Marco Rubio outlines his China strategy on Air Force One, emphasizing cooperation on fentanyl while countering IP theft and nuclear ambitions. He details Iran's Strait of Hormuz blockade risks, contrasts Venezuela's KPMG-led oil audits with Cuba's military hoarding, and critiques NATO for denying U.S. base access. Ultimately, Rubio argues that American national security demands diplomatic engagement where possible but decisive military action against existential threats like a nuclear-armed Iran. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Areas of Cooperation00:14:26
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The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time.
The tax system as we have it is fundamentally unjust.
We are speaking about living in the wealthiest city and the wealthiest country in the history of the world, where one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty.
And we are going to have to explore massive judicial reform, state by state and at the federal level.
And everything should be on the table as far as I'm concerned.
Freedom is back in style.
Welcome to the revolution.
Yeah, we're coming to your city.
Gonna play our guitars and sing you a country song.
Sean Hannity.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, here we are on board Air Force One.
We're headed to China.
These meetings are very critical.
I mean, my first question do you view China as our top?
Geopolitical foul.
Yeah, it's both our top political challenge geopolitically, and it's also the most important relationship for us to manage.
I mean, it's a big, powerful country.
It's going to continue to grow, but we're going to have interests of ours that are going to be in conflict with interests of theirs.
And to avoid wars and maintain peace and stability in the world, we're going to have to manage those.
There are clearly areas where they're so important for the United States that we're going to have to raise those issues, and we'll continue to do so.
The president's going to continue to do so.
There might be some areas of cooperation.
Too, and we want to make sure we don't walk away from those.
You know, it's interesting.
The one thing the president always says he's America first.
He understands President Xi is going to be China first, Putin will be Russia first.
I think having that understanding is a little bit unique, historically speaking, as if we should be surprised that they put their country above ours.
Actually, foreign policy and national security matters work best when you understand that point.
Every country should do what's in the best interest of their country.
Where there are areas of alignment, where what's in our best interest and their best interest are aligned, that's where you have cooperation.
That's where you have alliances.
That's where you have strong bonds of friendship.
When there's conflict, that's between what they want and what we want.
That's where the work of diplomacy and these personal relationships between the leaders are so critical.
And there are times when some of those issues of conflict are irreconcilable.
I think Iran is an example of that.
The clerical regime wants to have a nuclear weapon, and the world, led by President Trump, Says that's completely impossible, cannot happen.
So, unfortunately, there's some areas like that where it comes up.
But there are areas where, if we can find areas of commonality, that's very powerful and important.
But we will have to manage these bilateral differences because they're very significant.
And when it's two big, powerful countries, you know, that falling apart could have tremendous significance on the global economy and on global peace.
In the case of the Indo Pacific, Taiwan, and so forth, it's not in China's interest or anyone's interest for there to be any sort of force change in the status quo.
I think stability there is very important.
We've made clear to them that any support for Iran would obviously be detrimental for our relationship.
That obviously is going to come up in this conversation.
On trade, look, the United States is very clear.
We have to be able to make our own stuff.
We cannot depend on China or any country for that matter.
For 100% of anything that we need.
You know, when you depend on any other country for 100% of what you need, you're very vulnerable.
Likewise, you know, China wants the world to be dependent on them for 100% because it gives them strength and leverage.
So that's a perfect example of an area in which our interests are not aligned.
But the President's very committed to bringing back factories, bringing back industrial capacity to the United States, and diversifying where we get our rare earths, our critical minerals, our supply chains.
You know, President Trump has described President Xi to me in interviews as stoic, all business, no niceties in that sense, although there will be a state dinner.
Now, I know this is your first trip to China, but not your first go around with China.
Yeah.
Look, their system is very disciplined.
It's very focused.
When you speak to them, they have an agenda.
They go through that agenda.
The president's style is quite different, but they seem to have a very good, at least interpersonal relationship.
And that's important.
Look, the differences between the countries remain, but the ability to manage it becomes not easy, but easier when the heads of state have a good working relationship, and they seem to.
Yeah, well, I think so too.
What would you say?
What is your read on President Xi?
