'What Has Changed?': Reporter Grills State Department Spokesperson Over Sec. Rubio's Crimea Flip

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During a State Department press briefing, Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio's stance on Crimea amidst negotiations to secure an end to fighting between Ukraine and Russia.

Transcript

00:00I want to raise the question of Crimea because the U.S. position, as was outlined by Vice

00:09President Vance, excuse me, indicates that the U.S. proposal does indicate that Russia would

00:17retain sovereignty over Crimea and other territories. It was just a few years ago that

00:24former Senator Rubio co-sponsored legislation that would prevent Russia from ever having

00:33sovereignty over Crimea because of its origins. Can you explain what has changed that has made

00:43the Secretary think that this is a balanced offer and a proposal that Mr. Zelensky and Ukraine should

00:51accept? I've said before, I'll say again, even to you, that we can't negotiate this. It's certainly

00:58not going to be negotiated in this room. But now it's on the record from the Vice President when in

01:03India he... Well, he's the Vice President and making a statement. It's not my job, nor will I parse his

01:10words or assign a meaning to them. But I do know, I think as we all know, negotiations continue. There's

01:18a conversation that continues. That was the impression I was left with the conversation

01:22out of the Oval Office, is that both President Trump and Secretary Rubio were there. They engaged

01:28and answered questions about what's coming forward, what's possible. The President indicated he still

01:34thinks peace is possible. The Secretary has added, though, that if this is going to end, it's really

01:40going to take the two parties to make that decision. They're going to have to make that decision.

01:44Can I ask? What I would say about Crimea is what President Trump has said. I'm sure you saw that

01:51Truth Social post. And I'll read a little bit of that. We can have that in the record. President

01:57Trump on Truth Social noted, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is boasting on the front page of the

02:03Wall Street Journal that Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There's nothing

02:08to talk about here, end quote. The statement is very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia

02:14in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Obama and is not even a point of

02:21discussion. Now, his message continues, but that was the general point about Crimea from the President

02:30himself. And were you going to follow up on something else after that?

02:34Well, just generally, the issue of Crimea and of territory that is now controlled by Russia,

02:46does the Secretary believe that a balanced proposal would have Russia also making some concessions?

02:53The Secretary has made statements actually recently in an interview, and I'll read some of those

03:01comments. I think he has also said, though, that there's going to have to be concessions on both sides.

03:10He's made that clear. We also know that the details of those concessions were not going to be discussed

03:15or agreed upon until there was a ceasefire. And that dynamic still exists. But the Secretary has been

03:21clear from the start that there would be concessions from both sides in this regard. He has also said,

03:27I remain hopeful that we can get something done because this is a terrible war and it needs to end.

03:32He also says that there is no military solution to this war. Russia is not just going to roll over

03:38Ukraine and take the whole country, and Ukraine's not going to push them all the way back to where

03:42they were before 2014. He says we have a better understanding of the Russians' position now because

03:48we've actually spoken to them after three years of not speaking to them. And at some point we

03:54determined that we're just too far apart and not – and I should say if at some point we determine that

03:59we're just too far apart and not enough movement is happening, we may need to move on to other

04:04priorities because there's a lot of important things happening in the world. Lastly, ultimately,

04:10it's not up to us. It's up to Russia and it's up to Ukraine. They have to make the decision that

04:16they're willing to move closer to one another and we need to see progress.

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