Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the media misunderstood his comments indicating that the ‘imminent threat’ prompting the US to strike Iran was a pre-planned strike by Israel.
Rubio, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill before a closed-door Senate briefing on Iran Tuesday, said he was the victim of a bad clipping job and that he never indicated that Israel forced the US to strike Iran preemptively.
‘I told you this had to happen anyway,’ Rubio said. ‘The President made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ability to conduct these attacks.’
‘That’s what I said yesterday, and you guys need to play it. If you’re going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement, not flip it to reach a narrative that you want to,’ he added.
The response was a U-turn from his comments to reporters on Capitol Hill the day before, when he indicated that impending Israeli strikes on Iran would result in a counterattack on US soldiers – an expectation that worried Trump and top officials.
On Monday, Rubio said, ‘We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,’ Rubio said.
‘And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.’
President Donald Trump strongly denied that Israel pushed the US into war with Iran on Tuesday, saying that he actually might’ve pressured the Israelis into action, a likely impetus for Rubio’s head-spinning reversal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed he was the victim of a bad video clipping job, and that he did not say on Monday that Israel’s planned strikes on Iran forced the US to strike the country preemptively
‘We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,’ Rubio said on Monday. ‘And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties’
Part of the administration’s consideration to attack Iran was the possibility of US soldiers getting targeted in Iran’s counterattacks should the country come under attack, Rubio said Monday
‘No, I might have forced their hand,’ he stated.
Rubio’s admission on Monday enraged both Democrats and Republicans.
‘Secretary Rubio says the quiet part out loud: this is an unnecessary war of choice,’ Democratic Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs reacted. ‘Israel forced our hand – there was no imminent threat to the United States. And instead of talking Israel out of going to war, President Trump went along with it and put U.S. lives at risk.’
Former Republican Congresswoman and ex-Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene told conservative pundit Megyn Kelly that the US strikes on Iran were not MAGA.
‘”Make America Great Again” was supposed to be America first, not Israel first, not any foreign country first, not any foreign people first, but the American people first,’ Greene said.
White House officials posted repeatedly about Rubio’s Monday remarks on Tuesday, combatting claims that the US was pressured into attacking because of Israel’s planned strikes.
‘No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim That Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote Tuesday morning.
The four-day conflict has seen thousands of US and Israeli strikes within Iran. On the offensive’s first day, the US-Israel coalition killed Iran’s longtime leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and around 40 top military and political officials.
Smoke rises from central Tehran following reported US and Israeli strikes on Tuesday
In response to the US-Israeli attack, Iran has since launched myriad ballistic missiles and drones at American bases in the region. Iran has also targeted its closest neighbors.
On Tuesday, a CIA outpost in the US embassy in Saudi Arabia was hit by an Iranian strike. It is unclear if any CIA agents or personnel were wounded in the attack.
The Qatari Ministry of Defense has confirmed that the country was targeted by two ballistic missiles launched by Iran on Tuesday. One of the drones struck the Al-Udeid Air Base, which hosts US forces, and the other was intercepted.
Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Oman have also been struck by Iran in recent days.