I mean, you read that their economy is struggling.
He's isolated.
You read both Putin and President Xi have a pretty high degree of paranoia.
What is your read as you look at President Xi from a distance going into the meeting?
Yeah, I think my read has been what I think has been for a while, and that is China has a plan.
I mean, they clearly view themselves, they believe they will be the world's most powerful country, they'll surpass the United States, and they have a plan to do it.
And they're executing on that plan, and I don't blame them.
If I were the Chinese government, I'd have the same plan.
We, on the other hand, don't view it that way, and we don't want to see anything.
We're not trying to constrain China, but their rise cannot come at our expense.
Their rise cannot come at our fall.
So there's an area where we're just going to have a difference of opinion.
But my view of them and of the government in China is they're very confident.
They have a plan, and they're trying to execute on that plan, which is fine.
I understand that from a nation state perspective.
But when that plan is in conflict with the national interest of the United States, we need to do what's right for the United States.
And that'll come up on this trip.
But more importantly, that'll be a feature of this relationship for a long time.
If you had, it's kind of hard, it's not a fair question to ask, but if you had a goal coming out of this summit, because this is a big deal that you're going, that the President is going, the Secretary of Defense is on this plane, and so many others, and every top business leader in America is going on this trip, it's kind of crazy.
If you had a goal, what you would like, you would say would be, how would you define a successful trip?
Well, I think it's already a success because we're going, and we're going to be able to talk.
To them as opposed to at them.
You know, one thing is to exchange phone calls, and another thing is to put out messages and press releases and statements.
But when the leaders are actually engaging personally, not just the president to the president, but me with their foreign minister and Pete Hegseth with their defense minister and so forth, it creates channels of communication that can prove valuable in a time of potential conflict or where there might be heightened tension.
So that's important.
I also think, and we're not prepared to announce this yet, but there are a couple of unique areas of cooperation that we can work together on.
The obvious ones are obviously fentanyl precursor production, which China, because their system can do this, can really crack down on that.
And that would help lower fentanyl deaths in the United States.
And there are a couple other areas of international relations where perhaps we intend to talk to them about discreetly.
We're not going to announce it in the media, but areas that we both share some concern over.
I have a friend of mine.
He's a great inventor.
And the level of intellectual property theft not just impacted his entire business, but it's impacting many American companies.
Big issue.
That's right.
That's an enormous issue, and one that we're going to continue to raise, even as we try to protect our companies and our competitive advantage.
We're going to raise that with them.
I don't think there's any point in denying that the fact of the matter is that a lot of the advancements, not all, but a lot of the advancements you've seen in the commercial sector, in the industrial sector, in the technological sector in China is a product of intellectual property theft andor reverse engineering, which is the same thing, of our own technology.
So that has to be addressed.
But I also think we can't only rely on that.
We have to stay ahead of the curve on innovation.
You know, one thing is if you're stealing or taking the stuff that was cutting edge five years ago.
But the things that are going to be cutting edge five years from now, we've got to continue to invest and push our companies to continue to stay ahead of that pace of theft and continue to lead the world in innovation.
Maybe the best way to transition to the issue of Iran, which I want to ask you about, is that China's both public statements and their actions.
Although it was interesting that a Chinese tanker got hit in the Strait of Hormuz, but obviously they've been taking a very different position.
If you keep reading the intelligence and showing they've been helping the Iranians, obviously it's more important to them that.
We've made the argument to the Chinese, and I hope it's compelling, and they'll have a chance to do something about it at the United Nations later this week when there's a resolution just condemning Iran and what they're doing with the Straits.
Look, there's three things.
The Chinese have ships stuck in the Persian Gulf because setting up a system that says we're going to let certain ships through but others not, it's easier said than done.
And you saw a Chinese, not Chinese flag vessel, but it was a Chinese cargo, got hit over the weekend.
I'm sure Iran didn't do it deliberately, but they did it.
It happened.
And so that's why these Chinese ships are stuck in there.
The second is I don't think that China is a huge source of instability.
It threatens to destabilize Asia more than any other part of the world because it's heavily reliant on the Straits for energy.
