Secretary of State Marco Rubio With Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, and Lawrence Jones of Fox News “Fox & Friends”

QUESTION: Joining us now for that preview of those big things is the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Secretary, great to see you.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.

QUESTION: First off, do you - can you -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Glad to be here live on the -

QUESTION: We're so glad to have you here. Yeah.

QUESTION: Yeah, in the studio.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I know. Not in some little box with my head in it. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: I know you've been here long, as opposed to I think it might be the first time as Secretary of State.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh yeah, sure.

QUESTION: But the President's got a big General Assembly speech. It's always a big deal, but especially when knowing front and center will be the Iran war, and the President is also meeting with the Gulf states.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: First off, can you bring us behind closed doors? Has there been concern among the Gulf states about the situation right now in Iran, and what do you think they're going to ask of the President?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think there's always been concern in the Gulf states about Iran. The reason why we have military bases in the Gulf states is because they're worried about Iran. That's why we're there. So Iran sponsors terrorist groups that operate out of Iraq, that operated out of Syria. They help Hizballah in Lebanon. They're behind the Houthis in Yemen that are attacking Saudi Arabia. And they want a nuclear weapon. That's of concern not just to the Gulf states but should be of concern to the world.

And I think it's really important to remind everybody at the end of the day, at the core of all this - we talk about oil, we talk about the Straits of Hormuz - the central issue here is Iran is run by lunatic clerics, okay? By lunatic clerics that have a radical view of their religion, a very radical view and an apocalyptic view of their religion. These people can never have nuclear weapons. Think about the thousands and thousands and thousands of their own people they've killed. Imagine if they had a nuclear weapon and the ability to use that against their neighbors, against us, against the world. That can never happen.

Now, every American president says it. Every world leader you meet with tells the President: We agree, they can't have a nuclear weapon. Eventually, someone has to do something about it or it's going to happen. And then imagine North Korea but in the Middle East. That would be catastrophic for the world. And you wouldn't be paying $6 or whatever diesel is this morning. You'd be paying triple that because Iran would control it and say you can't touch us, we have a nuclear weapon.

QUESTION: So the president of Iran is here, Masoud Pezeshkian. There's talk about if the President will do a meeting. Do you have anything to report? Is there going to be a meeting? But is it worth it - is he a decision maker, or is this going to be something that it goes back to Tehran?

SECRETARY RUBIO: I think what you'll find from the first term of this President and now is that he is willing to talk and meet with anybody. And his argument is - and remember, this is a businessman, okay? He's not a politician. He didn't - he was never a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. I mean, he's a businessman who comes from the world of practicality and common sense. And common sense tells you there's no harm in engaging and talking to someone. In fact, if you don't talk to them, you may - at least you'll get insights into who they are and what they're thinking. Maybe nothing good will come of it, but nothing bad would come of it. So I think the President is open to meeting with him or anybody. Now, whether something productive will come out of it, that's harder to tell because the ultimate decision maker in Iran is the supreme leader, and the supreme leader is a radical Shia cleric.

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: And we need to remember that when we talk. We're not just talking about politicians here. We're talking about people who are theologically driven to make the decisions that they make.

QUESTION: So Donald Trump said either - we have three choices. Either we blow them up or we let them rot economically or we come to an agreement. An agreement would be great. We would love that. But you're right; we're dealing with radical clerics. They believe that - fundamentally they believe or theologically they believe that America should be wiped off the face of the Earth and so should Israel. So how can we even hope for an agreement when they think a nuclear weapon is what they need in order to achieve what their god wants them to do?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, you never close the door to agreements or diplomacy because sometimes things change in the system. Maybe the system changes. Maybe they're- something happens internally or they make a pragmatic decision for the time being that they're better off with diplomacy. But there's a lot of things not being reported right now about Iran, and it's unfortunate.

Number one, more oil than ever is now flowing through the southern straits. The U.S. military under the President's command has cleared it of mines, and you see every day more and more ships coming out. A substantial percentage of the pre-conflict oil is now reaching the market through the straits, and that's going to continue to grow.

At the same time, Iran is getting nothing out because our blockade is tight-gripped. Nothing is coming out. So they're not - more oil is coming out for the world, no oil is coming out for Iran, and they are facing increasing crippling sanctions that are really harming their economy and paying a high economic price. So this is the trend line. You'll see it continue to exacerbate for them in the weeks to come as more oil comes out, none of their oil comes out, and the sanctions really start to bite.

