Exclusive — Secretary of State Marco Rubio Rips United Nations as ‘Antagonistic’ on Ukraine vs. Russia Resolution: ‘President Trump Wants to End This War’
WASHINGTON, DC — Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Breitbart News exclusively on Monday that the United States voted against a United Nations measure bashing the Russians for the war in Ukraine earlier in the day because it was “antagonistic” and ran counter to the efforts to bring both sides to the table and end the war.
After the U.S. voted against the broader resolution, which passed the full United Nations, the U.S. later led a narrower resolution that called for an end to the war that did pass the U.N. Security Council. Rubio, who sat down for a lengthy exclusive on-camera interview with Breitbart News in the State Department’s podcast studio on Monday evening, responded to these developments for the first time on record in this interview.
“On the broader resolution, we think the UN needs to get—if it’s going to be useful in the 21st century—the UN needs to get back to its charter mission, which is the prevention and ending of war and conflict,” Rubio said. “So we felt, everyone knows and you can go back and read newspaper articles over the last three years and figure out what happened in Ukraine. But now, as the president has made very clear, President Trump wants to end this war. He thinks far too many people have died and he wants to bring it to an end. We didn’t feel it was conducive, frankly, to have something out there at the UN that’s antagonistic to either side. We’re trying to get these guys to the table. Unfortunately, Ukraine didn’t agree and they wanted to move forward on theirs. We then went to the Security Council with our compromise, which I think is very fair language and it basically says ‘war is a terrible thing.’ I’m paraphrasing and being simplistic, but it says war is a terrible thing, way too many people have died, this war needs to end in a way that’s enduring—in essence, echoing President Trump’s view of what this conflict needs to be and reminding the United Nations that the purpose of the United Nations was the ending of war and the prevention of conflicts, not making it harder to end conflicts. So I thought it was good we got it done at the Security Council and the Russians didn’t veto it. I’m not telling you that that is going to end this conflict, and I can’t wait until Elise Stefanik is there because it will be great to have her leadership, but I certainly think our language is better language and hopefully furthers the cause of peace.”
Trump had been asked, when he was alongside French president Emmanuel Macron at the White House, about the U.S. move at the United Nations earlier in the day and did not say much other than it was “self-evident” why the U.S. voted against it.
“I would rather not explain it now, but it’s sort of self-evident,” Trump said to reporters in a pool spray with Macron at his side.
So Rubio’s explanation here is the first in-depth explanation from the United States government on why the United States voted against that broader resolution, and instead championed the more specific one at the Security Council.
Rubio saying he looks forward to former Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, getting confirmed is also important. Stefanik is one of the last remaining Cabinet-level spots yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, but she is almost through the final steps there. Stefanik, for what it’s worth, weighed in on the United Nations drama via social media on Monday evening as well:
Trump also told reporters at the White House on Monday that he thinks the war in Ukraine can end in a matter of “weeks.” Asked about this during his interview with Breitbart News at the State Department on Monday, Rubio said that Trump is a “peace president.”
“Well, I think the president would want it to end yesterday,” Rubio said. “He thinks already too many people have died and there’s been too much destruction. By the way, I think everybody should be very happy that President Trump is a peace president. We have a president that wants to end wars not start new ones. He wants to end human suffering not exacerbate it or extend it. Now, that said, it’s a conflict. It’s a war. It’s going back and forth. We’ve got to get them both to the table, starting with the Russians—so we met with them last week and the basic question of that meeting was, ‘Are you interested in ending this conflict or not?’ A lot of people don’t know the answer to that. If you talk to some in Europe, they’ll tell you that Putin is not interested in ending the war. They said they would be, under the right conditions. We didn’t discuss what those conditions were. So the next step is to meet with them again at some point, with the right group of people in the room, and begin to outline what would it take for Russia to stop a war? And obviously we’ve got to ask Ukraine the same question because you can’t stop a war unless both sides agree to it. So whether it takes days or weeks or what have you, we’re going to begin that process. It may not work out, but why would anybody criticize President Trump for wanting to end a war that’s cost billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives, and tremendous and ongoing human suffering.”
Much more from Rubio’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the State Department on Monday is forthcoming soon.
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