Secretary of State Marco Rubio was forced to repeatedly demand his basic right to speak during Tuesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing after Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) delivered a partisan attack on the Trump administration’s State Department budget request and then refused to let him respond.
The ugly scene unfolded as Rubio testified on the administration’s FY2027 budget proposal.
It all started when Duckworth launched into a bitter, pre-scripted tirade, baselessly claiming that the State Department’s budget request would “undermine” the agency. Hoping to escape any accountability for her words, Duckworth quickly squeaked,“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back,”explicitly trying to muzzle Secretary Rubio from defending the administration.
But Rubio wasn’t havinganyof it.
“I didn’t get to answer any of that,”Rubio fired back, immediately calling out the underhanded tactic.
A visibly flustered Duckworth lamely tried to defend her partisan hit-and-run, claiming,“I didn’t ask a question.”
“She doesn’t want me to answer. Can I answer anyway?”Rubio asked the committee Chairman, exposing Duckworth’s blatant attempt to avoid the truth.“She made a bunch of points. I get to answer them, right?”
When the Chairman ruled that Secretary Rubio did, in fact, have the right to respond to the wild accusations, Duckworth completely lost her cool, frantically interrupting and shouting over him about the Trump administration “blowing through money.”
That is when Rubio absolutely SNAPPED, shutting down the rude, interrupting Democrat with a booming dose of reality.
“WHEN do I get to talk? Do I get to talk?!”Rubio demanded.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