QUESTION: How surprised are you we have not hit the Houthi rebels who are attacking our ally, Saudi Arabia, and stopping - stopping oil from coming out of the Red Sea strait?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, that's a dangerous conflict, obviously, because what it's done is the - it's not just the Houthis. These Kata'ib Hizballah out of Iraq, which is an Iranian proxy, also fired into Saudi Arabia and it has shut down their main pipeline. And that pipeline needs to get restarted. We have a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia. We intend to live up to our commitments on it. We will.

QUESTION: We haven't yet.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we are working to see if this thing can be fixed. But ultimately, if it comes down to it, the United States will always stand with Saudi Arabia and support them because we have an agreement with them to do so.

That said, that is a very dangerous and complex conflict. It pre-exists, obviously, our history. We have a history with the Houthis as well. And that's something we don't want to see impacted either, the Red Sea and the impact on the Saudi economy. But I can't discuss in this setting or any public setting all of the conversations that are ongoing with Saudi Arabia, but suffice it to say that we will live up to our commitments to them.

QUESTION: You will? Okay, so this is -

SECRETARY RUBIO: And have been.

QUESTION: Let's switch to Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is going to meet with the President. I know there is some dispute and debate over should Ukraine be striking some of those energy facilities. But Ukraine's perspective is, look, they're attacking us; we're going to hit them where it hurts. And the President is concerned also with the world market right now. Obviously, we've got the conflict going on with Iran. So everybody is looking at the global market.

QUESTION: The diesel.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I know. It's a dilemma. It's a dilemma, and it's a dilemma because there are three things. I mean, the majority of the increase you've seen in oil prices over the last couple weeks - it's stabilized now - has to do with the Black Sea, Ukraine, and Russia.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: And Yemen with the Houthis. So these are the two things that have really added to the majority of the increase we saw about a week ago. So it's a dilemma because on the one hand what you state is the obvious, and that is Ukraine says we have missiles being launched into Kyiv every night hitting civilians, we need to respond. I think you saw a 5,000-drone attack on Moscow, or Russia, about 48 hours ago on their part. On the other hand, it is having an impact.

The one thing we are concerned about, however, is that over the last few months on a number of occasions, American-linked ships, American oil supplies, have been targeted - probably not deliberately, but targeted nonetheless by Ukraine. And so that's something that needs to be addressed. We can't have that happen.

But obviously, look, that's why the President has always wanted to end this war and is prepared to do anything he can to bring it to an end. It's been difficult, but we remain hopeful that something can happen there. Because the Russians are suffering thousands of dead soldiers every week, and of course Ukraine is facing an onslaught as well. So it really is very harmful for both sides, and we want to do everything we can to bring it to an end. It's been difficult, unfortunately.

QUESTION: Those attacks have been intensifying between the two countries, and Zelenskyy is fighting back. And Donald Trump says when he meets with him, he wants to talk about the energy ceasefire, just to stop these military strikes that are targeting the power and fuel and energy infrastructure. And he also says that would lower costs for us, for our gas and for our diesel. What are the chances? Because Zelenskyy has stated that Ukraine would support an energy freeze. What does that mean?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think what he means is a freeze in terms of, like, freezing a tax, is my sense of what he's trying to say.

QUESTION: Okay.

SECRETARY RUBIO: So yeah, we would propose that. We think that would be a great idea, an energy infrastructure ceasefire in which you're not - Ukraine's infrastructure is not being targeted, Russian energy supplies are not being targeted as well. It's an ideal outcome. It's one that we're in favor of and we would propose to see if we can achieve. We've talked to a number of countries about that as well.

But just like the war, it takes two sides to agree to that. And so that's been the challenge.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, even when you were in the Senate on Foreign Relations, you were considered by both sides one of the best - one of the most respected foreign policy minds. Now that you're the Secretary of State, what's it going to take for you to take the lead on the Ukraine situation, you take the lead on the Iran situation? Because it seems like it's Witkoff and Kushner and not you.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, the lead is the President on every one of these issues. Like, he's the individual that handles -

QUESTION: Okay. How about right below him?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, right below him we have a team of people that are all involved every day. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't work on Ukraine or Iran or any of these other issues, and everyone plays different roles in that regard. I have two jobs as well, so I play a role in two roles. The first is coordinating the interagency response. Because remember, dealing with Iran, dealing with Russia-Ukraine, it involves Treasury, it involves the Department of War, it involves the Department of State, it involves all the - the Intelligence Community. That all has to be coordinated. That's my role as National Security Advisor. And then there's a State Department role, and I also of course am in charge of that. So we all do different things. With Steve and Jared, they are peace mission envoys, and so their singular focus is on Russia-Ukraine, on the Iran thing, trying to bring about peace deals.

