Democrats voted unanimously to confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state earlier this year — but on Tuesday, they spent hours telling him just how unhappy they are with his job performance.
“I don’t recognize Secretary Rubio,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, told him as he appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee. She said she isn’t even mad anymore — just disappointed. “I wonder if you’re proud of yourself in this moment.”
Since January, Rubio has helped dismantle America’s foreign aid apparatus, presided over sweeping cuts to the State Department’s operations and personnel and halted funding to human rights groups he previously counted as close allies. Tuesday’s hearing was the first time Rubio has testified in front of his old Senate colleagues since heading to Foggy Bottom, and it was a sharp departure from the clubby camaraderie that characterized his confirmation hearing.