During a press conference on Tuesday, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio believed intelligence assessments from the Obama administration that Russia had helped President Trump win the 2016 election.
00:00So in recent weeks, we've seen the release of previously classified documents showing that then-President Obama and his intel chiefs weaponized a 2017 intel community assessment to push the lie that Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
00:16And in this ICA, it showed at the behest of Obama's intel chiefs, included weak and misinterpreted intel to push the notion that Russia wanted Trump to win the election.
00:29Meanwhile, the ICA did not include evidence showing the opposite.
00:33Many media and the Democrats have since clung to the Senate Intel Committee report and then Senator Rubio's work in drafting that report that said the ICA was fine and that they agreed with Obama's intel chiefs that Russia intervened to help Trump.
00:46So my question is, does Secretary Rubio agree with the media and other Democrats that there was nothing improper about the creation of the ICA or do the recent documents that have been released change his views about the assessment?
00:58Well, I put out a statement myself responding to this when it first came up and I've found that for you.
01:06But I would say that this in some ways explains, of course, the vehemence of the effort to try to keep President Trump from winning the last election because of the nature now of what investigations are occurring or may occur.
01:20And this is what the American people voted for. We saw a great deal going on that was improper.
01:27And so we look forward, of course, to what these investigations reveal regarding Secretary Rubio as then Senator Rubio.
01:34My statement was this. Oh, gosh, I think maybe over a week ago. If the legacy media were at all curious about the facts of the matter, they would have found from then Senator Rubio's own statement from 2020 concurrence with DNI Gabbard's consequential findings.
01:51Then Senator Rubio determined that the use of the Steele dossier was, quote, very troubling.
01:57But even more so, he was alarmed by the behavior and the actions of the FBI in pursuit of what has now been confirmed as a dangerous hoax.
02:06His statement revealed serious wrongdoing, leading to one of the most infamous political scandals in American history.
02:13And of course, I think that at that time was appropriate. And as all of us who are here and grateful, grateful to be here and blessed to be here, we are also grateful for the American people seeing through that and putting President Trump back in office.
02:30So you're saying that Secretary Rubio disagrees with the assessment from Democrats and the media that the drafting of the ICA was on the up and up.
02:39Well, what I can say and what I always caution people in this room to not do is to not draw an extended conclusion about something that I presented, what I presented is what I presented.
02:50So I'm not going to expand more on that regarding what the secretary thinks or might be considering.
02:57I won't get ahead of the secretary in that regard. But I think it's pretty clear what his position is. Right. Daphne.
