'If It's Duplicative, Then Get Rid of Them': Greg Meeks Grills Rubio On His Multiple Roles In Trump Admin

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At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY) questioned Sec. Marco Rubio about his multiple roles within the Trump administration.

Transcript

00:00Ranking Member Meeks. Thank you. I'm trying to figure something out. You know, I know you said

00:08you read a lot of cables every day, and I know that when you first got sworn in on at your

00:13confirmation hearing, you stated that being the Secretary of State would be an extraordinary

00:18responsibility. Here we are four minutes later, but reading cables every day. How much time

00:25do you spend at the State Department? How much what? How much time? How focused at the State

00:34Department? Almost every day. If I'm in the country, I travel a lot. It's part of the job. I agree. I

00:39understand. But now you have four jobs, don't you? Now you're not only the Secretary of State,

00:44you are also the acting USAID Administrator. You're also the acting archivist. You're also

00:54the interim National Security Advisor. You cannot spend every day at the State Department and then

01:04neglect your other jobs that you have the responsibility to do. So how much time do you

01:11spend the other jobs if you spend every day at the State Department? Well, now you know I can't

01:17offer you eight hours today to answer every question on this committee, which you were

01:20complaining about earlier. Look, here's the thing. All those jobs are being done. USAID largely has

01:26been folded. Do you want my answer? Do you want to? No, I just want to know this. Did you anticipate or did you want

01:32when you were sworn in to be the Secretary of State, do you want to have the jobs of

01:37USAID Administrator? No, I did not apply for those jobs. I was asked to serve in those roles and I'm happy to do it.

01:44The archives are doing great. The USAID has been folded under state, so it's a sort of a duplicative

01:50role. And the National Security Advisor, which is on an interim basis, has tremendous overlap

01:55with what we're doing at the State Department. But then why not get rid of all of them and just put

01:58everything under you? Get rid of all those departments. If it's not crucial to have someone

02:03every day as a National Security Advisor, you fold it in USAID, you're saying the archives is fine, get rid of them.

02:13Wouldn't that be then waste? Based upon how you have determined there's waste, based upon your testimony earlier,

02:19and some of these other departments, they would do duplicative. So if it's duplicative, then get rid of them.

02:25Well, you would have to pass a law to do that if you want to combine those four offices in your reorg.

02:29Look, that hasn't stopped you in the past because the law requires you to consult with Congress on any

02:34proposed reorganization of USAID or the State Department. That hasn't happened. I agree. It

02:42should be the Congress's responsibility. Your staff claim, quote, that extensively, you've extensively

02:48consulted Congress on your plan to fold USAID interstate. But that did not happen. All we members

02:56have gotten was one hour, one hour of a meeting with Pete Morocco, who you later fired and who

03:04couldn't answer our most basic questions about the aid freeze. And you've ignored thus far.

03:11That's why I want to know about you. You've ignored nearly 20 letters from this committee

03:15seeking information about who, you know, since you took office, as well as, you know,

03:26not, we spoke one time, but not consulting this committee at all. I don't call that extensive

03:36consultation. So you're right. Things that you've done should be in collaboration with the United States

03:45Congress. But surely the USAID and all of these other things was not, Congress was not consulted

03:52one time. Senator Rubio would have demanded it. Well, we've complied with every part of the law.

03:59Every single part of the law has been complied with, including, you, for example, have written us 16

04:03letters. You've been briefed on seven of them. Some of them we couldn't answer and we told you why we

04:07couldn't answer because they were subject to litigation. Four you've gotten answers in writing

04:11and five we've gotten just in the last few days. Well, you know, 16 letters. I've been there 17

04:15weeks to write me a letter a week. I'm going to give my last 40 seconds, 48 seconds to

04:20Representative Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Rubio, thank you for being here. You

04:28know, corruption is determined by our democracy, is detrimental to our democracy, and the Trump

04:33administration has moved swiftly to scale back, reverse, and dismantle various guardrails

04:38that protect Americans from corruption. We have now a plane that he's accepting by a foreign

04:44government. His family's doing business deals with the foreign government, and your office

04:48has authorized Elon Musk's company, Starlink, to do business in at least five African countries

04:53and many, many others. My question is, with the dismantling of the enforcement of the Foreign

04:58Corrupt Practices Act and many other things, what efforts are you doing as Secretary of State

05:03to make sure that our government is free from foreign, improper foreign influence over our

05:10policy? I don't, I mean, the examples you've given, Starlink's all over the world. There

05:14isn't a country in the world now that doesn't have Starlink for the most part. They have Starlink

05:17in Syria. We certainly didn't help them land that deal, but they've got Starlink, a global

05:21company that's present everywhere and continues to grow because they provide a very unique service

05:25no one else provides. I'm not aware of any plane that's been given. I know the media reports

05:29about it. I know that the Air Force One that's scheduled to be delivered is like five years

05:33off balance. So they went to Boeing and they, this is the extent of what I know about this

05:37plane. I've never seen it. They went to Boeing and said, are there any planes that fit the

05:40bill? Boeing produced a list of planes that they'd sold over the last few years. One of

05:45them happened to be in Qatar. You'd have to ask the Department of Defense because that

05:48would go to the Air Force. That would not come to the State Department. Beyond that, look,

05:51we're involved in helping businesses expand all over the world. There isn't a single day

05:55that we don't, aren't involved in helping an American company gain access to a market

06:00and we'll continue to do so. As far as people involved in our government that are doing that,

06:04I'm not aware of anyone on the cabinet or in the President's White House that's using the State

06:08Department to expand their personal portfolio. And if there are, we wouldn't help them do that.

06:12But no one's ever asked us to do that. So I think we're following the law with regards to what

06:16we're doing to prevent corruption. So is the answer to... Chair recognizes Representative Smith for...

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