Holland was lamenting, nor

(03:27):
am I going to favor Marco Rubio's response, even though
I loved how he started off by saying, the fact
that you object shows that I'm doing a good job
because he's letting them know I don't agree with you,
ass and I got that part. But we have to
understand that Marco Rubio officially one of the most powerful

(03:47):
people in America. Okay, overseeing not just our country, not
just in terms of Secretary of State, but national security.
This man is a incredibly influential individual. Are we gonna
sit here and question the qualifications of Marco Rubio, who
has been a senator for years, who is a former

(04:10):
presidential candidate who got re elected in the state of Florida.
We know who Marco Rubio is. He's not unqualified. He's
not incoherent, he's not inarticulate. He's not devoid of intelligence.
He certainly isn't absent or devoid or oblivious to an
understanding of policies that affect the United States of America.

(04:33):
Last time I checked Senator Chris van Holland, he's not
there to agree with you or to be agreeable to you.
Their administration one the Democrats laws because you were focused
on things not like this. You were focused on other
stuff in an effort to win an election, and as

(04:54):
a result, it cost you. Then we have an elected official.
Go over to El Salvador to be with Abrego Garcia.
Forgive me if I don't have his full name in
front of me. Where were you when Biden was in office,

(05:16):
were you willing to go there? All I'm saying is,
this is Senator Marco Rubio, who is now the Secretary
of Defense and is in charge of our national security
or national intelligence. He's a very influential individual, very experienced,

(05:40):
knows what goes on, knows the inner workings of Capitol Hill.
He just may Now I agree with you and you
saying that you wouldn't have voted for him.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
So what.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
I don't like the fact that the Ukraine Russia war
has not been resolved. I don't like the fact that
we see pro Palestinians in the streets of America and
beyond in an uproar off of the things that we're
being told is happening over in Gaza and beyond, and

(06:11):
that hasn't been resolved by the Trump administration, who swear
mister Trump himself, who saw up and down President Trump himself,
who swore, up and down we're gonna resolve this in
a one day, even though we all knew that wasn't true.
And perhaps whether it's usaid, whether it's foreign affairs, no
matter what, perhaps we would look at them and find

(06:33):
down the line they were more wrong than right. But
I love how we act like when we lose an election,
you got the right to try to dictate what the
winning party and then winning administration elects to do. That's
why they're in office and you are not. So I

(06:57):
just think we need to think about those things along
those lines and understand what's going on here. I think
it's important. I know this much. We want to question
the intent of Mark Rubio. He works for President Trump.

(07:20):
As a subordinate. You might have suggestions, and you might
have things that you want to do, and there we say,
you might do things differently, but damn it. When you're subordinate,
you're subortinate. For a reason, he's the boss. President Trump
is the boss. Marco Rubio has to flow with what
he wants. When Marco Rubio gets into the presidency, if

(07:41):
that ever happens, he might do things differently. But as
long as he has to answer to that man, he's
gonna have to capitulate, at least to some degree to
what the man wants. I watch y'all going off about
Trump going at the president of Ukraine when they were
in the office, in the Oval office. That's what Ruby,
you're supposed to do. Stand up and go off to

(08:03):
the president, right in front of the cameras, y'all are reaching.
When you're the subordinate, you can make suggestions, but ultimately
you have to capitulate to the person in charge period.
Y'all know that, which makes what was going on yesterday
or the other day with Van Holland grandstanding