Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Press Remarks - Primary News Source

Excerpt:

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, yesterday you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that’s why we needed to get involved. Today the President said that —

SECRETARY RUBIO: No.

QUESTION: — Iran was going to get —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, your statement’s false. So that’s not what he – I was asked very specifically – were you there yesterday?

QUESTION: Yes. I asked a question.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Okay. No, did – were you the one that – because somebody asked me a question yesterday – did we go in because of Israel. And I said – you asked me that, you, that follow up. And I said no. I told you this had to happen anyway. The President made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed behind its ability to conduct these attacks. That decision had been made. The President systemically – made a decision to systematically destroy this terroristic capability that they had, and we carried that out. I was very clear in that answer. This was a question of timing, of why this had to happen as a joint operation, not the question of the intent. Once the President made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, that they were playing us on the negotiations, and that this was a threat that was untenable, the decision was made to strike them. That’s what I said yesterday, and you guys need to play it. And if you’re going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement, not clip it to reach a narrative that you want to do. All right?