QUESTION: But you're the one with all the experience.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, but they're doing a great job. And I'm telling you, at the end of the day, the people they're dealing with are not easy. I mean, the Biden administration desperately wanted a deal with Iran and they spent four years capitulating trying to get a deal with Iran, and they couldn't get one. So these are not easy people we're dealing with. I remind everybody we are dealing with radical Shia clerics.

But we have a great team. Everyone has played their role. The Vice President has played a role. But be under no illusion here: The person in charge of all of these things is the President. He's the decision maker and oftentimes the implementer -

QUESTION: Copy that.

SECRETARY RUBIO: - because there's nothing like having the President call a foreign leader and say, this is what we're doing.

QUESTION: We could be here a whole hour with you, Mr. Secretary. We want to talk about China, AI. You're known outside of the President to be one of the greatest messengers in the Republican Party. A lot of people within the movement are upset about the data centers, AI in general. What should be the message? How do we compete against China but also not forget our people and their concerns?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Look, the world has seen technological advances throughout history, right? So for example, look about nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is incredibly beneficial, right? You can generate energy at a much lower cost. It doesn't have emission, all this other stuff people are concerned about. Or you could have a nuclear power plant melt down and kill millions of people, right? Nuclear energy and the ability to harness it has positives and it has negatives. AI is the same thing in some ways. It is an advance that's going to happen, and it has huge benefits to it. If it helps a radiologist identify a cancer that right now we are missing, that's a great thing that AI does. And it has some potential harm as well that we're all concerned about.

And so what we're trying to figure out - the world really but the United States in particular - is how do we harness this new technology and benefit from the good things and limit the bad things that it can do? The struggle with AI compared to other technologies is nuclear energy was a static thing, right? You understood what it took to generate nuclear energy. And AI is changing every day. Every six months, every three months, a new model comes out that's more advanced than the previous one, and it's moving so fast that by the time you build guardrails around what you have now, you have something new and you have to build new guardrails. We're all struggling with that. It's a difficult challenge set, but we have to deal with it.

And what the President has said is yes, if there's harm that comes from AI, we have to protect our country from it, but we cannot afford to not be at the leading edge of AI because it's going to happen. And if it's going to happen, we should benefit from it and we should be in the lead.

QUESTION: I remember talking to you a few months ago, and we were talking about your schedule. I said, "How do you do it?" You're always in another country. You had done - you've gone to, like, 20 different countries in the last, like, three weeks. You were telling - you and your wife were telling me that. How can you take advantage being a world leader and represent the greatest country this week at the UN? What does it look like for the world leaders? For every - or not world leaders. For American leaders. What - how do we all take advantage of this?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, there's a lot of meetings because everybody is here, right? So yesterday I think I did 12 or 13 meetings with a variety of countries, including in one setting with seven countries representing the Arctic. We did meetings with Italy where we signed an MOU. We did meetings with the new prime minister of Iraq. Then today I'll sit in on all the President's meetings, and then I'll have a few more on Wednesday morning.

Below me I have my Deputy Secretary Chris Landau, I have Allison Hooker who is our political secretary, Under Secretary, as well. And they're out there taking a bunch of meetings. So we have our entire team deployed. Mike Waltz is doing his thing as well. And then of course, the President today has a very busy agenda. So this is a great week because it brings all these world leaders and their foreign ministers and their equivalent of Treasury or Commerce, they're all here. And it gives you a chance to engage in person in ways that you normally would have to take a trip in order to be able to do.

QUESTION: Right.

QUESTION: So there's going to be - Secretary of Treasury Bessent says, I have an agreement we're going to present to the President, but I guess it would be some type of guardrails worked out with the - his counterpart over in China. It's up to the President to sign it. Do you know what's in it?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think what -

QUESTION: And could you give me an idea? Can you give us an idea?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. I mean, all these things are nascent in thinking. I don't know if it'll be ready by Thursday, but it's certainly a concept. And one of the things that Scott has talked about, and I saw him do interviews about this as well, is some - like, the equivalent of a hotline that we had during the Cold War where if there is an AI incident that's dangerous and could impact economies or societies and even lead to a conflict between nation-states, we would have the ability to immediately hotline the Chinese and warn them about it, or vice versa. It's not a bad idea; it's one we'll explore with the Chinese, among others.

But this issue of AI is - it's not new. We really should have started dealing with this two or three years ago, but it's here now. You've seen all the warnings out there. I know people are very concerned about it. And it isn't a national thing. You can't build a border around AI because it's going to be global. So you're going to have to engage on the global stage.

