Secretary of State Marco Rubio got into a tête-à-tête on CBS News’ Face the Nation as he dismissed questions about Iran’s nuclear “weaponization ambitions.”
Host Margaret Brennan pressed Rubio on whether the United States had intelligence that Iran had given an order to weaponize its enriched uranium and whether intelligence. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program.”
“Are you saying there that the United States did not see intelligence that the supreme leader had ordered weaponization?” Brennan asked.
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Rubio responded that the question was “irrelevant.” “I think that question being asked in the media, that’s an irrelevant question,” he added.
Brennan also asked Rubio if there was any intelligence that Iran intended to use its proxies to retaliate after President Donald Trump ordered their nuclear facilities destroyed in an overnight attack—to the surprise and outrage of MAGA fans and Trump critics alike.
“We’ll see what Iran decides to do. I think they should choose the route of peace,” Rubio said. “We have been we’ve done everything. We have bent over backwards to create a deal with these people.”
Doubling down with talking points shared by Vice President JD Vance, Rubio added, “This mission was a very precise mission. It had three objectives, three nuclear sites. It was not attack on Iran. It was not an attack on the Iranian people. This wasn’t a regime change move. This was designed to degrade and or destroy three nuclear sites related to their nuclear weaponization ambitions.”
Gabbard has since changed her tune to support the Trump administration and Israel’s assessment that the country is “weeks away” from a nuclear weapon after Trump very publicly said she was “wrong.”
Going on the defense, a visibly tense Rubio said the decision to strike Iran’s facilities was “not political decision.” He told Brennan, “I know that better than you know that. And I know that that’s not the case.”
Of Iran, Rubio told Brennan to ”forget about intelligence.” The country has “everything they need to build nuclear weapons” and “that’s all we need to see,” he said.
He added, “In the hands of a regime that’s already involved in terrorism and proxies and all kinds of things around. They are the source of all this.”
Attempting to push back a last time, Brennan calmly continued, “I was simply asking if we had intelligence that there was an order to weaponize, because you said ‘weaponization ambition.’”
Amid a vow from Iran that they would retaliate against Trump’s actions by targeting American military bases in the area, Rubio said the country is prepared to take further actions.
“We’ll defend our people,” Rubio said.
