Rubio Turns Up Pressure on Vance as Internal Tensions Grow

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2:28Ben Meiselas:Marco Rubio wants J.D. Vance gone. Marco Rubio wants J.D. Vance humiliated. Marco Rubio wants J.D. Vance destroyed. The headlines are not doing it justice right now. I mean, there are headlines like this. Rubio lets Vance take the fall as Iran deal questions mount, or this headline, Rubio gives Iran deal the silent treatment by the Washington Examiner. But let's examine this more closely. The job of the Secretary of State is to literally be involved in these types of high-profile negotiations, and Rubio doesn't want to touch it. It's not simply an abdication. It is a trap being set for J.D. Vance, knowing that Donald Trump can comply with any agreement at all.

3:16Ben Meiselas:So as these negotiations are now taking place on the so-called technical details to implement the Memorandum of Understanding. In Switzerland, the entire crew that's there on behalf of the United States is now J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, like the three biggest losers. And the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that's quite literally what your job would be, refuses to show up to it, refuses to join J.D. Vance. On behalf of Iran, you have M.B. Galabaf, the most important civilian figure in all of Iran, along with some of Iran's top technical experts and leaders who are just there getting ready to outmaneuver J.D.

4:05Ben Meiselas:Vance, Kushner, and Whitcoff. I mean, Kushner and Whitcoff said, what, a week and a half ago or two weeks ago, they were going to visit some nuclear facilities in the United States to try to learn how nuclear dilution and enrichment and downgrading works. And it was like out of a bad sitcom script or like a bad movie script. Two guys go to a nuclear facility to learn how to negotiate in the first place. And so Marco Rubio, I think, wants to see J.D. Vance get completely outmaneuvered in these technical discussions because I think Rubio sees that J.D. Vance would be a potential opponent in an upcoming 2028 Republican primary, and he wants to see J.D.

4:50Ben Meiselas:Vance get humiliated. You have J.D. Vance getting on this small Gulfstream C-37 all by himself. I mean, just think about that. I mean, this isn't even the vice president's plane. He gets on a small Gulfstream C-37 to go to Switzerland. I mean, just even the optics of it look horrible. But J.D. Vance realizes what's going on here. As J.D. Vance was getting on the plane, he kind of blamed Marco Rubio for the fact that there was not a ceasefire that's really been able to be effective in Lebanon. and J.D. Vance tries to blame Rubio for that as Rubio tries to set up J.D. Vance for the memorandum of understanding.

5:36Ben Meiselas:They're both kind of going after each other, not necessarily so overtly, but it's pretty obvious if you pay attention to what's going on. I'll give you this example. So J.D. Vance, as he was getting on the plane, he blames basically Marco Rubio and say, well, Rubio's the one who's dealing with Lebanon. So I'm gonna go and I'm gonna try to negotiate two narrow issues. Listen to what he says. I'm going to try to deal with some of the nuclear issues and I'm going to try to deal with the Lebanon issue. That's what I'm going to focus on. But I'm only going to be there for a day or so because I know Rubio is going to be the one.

6:11Ben Meiselas:You see how they're like trying to pass the blame back and forth. Let's take a listen to what J.D. Vance said. And hat tip over here, this Ryan Rosani account, try to lift up J.D. Vance's voice because it was in front of all the turbulence of the plane. Listen to what Vance says here. Listen very carefully. Let's play this clip right here so you can hear for yourself. Play it. Look forward to some technical talks with the Iranians, the Pakistanis, and the Tsarids. Our understanding is that the Iranians just landed with Tsarids, the Pakistanis, and some of our tanks that have been on the ground.

6:45But look, you know why the couple days of talks, we're going to get this information off in the right way. There's a lot to discuss, but we're going to go through it all. Sir, the fighting in Lebanon seems to be a service to expand the entire office. What are you planning to do about that? Well, Barco and the entire team have been actively engaging with people to join in Lebanon despite the headlines. Thanks for actually getting better there. Things have fallen down a little bit. It's going to be something we're just going to have to continuously manage to ensure that Israel and Lebanon are both states here.

7:18That's fundamentally the goal of this, to make the hands-on safe and secure. The big problem is that you have somebody will choose and then somebody will respond. If you try to have a chicken-nick problem where you've just got to stop long enough to get the sparks to make the people that's what we're going to try to do. People are talking at it. Things have got better. I'm sorry, if you need to ask. What's more specific about the schedule or something like that? Well, I think it's number one, just getting things set up in the right way and getting the actual structure of the negotiating plan. So the way that we're going to do this is that we're going to have a principle level of political leadership at the top.