QUESTION: And China says they're not slowing down.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Look, no leading country is going to. No one - here's the problem. No one wants to be hurt by AI but no one wants to be left behind by it either, right? So the challenge here is how do you stay up - how do you lead on it? They want to lead on it but so do we - but do it in a way that doesn't cause harm, anticipated or otherwise? And that's the tension that we're feeling globally, and certainly we'll have to figure this out. It's a tough issue.

QUESTION: So China was making their move on Greenland in some capacity. The President said no way, people freaked out, and now there's a deal in place.

SECRETARY RUBIO: It's a fantastic deal.

QUESTION: Why is that important?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, it's a - well, remember, the whole thing about Greenland was about national security. President Trump was clear about that from the very beginning. This was about national security, both for missile defense, defense of the Arctic, defense of waterways - all of that was critical. And so we had an existing agreement, but it was not - it needed to be modernized; it needed to be updated. We have a new agreement now that's actually great for Greenland and Denmark as well because it provides for their security.

And what it - first of all, it's permanent; it's forever. Like, there's no expiration to this deal. It allows us to build as many military bases as are necessary for missile defense, for so forth. It puts us in an investment screening process together with Denmark, so you're not going to wake up one day and realize, okay, yeah, the Chinese military is not there but their companies own all the ports, their companies own all the land, and so they're there, because they've done that in different parts of the world. It allows us to act -

QUESTION: Belt and Road.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, or even worse in some cases. I mean, where they - they build these ports around the world, and the port looks like a military base. And you think to yourself, well, of course they built it that way. One day they want to be able to deploy their navy to it. So I think that this is something that allows us - and it's NATO-related too, because what it says is any non-NATO country that tries to invest in Greenland has to go through a screening process that we are involved in and have control over, along with our partners now in Denmark and Greenland.

So it's a great deal; it's a fantastic achievement. It never would have happened had the President not raised this issue. Multiple American presidents understood the geographic importance of Greenland. This is the first President that actually has done something about it. And today he will sign something that is very good for America, for our security, but it's good for NATO, actually, and it's good for Denmark and it's good for Greenland.

QUESTION: And it's permanent.

QUESTION: Speaking of NATO -

SECRETARY RUBIO: It's permanent.

QUESTION: - how disappointed are you that NATO has not to this moment helped you at all in Iran?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, I mean, I think there are some countries in NATO that have done more than others in that regard. I think some of - they all have different reasons, but we're very disappointed in many cases. I mean, we can't hide that disappointment. The biggest disappointment was a number of countries, a handful of countries, we - one of the reasons why we have bases in NATO, one of the benefits to us, is the ability to project power in case of a contingency.

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: We had a contingency and we had a couple of countries say: You can't use your base here. Well, that's absurd. If we can't use our base when we have a contingency, then what's the point of having the base? And frankly, what's the point of having the Alliance? It puts the - and I've been a strong supporter of NATO my entire career, but I understand the - one of the arguments I used to use was that one of the biggest benefits NATO had to the United States were these bases in Europe that allowed us to project power into different parts of the world. If that's going to be denied to us, then we've lost the biggest reason for us to be in NATO.

And so that's the point we've raised. I hope we've crossed a point where that no longer is going to happen. I think we've had more cooperation lately from a number of countries in NATO, so that's positive. But we're very - we're still very disappointed and we still raise it. The President still raises his disappointment.

QUESTION: I know you have to go, you have a lot of meetings, but really quickly, a message for the midterms? You have JD Vance saying, reject the radicals.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, well -

QUESTION: You have Mike Rogers talking about how - I mean, your family is from Cuba; you know what it looks like - socialism.

SECRETARY RUBIO: This is very hard for me and you're going to hate my answer, but under the rules that we have, I'm not allowed to speak about domestic political issues as Department of State -

QUESTION: Can you write it down? (Laughter.)

SECRETARY RUBIO: So it's very hard for me. That senator in me still wants to go at it.

QUESTION: We've heard your story. We know how you -

SECRETARY RUBIO: I think people know how I feel, but unfortunately, that's been the tradition and the rule for the State Department, is that we don't inject ourselves in domestic politics, other than of course I vote. And I don't think it'll be hard for people to figure out who I'll be voting for in Florida in that race.

QUESTION: Well, thank you so much for coming on with us.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

QUESTION: We appreciate it.

QUESTION: We appreciate it.

QUESTION: We'll see you soon.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you, guys.

QUESTION: Thank you for giving us your time.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thanks so much, guys. Thank you.

QUESTION: Appreciate you.

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