And the third reason is because China's economy is export driven, meaning their economy is fueled not by what they consume domestically, but by what they make and sell to other countries.
Well, if all the countries of the world's economies are melting down because of this crisis in the Straits, they're going to be buying less Chinese products.
And the Chinese exports are going to drop precipitously.
So it's in their interest to resolve this.
We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they're doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf.
You know, I thought you had a lot of jobs by being the Secretary of State and the NSA, you know, head of the NSA.
Then you had to go in and become White House press secretary.
No, no.
Caroline is irreplaceable.
I was just a pitch in.
It seemed that you like it.
It seemed like you're having fun.
Well, yeah, I don't know if I'd have fun if I had to do it every week.
But one time ain't too bad, and I enjoyed it, you know.
And it was about foreign policy mostly, so I was honored to be able to do it.
But we can't wait till Caroline gets back.
She had a beautiful baby, and we wish her the best, but we can't wait to see her back.
I think she was beautiful.
But now that we are on the issue of Iran, let me specifically ask you because it seems like there are two major issues that just continue to percolate.
And I had a conversation with the president, a private conversation, and I did ask him if I could.
Talk about it.
And it was, you know, I asked him maybe a week ago, I said, you know, are you going to go back to bombing?
He said, I said, you could probably wipe out their economy in 15 minutes.
He goes, no, Sean, I can knock it out in five.
He goes, but then he said something, and you referenced this in your press when you were filling in for Caroline.
And you said, imagine the world with a nuclear armed Iran and forget about the Straits.
They would hold the entire world hostage.
That's right.
There always seems to come out of nowhere these bizarre conspiracy theories.
Oh, the president is doing this for Israel or for Fox News hosts or Bibi Netanyahu.
I ask everybody did he have any choice based on what Steve Witkopf told us?
No, look, every president in the last 20 years has been worried about the Iran nuclear program.
Obama did a nuclear deal with them because he was worried about it.
Not a good nuclear deal, but he made one.
The president reversed it and imposed crippling sanctions and took out Soleimani, who was a threat to the United States.
Joe Biden was begging to get back into a nuclear deal with them.
The whole world, you know, the French, the Germans, the UK, they imposed new sanctions on Iran last year, snapback sanctions, because of the nuclear threat.
The whole world is seeing.
Iran was building up a conventional capability where they would have so many missiles and so many drones that they could overwhelm anybody's defenses.
Once they had that, nobody could do anything about their nuclear program because they would say if you attack our nuclear program, we will wipe out six countries in the Gulf. Region, and you won't be able to defend against it.
You won't have enough patriots, you know, because you get these swarms of drones, these swarms of rockets.
They were on the verge, in a year from now, they would have been at that point.
The president said that's an intolerable risk.
People are struggling to make that connection, but the connection is very real.
They were building such a high number, they were going to have so many drones and missiles that no one can attack Iran because the result would be catastrophic for the region.
And once they had that immunity, then they would break out towards a weapon.
We knew that.
The president is not going to allow that to happen.
Under his watch.
Yeah.
Let's go to the Western Hemisphere and what is the relationship with Venezuela?
Cuba's Hidden Wealth00:03:00
And I know it's got to be an issue near and dear to your heart.
Yeah.
I know your family background, and that's Cuba.
Well, on Venezuela, it's been four months.
So I think we've made some steady progress on improving Venezuela.
Look, we're trying to normalize that place.
This was a place where a country of incredible wealth, but all the wealth was being stolen.
It wasn't going to benefit the Venezuelan people.
So we've created mechanisms.
You know, all the money they make on oil now goes into a bank account in New York.
And it's audited by KPMG, and it's being used to pay the salaries of teachers and firefighters and police officers and university professors.
So, for the first time in over a decade, the wealth of the country is actually benefiting the people of Venezuela.
But there's more work to be done.
Ultimately, as we work through this process, we will have to reach a stage of transition where you're going to have to normalize your government.
There's going to have to be a process that's legitimate that people look at and say this is a legitimate permanent government, presidency, elections, things of that nature.
That moment has to arrive.
But it has to be, we don't want to wait too long.