7:56And then obviously the state can continue to stay on the ground. Because once I like to stay and what if you're in a few beautiful plays, I can only be there for a day or two. I think we're going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon fire issue. Those are the jigs. I think we're going to be focused on. I'm sitting here and I'm just going to have this.

8:16Ben Meiselas:Now, you saw Marco Rubio's face at the G7, right? Marco Rubio was there as Donald Trump was signing the MOU in Versailles. But Rubio, you know, tried to remain basically emotionless and try to show visually his displeasure. So like, look at Rubio behind Donald Trump as Trump was talking about this. Let's play this clip. Iran's waiting for them. They're waiting for them. And they never saw them. One o 'clock in the morning, they never saw them. They're stealth. And we just ordered 22 more. the newer upgraded version, which I guess is better. I don't know how the hell you get better. And then Rubio leaked to the press along with John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, the following.

9:05Ben Meiselas:Ratcliffe isn't the only skeptic in Trump's team. Secretary of State Rubio and Hegseth expressed concerns and raised questions about the deal in internal discussions while VP Vance and U.S. Envoys Whitcoff and Jared Kushner advocated for it. And of course, you know who they went with. They went with Barack Ravid to share that story. This is the latest polling data though, right now, and Rubio's paying attention to this as well. That Rubio, his polling is increasing while J.D. Vance right now is decreasing, just as J.D. Vance is more associated with this memorandum of understanding. Here, let's play this clip.

9:44This is the general electorate, but Vance's net favorability rating in Ohio, you know, you go back to the 2024 election, He was at plus five points even in Ohio in J.D. Vance's home state among the electorate overall. He is underwater among independents. Look at this. He's 27 points underwater. J.D. Vance, not so popular in the Buckeye state. Problems at home. How about his net approval overall? Yeah. How about his net approval rating overall? You know, there's all this discussion. You know, J.D. Vance writes essentially, you know, the childless cat ladies. Right. That was the thing he very much regretted, almost regretted more than anything else.

10:22You might say, OK, how's he doing among women, among men? Well, he's underwater with both of them. Among men, he's slightly underwater at minus two points. Of course, if you're a Republican, you need to be popular with men if you're going to win a national election. Among women, he is way underwater. He's 26 points underwater. And the gender gap in the Quinnipiac University, Paul, when you matched him up against other Republicans in the Trump cabinet, the highest, the largest gender gap, it actually belonged to J.D. Vance. He doesn't need to win women if he's going to win in 2020, but he can't be this unpopular among them.

10:55Yes.

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12:45Ben Meiselas:Now let's talk about what Rubio's focus though has been. Rubio's focus has been invading Cuba. Rubio's focus has been maintaining, trying to maintain and project imperialistic dominance over Venezuela. And one of the things he's also been focused on as well is trying to tamper with and manipulate with other elections in the Western Hemisphere. The latest story about Rubio memo, this is New York Times report, a memo by Marco Rubio approved the detention of a high profile Colombian immigrant who criticized one of Donald Trump's allies. Marco Rubio said that Beto Corral's criticism of Donald Trump's right-wing candidate in the Colombia elections undermined U.S.

13:36Ben Meiselas:foreign policy to try to get Beto Corral to be deported. So this past week, this hasn't gotten enough attention. The Trump regime detained Colombian immigrant by the name of Beto Corral, a very well-known influential Colombian figure who supports the current president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and he is supportive of the candidate who would be part of Gustavo Petro's administration in the upcoming elections that are now taking place. He's been very critical of the right-wing candidate, Abolador de la Esprilla, the right-wing candidate backed by Donald Trump. And so Rubio had Corral arrested for speaking negatively about the right-wing Colombian candidate.

14:33Ben Meiselas:And that runoff is now taking place right now. Trump's candidate is nicknamed El Tigre. And so Rubio had this very high-profile immigrant who was here lawfully and then who was going through a lawful asylum process. He was here since like 2015. Rubio had him, you know, is now having him get detained and get deported. We all remember this moment right here a month or so ago at the White House Club Rose Garden, that they call it, where Donald Trump pulled the crowd. Who likes JD? Who likes Marco Rubio? Here play this clip. So we got a lot of beauties out there, JD. I envy you and other people. I don't know.

15:20Who's who's it going to be? Is it going to be JD? Is it going to be somebody else? I don't know. Who does anybody have? OK, let's go. You ready? Who likes JD Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio? All right. Sounds like a good ticket. JD It's a perfect, that was a perfect ticket. By the way, I do.

