Rubio disputes reporter’s interpretation of his Iran and Israel comments

WASHINGTON, DC: Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back after reporters suggested he said Israel’s planned strike on Iran forced the US to take military action. Rubio said that’s not true and accused the media of taking his comments out of context. 

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio told reporters after a congressional meeting on Monday, March 2. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Marco Rubio accuses reporters of misrepresenting his claims about Iran and Israel

“Mr. Secretary, I just want to clarify what you said,” Raju began, as Rubio quickly interrupted.

“There’s nothing to clarify,” Rubio responded, urging him to 'read the whole statement.'

As Raju started quoting Rubio’s earlier remarks, saying the US knew an Israeli strike would likely trigger an attack, Rubio cut in again, saying he understood the quote. When Raju continued pressing for clarification, Rubio stopped him.

“Hold on a second. Let me answer — because this is my press conference,” he said firmly.

Rubio went on to argue that his comments were being misrepresented. “You guys can misrepresent it, but I was asked a specific question yesterday. The bottom line is this, the president determined we were not going to get hit first. It’s that simple, guys.”

He stressed, "We are not going put Americans’ troops in harm’s way. If you tell the president of the United States that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president’s going to go first.”

Rubio added, "That’s what he did, that’s what the president will always do. He will always put the safety and security of men and women in uniform and of all Americans before anything else. He’s always going to do that. And that’s why he did it here.”

Trump rejects claims that Israel pushed him to take action against Iran

President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected claims that Israel pressured his administration into taking action. “No, I might’ve forced their hand,” Trump said. He explained that the US had been in negotiations and that he strongly believed Iran was preparing to strike first.

"You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first, I felt strongly about that.”

Later at the same press conference, Rubio explained why Trump chose to move ahead with a strike on Iran. Rubio said the president decided to act first because he did not want the United States to be hit before responding.

Rubio shared, "He made the decision to go first because he concluded that we were not going to get hit first. We were not going to absorb a blow from them. We were going to go first. He was not going to run the risk that they could attack us before we could hit them."