We want to see it happen, but you don't want to move too fast either because the whole thing can break.
So it's a difficult thing to manage, but it's only four months in, and I'm very, I think we should be pleased.
Venezuela is a better place today than it was four months ago, but it needs to continue to stay on that path.
In the case of Cuba, it's a very different situation.
There is no economy in Cuba.
To the extent there's any wealth in Cuba, it doesn't go, forget about it, it doesn't go to the people, it doesn't even go to the government.
The wealth is controlled by a private, By a company owned by military generals.
They take all the money.
They're sitting on billions of dollars.
This is a country where people are literally now eating garbage from the streets, but they have a company that controls all of the money making there that's sitting on 15, 16 billion dollars.
So it's a broken, non functional economy, and it's impossible to change it.
I wish it were different, but I believe it's my personal opinion you cannot change the economic trajectory of Cuba as long as the people who are in charge of it now are in charge of it.
That's what's going to have to change because these people are proven incapable.
I hope I'm wrong.
We'll give them a chance, but I don't think it's going to happen.
I don't think we're going to be able to change the trajectory of Cuba as long as these people are in charge in that regime.
These people are not in charge.
I mean, I can envision American wealth and companies that would be, it could become the destination.
The one thing Cuba would enjoy is an enormous expatriate community, you know, Cuban Americans that would go back and invest.
But I think there would be interest globally.
Look, they have significant mineral deposits in Cuba, you know, one of the, you know, and some of the rare earth minerals, some of the best in the world.
They have obviously an incredible opportunity with tourism, with agriculture, very rich farmland.
So Cuba should not be a poor country.
Its people should not be starving, its people should be prosperous.
And what's most interesting is you see Cubans everywhere in the world, in the United States, but you see them in Europe, you see them in Panama.
Cubans leave Cuba, they go to other countries and they become successful.
The only place in the world where Cubans can't seem to prosper and succeed is in Cuba.
Trump Summit Recap00:02:31
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Okay, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Now, we're going to hear more of this exclusive interview with Marco Rubio in just a few minutes.
And then make sure you watch Hannity Tonight, exclusive interview with the president.
President Trump will talk about what happened in the summit.
This will be the first exclusive, long, detailed interview about exactly what happened tonight at 9 on Hannity on the Fox News Channel.
But don't go away.
More with Marco Rubio coming up next.
...uncovers the real truth about the politics of D.C. He's your watchdog on Big Brother every day.
Hannity is on right now.
Well, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Normally I'm on our big flagship station, W O R in New York, or on iHeart.
Now, tonight, Hannity, 9 o'clock, Fox News Channel, exclusive hour long interview with President Trump.
He'll go over everything that happened.
In the summit.
Now, Sean is with the president, traveling on Air Force One with the whole delegation, been in China for a couple of days.
NATO Bases Strategy00:14:28
And then on the way over, I mean, it's like a 27 hour flight.
You got plenty of time.
He did this wonderful exclusive interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Let's take a listen.
So, Vladimir Putin recently said, and I thought this was interesting, that the war with Ukraine may be coming to an end.
One of the things I always talk a lot about the next generation of weaponry.
I think we see that on display in our conflict with Iran that we've had.
I mean, Midnight Hammer, Epic, Fury, two examples.
What the Israelis have done, more examples.
But what's interesting, Ukraine has really impressed me.
They seem to be creating the next generation of drone every four to ten days.
And between drones and robots, who would have thought four and a half years ago they would still be in this fight?
I didn't expect that.
Well, there's no doubt that the necessity of fighting this war has caused the Ukrainians.
To develop new tactics, new techniques, new equipment, new technology that is creating a sort of hybrid asymmetrical warfare.
That's impressive, no doubt about it.
I mean, if you look at the Russians, they are losing five times as many soldiers a month as the Ukrainians are.
And the Ukraine is a smaller country and a smaller army for that matter.
Although the Ukrainian armed forces are the strongest, most powerful armed forces in all of Europe, just to be clear, right now.
Obviously, because of a lot of the assistance they've gotten, but also because of the battlefield experience that they've gained.