15:46Ben Meiselas:And of course, you remember Marco Rubio trying to stick with kind of Western hemisphere invasion and imperialism. Remember what he said when he was asked about is Greenland part of Denmark and what he had to say? Let's play this clip. That the UK had suffered more. More per capita. Okay, gotcha. And I assume you're aware that Greenland is indeed part of Denmark. For now. Okay. Well, and during Marco Rubio's last appearance before the United States Senate, Senator Rosen was questioning Rubio about his refusal to go to like these critical negotiations. Rubio was also not there at the April Pakistan mediation.

16:36Ben Meiselas:Rubio refused to show up there. Rubio is refusing to show up yesterday and today in Switzerland. I mean, it's a total abdication, but the whole plan is throw J.D. Vance under the bus. Here's what Jackie, Senator Rosen said playing this clip. I'd like to remind the American people that as the Secretary of State, your main duty as America's chief diplomat is to maintain our relationship. with foreign nations. This is why I was shocked to see that you were at a party with President Trump in Miami instead of accompanying Vice President Vance to Pakistan for negotiations. What party was I at? I was at a party?

17:13It's publicly reported and there's photos there. But what party? No, no, no, no. But you're going to say that. I'm going to answer it. I'm going to answer that question. That's an absurd statement. I was not at a party. If I finish my paragraph, he can answer it. People are going to slander me. I'm going to answer it. Keith Whitcoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom were never confirmed, by this body to be America's diplomats, accompanied the vice president in the negotiations. Even Iran's foreign minister was not there, yet you were not, was there, excuse me, and you were not. I just feel that's embarrassing for us, and it's embarrassing for you.

17:43So, Mr. Secretary, Congress represents the American people. We have the power to confirm who represents America abroad. We confirmed you to be our Secretary of State. We confirmed you to be in the negotiations that are happening, and it's just unthinkable to me that you are not you are missing high stakes negotiations or that you're not involved it's sad senator rosen your time thank you time's up okay so let me uh secretary ruby you're 100 percent inaccurate and 100 wrong here's why number one the vice president of the united states was there and he wasn't confirmed by us and he was elected by the american people okay he is the second in line of the presidency united states he was president present mr whitkoff is the president's envoy for negotiation for peace deals mr kushner is a private citizen that serves as an advisor on these functions.

18:27They were the team that we sent to Pakistan. I was not at a party. Where I was is next to the president, because in the midst of those negotiations, I was in communications with them. And in fact, I think there is media reporting from that evening on how multiple occasions I went into a back room, I came back out and spoke to the president and was constantly updating him. On that evening, I spoke to Mr. Kushner and our negotiating team and Mr. Woodcoff on at least six occasions, including twice on a secure line from the phone they had access to over there. You don't know what you're talking about.

18:57He has a floor. I know your staff wrote up this cute statement for your TikTok video, but it's not true and it's not real. That's not what happened. OK, I'm the national security advisor and secretary of state. I was co-located with the president in the midst of a high stakes negotiation so that I could immediately inform him about events occurring halfway around the world. I was where I needed to be at that moment because we had a very capable team on the ground in Pakistan, led by the vice president, led by the vice president of the United States.

19:23Ben Meiselas:And then J.D. Vance is now also trying to throw it on Kushner and Whitcoff. And he goes, you know, my understanding, talking to Steve and Jared, is that things are going really well. The Strait of Hormuz, things are going great over there. And so he's trying to blame them. He blamed Rubio. So you see what's happening here, right? Here, play this clip. So that's the first part of the negotiation. My understanding, talking to Jared and Steve this morning, is things are going well. But of course, we're going to verify all of this. And that's the thing that, you know, a lot of the criticisms of the deal have have really underappreciated is that the United States has all the cards.

19:58The straits are now open. The Iranian military is now destroyed. The Iranians have committed to, of course, destroying that stockpile of enriched material. But we have a lot of economic pressure applied to the Iranians that we would be willing to relieve if they do what we need them to do. If they don't do that, of course, there's no skin off our back. They're still in a much weakened position.

20:19Ben Meiselas:And finally, one of the things that Rubio is doing as well is Rubio is wearing that same White House, the same outfit rather, that Maduro wore when Maduro was captured, the Maduro Nike tech. And so Rubio wants to reinforce the message that like, look, Donald, I'm the Venezuela guy. J.D. Vance is the Iran guy. And then try to reinforce that with voters as well. So that's what's going on right now. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Hit subscribe and let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. media and unlock exclusive content, ad-free videos, and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today.

21:11Ben Meiselas:You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together.