Secretary of State Marco Rubio eviscerated CBS News host Margaret Brennan’s assertion that European leaders want to ensure that President Donald Trump does not bully Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Brennan claimed on “Face the Nation” that European leaders are joining a scheduled meeting at the White House on Monday over their “concern” that Zelensky will be “bullied” by Trump into agreeing to a disadvantageous deal for Ukraine. Rubio dismissed these claims, arguing that the U.S. had been working alongside its European allies to discuss a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
“You know there’s concern among Europeans that President Zelensky is gonna be bullied into signing something away, that’s why you have these European leaders coming as backup tomorrow. Can you reassure them?” Brennan asked.
“No, it isn’t. … That’s not true,” Rubio said. “They’re not coming here to keep Zelensky from being bullied … Do you know how many meetings we’ve had since then? We’ve had a bunch of meetings since then.”
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Rubio further affronted Brennan’s “bullying” accusations as a “stupid media narrative” and clarified that the Trump administration invited the European leaders to attend the meeting.
The administration has held a “dozen meetings” with Zelensky and has worked closely with European allies, whom Trump has talked to “as early as Thursday,” Rubio said.
“This is such a stupid media narrative that [European leaders are] coming here tomorrow because Trump is going to bully Zelensky into a bad deal. We’ve been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff,” Rubio continued. “They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come. We invited them to come. The president invited them to come.”
The secretary of state added that a meeting is taking place with Zelensky and other world leaders since there “enough progress” during the Alaska summit.
Brennan accused Trump of giving Putin a standing ovation by rolling out a red carpet during the Alaska summit on Friday, where the two leaders discussed a potential peace deal to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end. The corporate media has accused Trump of honoring Putin and rubbing Ukraine the wrong way by rolling out a red carpet for and giving a “warm handshake” to the Russian leader.
In response to the red carpet criticisms, Rubio told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on “This Week” that Trump cordially met with Putin because it is a necessary step to end the war.
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