As far as the broader conflict, the president just wants to see the war end.
He thinks it's a crazy war.
And he's right.
I mean, you have people dying in massive numbers on both sides.
Ukraine is going to spend two decades rebuilding.
The damage to the Russian economy is extraordinary.
The Russians are losing 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers a month dead, not injured, dead.
It's a bad war.
And we stand prepared.
The president stands prepared.
His team stands prepared to facilitate a diplomatic end to the war.
Unfortunately, we've lost some momentum over the last few months for a variety of reasons.
The Ukrainians feel increasingly confident about their battlefield position.
They got through the winter.
The Russians feel a little bit optimistic because the price of oil is up.
But hopefully, you know, whether it's Vladimir Putin's statement or anything else, hopefully we'll reach a point here soon where both parties reengage and we're prepared to play the role to mediate and to bring that to a conclusion.
I think we're the only country in the world that can.
If somebody else wants to try, they should do it.
But both sides keep telling us we're the only ones that can.
In the end, the president wants to see the war end.
And if there's something he can do and we can do to help it end, we're going to do it.
So, you had an opportunity recently to meet with Pope Leo from Chicago, an American.
The only thing that surprised me about his conflict, and I went to Catholic schools for 12 years, I studied Latin, I studied theology, etc.
And he said, God doesn't support any conflict.
I'm like, the God of the Old Testament, same as the God of the New Testament, I could start with, you know, David and Goliath.
I'm not sure if I agreed with that and I got.
I got killed, you know, in the media.
How dare I challenge the Pope?
But how did the meeting go?
Take us inside.
It was a positive meeting.
Look, I think I always start with the premise that the papacy and the pope is not a political office.
It's covered by political reporters as a political office, but it's not.
It is the, you know, it's the vicar of Christ.
For those of us who are Roman Catholic, it's the belief that he is the successor of Peter on earth.
And so now, in that realm, you're going to make statements about social policy and even global policies that are going to touch on politics.
And consistently, the church has said that they want to promote peace.
That they'd prefer to avoid wars.
They don't like wars.
And that's been a position for a long time.
Obviously, our perspective is different in that regard.
I agree.
We wouldn't want wars either.
I don't think we're in favor of war.
But for a nation state, which is different from a religious office, for a nation state, there are threats to your security and to the well being of your people that have to be addressed, ideally through a diplomatic means.
But there are conflicts and there are issues in the world that cannot be solved diplomatically, no matter how hard you try.
There's been over a decade of work done to try to diplomatically solve Iran's desire and ambition to have a nuclear weapons program.
We haven't gotten any result.
What was the diplomatic solution for an Adolf Hitler, as an example?
There probably was none, right?
And unfortunately, it led to a war.
So that's where I think the realm of the geopolitical is different.
We are obviously guided by our faith, and we're instructed by our faith.
That's the compass by which we live our lives.
We also have an obligation to the national security of our country, and that has to be taken into account.
That's our primary job, is to keep Americans safe.
And that's why we're involved in Iran.
That's why we're involved in anything we do around the world.
What about the Pope?
Was he receptive to your comments and what you said?
Oh, I found him very unique because traditionally you'd meet him with a Pope, and he's going to have an accent or he's going to have an interpreter.
This is an American Pope.
I mean, we spoke.
We spoke for over an hour.
We talked about a lot of topics, by the way.
Like Chicago baseball.
I think he likes the White Sox.
Yeah, he does.
But this is a pope, by the way, that understands the United States very well, obviously.
He follows our news very carefully.
He's quite aware of current events in our country.
But also, we had a lot of other things to talk about.
He's concerned about religious freedom.
You know, he just came back from Africa, where the church is growing very fast, but ISIS and other terrorist elements are threatening Christians in Africa.
I think he's concerned about events in Latin America.
He had just had a visit from the bishops of Venezuela.
So he wanted to inquire as to how I thought that was going.
We've actually worked with the church in Cuba.
We, after the hurricane, we distributed or have tried to distribute over six million dollars of humanitarian aid via the Catholic Church.
We've offered to do more.
