Chris Murphy is right when he says making Rubio the secretary of state was “a mistake.” A very serious mistake.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025, in Washington, DC.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy announced prior to Tuesday night’s Joint Address to Congress that he would not be participating in a glorified campaign rally for Donald Trump. Fed up with the president’s self-serving embrace of authoritarianism abroad and oligarchy at home, the Democratic senator signaled that he was not going to sit in the audience at the Capitol and pretend that things were normal. It was the right decision.
But that’s just the beginning of Murphy’s rejection of complacent responses to the new administration. The senator understands that it is not enough for Democrats simply to refuse to sit in cushioned seats for an hour—or more—as Elon Musk’s executive assistant puts the best spin on policies that have already proven to be dramatically destructive both to the US economy and to America’s global reputation.
Democrats have to recognize that everything, and everyone, associated with Trump and Musk becomes an extension of their wrecking-crew approach to governing. And Murphy appears to be understanding that more quickly than many of his colleagues—as evidenced by his acknowledgement this weekend that he was wrong to support Trump’s nomination of former Florida senator Marco Rubio to serve as secretary of state.
Unlike most of Trump’s nominees, who have experienced at least some pushback from Senate Democrats, and even in some cases Republicans, Rubio’s nomination was rapidly approved by a 99–0 Senate majority. Along with every Republican who voted, the entire Democratic caucus somehow convinced itself that their wildly ambitious colleague from Florida would become a man of conscience upon his swearing-in as the nation’s top diplomat.
Any serious observer of Rubio’s tortured trajectory on the national political stage — which began with a serious fail when he attempted to rebut one of former President Barack Obama’s State of the Union addresses—knew that was never going to happen. Rubio, who once labeled Trump as a “con artist” and decried Republicans who “fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump,” remade himself long ago as an enthusiastic Trump apologist.
But Senate Democrats imagined that the Floridian’s history of condemning Russian strongman Vladimir Putin—along with his record of supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people in their fight against the invading forces of Putin’s military—would somehow prevent him from going along with Trump’s penchant for undermining Zelensky and propping up Putin.
The proof of Rubio’s subservience to Trump came quickly. When the president and Vice President JD Vance ambushed Zelensky last week at an Oval Office meeting that was supposed to focus on diplomatic efforts to end the war, Rubio sat idly at Vance’s side. Then, after helping to expel Zelensky from the building, Rubio raced to the nearest television studios to defend Trump and Vance—and to peddle the fantasy that the Ukrainian president was the main barrier to a just and equitable resolution of the conflict.
Rubio’s obsequious performance was too much for Murphy. Appearing Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Murphy, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was asked about his previous support for Rubio’s nomination. To his credit, the senator minced no words.
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“You voted to approve his nomination to be secretary of state,” said CNN’s Dana Bash. “You still think you made the right choice?”
Without pausing, Murphy replied, “It was a mistake. I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this. That when Donald Trump decided to align America with dictatorship—again, in order to make it easier for [Trump] to steal from the American people, to turn American into an illiberal democracy in which, just like Russia, the oligarchs, the economically powerful people in America, rule and the rest of us just feed the powerful—I thought when Donald Trump decided to do that, when Donald Trump would come to him and say, help me move America closer to Russia and to Russian values, Marco Rubio would stand up to him. Marco Rubio has not, and that’s been a great disappointment to many of his former colleagues in the Senate.”
Yes, it’s fair to point out that Murphy, and every other Senate Democrat, should have known better in the first place. But his willingness to admit his error is important. It represents a level of frankness that congressional Democrats, who bumbled the confirmation process, owe the American people. And the world.
At least one other Democratic senator has joined Murphy in rejecting his vote to approve Rubio. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said, “I did vote for Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State. I regret that vote. As a member of the Senate, Secretary Rubio was somebody who stood up for American values, American principles…. He acknowledged that Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine. He realized that it wasn’t Zelensky who was the dictator. And now, he’s simply taking his directions at the State Department from Elon Musk and essentially parroting the president’s position.”
That is the stark truth about Marco Rubio, who, lest there was ever any doubt, has now made it clear that he will never be anything more than an unconscionable mouthpiece for Trump, Vance, and Musk.
Every Democrat in the Senate, along with any responsible Republican who might be left in the chamber, should be prepared to join Murphy and Van Hollen in stating that Marco Rubio ought not be the secretary of state—and in apologizing for being so easily conned.
Donald Trump’s cruel and chaotic second term is just getting started. In his first month back in office, Trump and his lackey Elon Musk (or is it the other way around?) have proven that nothing is safe from sacrifice at the altar of unchecked power and riches.
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Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
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