We've offered to distribute a hundred million dollars of humanitarian aid to the Cuban people through the church, and the regime has denied it the Cuban regime.
So there was a lot we covered.
And they're starving.
I don't know.
I think just to be Secretary of State, that's a pretty cool jacket they gave me.
Yeah, it was a gift that somebody gave me, and it's good to wear it on the plane.
Are you in?
Look, you were a senator for all these years.
I've known you for so many years.
We've had a Friendship for so many years.
How do you compare this job to everything else you've done?
Well, it's quite different, right?
The work of a legislator involves constituent service and it involves writing of legislation, committee meetings, oversight, and I enjoyed doing all of that.
And it was an important era in our life.
This is a very different opportunity.
This isn't the executive branch.
Here, you're actually executing on laws and basically executing the president's foreign policy.
So I enjoy the role, I enjoy the job, and I enjoy working for this president because he's willing to do what.
Others talk about but don't do.
You know, when you say, Well, we can't do that, and you'll say, Why?
That's his question.
Why?
Why can't we do that?
Why hasn't this been done before?
He is willing to do what others are not willing to do.
He is willing to solve unfinished business and not leave it for the next guy or gal.
And I admire that, and it's a lot of fun to be a part of it.
You know what's frustrated me is there are some that interpret the Trump doctrine, as I call it, as isolationism.
Well, he took out the ISIS caliphate, took out Soleimani and Baghdadi, dropped the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan, Midnight Hammer, and he will wrap up Epic Fury.
And he did make the raid on Maduro.
I see three lessons he's learned in history.
And this is the last, last question.
And I see that he saw that over 100 million souls died in the last century.
So if you can take out or neutralize a threat ahead of time, it's smart.
I also think he learned from Reagan peace through strength.
He built up the military in his first term.
And I love the idea that he doesn't want to be an occupational force and doesn't want forever wars.
I do.
And I would just add one more element to it America's going to be engaged in the world.
This is not about turning inward.
But we are going to engage in the world based on what's good for America.
What's in the national interest of the United States?
Does what we're doing make the country safer, more secure, more prosperous?
If it does, it's in our national interest.
If it doesn't, it might be a nice thing to do, but it won't be as high up on the priority list.
So that's where I think you see him engaging in the world.
He doesn't engage in every conflict and in every topic.
I mean, we have an opinion, we may try to do something in the margins, but he gets engaged and spends his time focused on things around the world that directly impact.
The security and the prosperity of the American people.
If there's some place in the world where Americans' business can prosper and therefore help our economy, the president's engaged.
If it's trade to benefit our factories, our workers, the president's engaged.
If it's a threat to our national security, whether it's now or something that looms three years down the road, the president's not going to leave it as unfinished business.
He engages.
I'm worried about NATO.
I felt that they didn't have the moral clarity on the number one state sponsor of terror.
That's troubling to me.
Yeah, the problem with NATO, and I've been a supporter of NATO throughout my Career in the Senate.
And one of the reasons why I supported NATO was because it gave us basing rights.
It allowed us to have bases in Europe that we could use in a contingency, like something in the Middle East, you know, where you could have planes flying from some country in Europe and actually protecting our national interests in the Middle East, as an example, or in Africa.
And so when you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases, when the primary reason why NATO is good for America is now being denied to us by Spain, as an example, then what's the purpose of the alliance?
It starts becoming a, you know, a, They're allies when they want to be kind of.
And look, to be fair, there are countries in NATO that were very helpful to us.
I just singling one out, Portugal.
They said yes before we even told them what the question was.
Poland.
Poland.
So there are countries that are Romania, Bulgaria.
Others like Spain have been atrocious, just horrifying.
So I do think there's some very legitimate questions to ask about NATO, and that is what is the purpose of being an alliance whose benefit to us is these basing rights if in a time of conflict like the one we've had with Iran?
They can deny us the use of those bases.
So, why are we there for only to protect them, but not to further our national interest?
This is a very legitimate question that we need to address.
And we pay two thirds of the bill, Mr. Secretary.
Great to see you.
Thank you so much for your time.
America's top defender of freedom, liberty, and American values.
This is The Hannity Show.
Hey, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
So there's no more Marco Rubio?
That's it?
It's all Mark Simone now.
Oh, my God.
I mean, I got to talk now.
I got to talk for free.
We missed you.
Yeah, no, that was a fascinating interview.
Doesn't Rubio do enough jobs?
Thank you very much.
Yeah, Rubio has done so many jobs.
You know, everybody thought, oh, JD Vance 2028.
Rubio looks like a jack of all trades, man who can run.
I liked him when he was in Congress.
He was great in Congress.
And even when he ran and they had their.
Sparring moments, him and Trump, you know, they got over it and he's a big boy and took on this great role.
He's been crushing it.
Yeah.
Remember, he was little Marco.
Little Marco.
Now he's the adult in the room now.
He's the senior, top, most respected guy probably in that administration.
So, hey, I just want to mention good news.
The New York Times, besides being the most partisan, slanted paper ever, it's got to be the most anti Semitic paper ever.
They have been attacking Israel.
Well, listen, this has been going on for 100 years.
They were involved in covering up the Holocaust.
the New York Times.
They, in the last week, went crazy attacking Israel, including, I don't even like to say this, accusing Israel of training dogs to rape women.
The columnist Nicholas Kristoff writing this in the New York Times.
And then articles yesterday about Israel has been raping their female prisoners, just idiotic, ridiculous, ludicrous stuff.
Well, Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli government have announced they're suing the New York Times.
They're filing a massive defamation suit against the New York Times.
Now, Alan Dershowitz, who's been talking about this for years with the New York Times, I imagine, and he's very close to Bibi Netanyahu, I imagine Dershowitz will jump in and help this lawsuit.
But this will be pretty interesting.
It's the Israeli government suing the New York Times.
There'll be all kinds of what they call discovery, where all kinds of documents, witnesses, everything can be uncovered.
And this will be a great, great moment to go after the New York Times.
Obviously, Israel is not doing it for the money, it's just to get back, put a stop to the Anti Semitism at the New York Times.
What are you smiling at, Linda?
No, I mean, the New York Times is just such an incredible foundational piece of, you know, literature and our history.
Even just today, as you were saying earlier, you know, noticing one of the biggest moments in this trip to China, like not enough women at the table.
Yeah, that was the only thing.
It's embarrassing.
Please shut up.
We are a meritocracy.
It has nothing to do with your gender.
I could care less which gender is at the table.
It's about who's best for the job.
Have a nice day, New York Times.
Yeah, New York Times.
You know, a million years ago, If you said, oh, it's in the New York Times, everybody was so impressed.
I know.
Now, if you say, hey, it's in the New York Times, everybody goes, oh, God, why?
What happened?
Yeah.
I mean, if you had to believe something in the National Enquirer or the New York Times, I don't know.
That's a tough choice.
Hey, so we're out of time, but Sean Hannity.
New York Times Debate00:01:42
Well, not quite.
You got a little bit more time.
Oh.
You've got one minute left with us.
I know it's a struggle, but try to manage through it, my friend.
And remind everybody, I mean, I know you're too bashful.
You know, you're so shy.
Yeah.
But, you know, Mark is.
One of the number one shows in all of America in the morning.
I mean, he takes top, you know, top rank every single demo that we do.
Listen to me 10 to noon on WOR New York or on the iHeart app.
And you can follow him on Instagram because he is a bit of a photographer.
He's a little shy about that too, but he's very good.
Mark Simone, NYC at Instagram.
And what about the Linda podcast?
Yeah, I have a podcast called The Rogue Recap.
It's not for the faint of heart, but yes, I have one.
It's on iHeart.
If you want to listen to it, you can.
I say a lot of things there.
Yep, there you go.
And so I did my own show today, 10 to noon.
Plus, I'm doing this show.
This is a lot of work.
Listen, if I could have you here every day alongside Sean, I would.
We miss you, Mark.
Well, I miss you, but I'm glad it's over.
I hear music.
I'm hungry.
I want to go eat.
So, hey, watch Hannity tonight.
Big interview with President Trump.
And I'll be back here tomorrow.
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