Rubio likens Trump goals in Iran to Obama-era nuclear deal

[0:01] Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, you and I talked a lot about Africa and I raised concerns [0:06] about a lot of the cuts. We're seeing globally an increase in tuberculosis, [0:11] an increase in malaria cases. We see a continued ongoing on the continent HIV crisis and the [0:18] United States has pulled back from a lot of its investments in those areas. Now with the crisis [0:22] with Ebola, we see that the challenges that have been brought about as a result of our surveillance, [0:30] early detection and the like. So I'm just very concerned about what the administration's [0:34] strategy is because we're clearly seeing here that what goes on in the continent of Africa [0:40] directly affects our public health as well. Well, first of all, I don't agree with that assessment. [0:44] I mean, first of all, it's not about cutting back. The response here is not just how much money you [0:48] spend, it's what results you're going to get. Now let's talk about Ebola for a second. Ebola, [0:52] the outbreak in Ebola was in a war-torn, isolated rural area in the DRC. That's where that began. [0:59] Since that time, our response has been very quick, very rapid. Well, so you're saying you [1:03] did not cut early detection periods. I'm not talking about- I'm saying that whatever you're [1:06] pointing to as a cut is not the reason why there was an Ebola outbreak. I'm not connecting the two. [1:09] I'm simply saying- Well, you are connecting them. You said that our cuts- [1:12] Senator Ruby, I'm not trying to get in an argument with you. I would really like to actually have my [1:16] questions answered. So very quickly, we cut early detection when it comes to infectious diseases [1:22] on the continent, factually. This is not an opinion. We made those cuts. We cut early warning [1:29] systems on the continent. It had nothing to do with the Ebola outbreak. [1:34] So I don't need to tell you, Secretary Rubio, that we're living in a place where an [1:39] infectious disease crisis anywhere is a threat to public health everywhere. The United States [1:43] has made major reductions in these areas that have put us more at risk. If you're talking about this [1:48] clearly Ebola crisis, there's other things and other cuts we've made. And you see it factually, [1:53] even our own- even our own State Department personnel that I've talked to are saying we're [1:59] less prepared for global outbreak than we were before. And my worry is specifically in a budget [2:04] hearing is this budget makes even deeper cuts into the kind of things that can prevent the next [2:09] outbreak or as we've seen with- with unfortunately with COVID have us more prepared. Yeah, I don't agree [2:16] with that assessment. I don't know who told you that at the State Department. So just as an example- [2:19] So let's move on. My time is limited. I know. That's an important question. [2:22] I don't want to eat up your time, but I need to answer that because I just don't agree with that. [2:25] Mr. Secretary, you can't even agree on the facts. Because they're not accurate. [2:28] That's not accurate. I mean, again, you look at what we've entered into with these countries. [2:31] It's not accurate that we cut early detection- Because those have all been repurposed in [2:37] different arrangements that we now have with these countries as an example. [2:39] Well, I would like for the record, because we're not going to cover it in my short time, [2:42] if you're telling me we are as prepared or more prepared before the Trump administration [2:47] came in, I'd like to see the facts. I think when these reforms are finalized, [2:50] which we're on the verge of doing, we're actually going to be better prepared. We are responding [2:54] today faster, not just to humanitarian crisis, but to outbreaks than we were before. We are responding, [2:59] in some cases, within 72 hours, are able to move funds to task, which you weren't able to do in the [3:04] old system. And we're also building the capacity- Mr. Secretary, may I please reclaim my time to shift gears. [3:11] The Strait of Hormuz, I was listening to the conversations you had with some of my colleagues. [3:16] We've now seen the Strait close for months, and you explained that we're going to see an opening [3:22] of the Strait, and ultimately, the exchange we will get for that is after that fact, we will release [3:28] certain sanctions. Is that correct? No, that's not what I said. What I said was, [3:33] if they open the straits, we will lift our blockade. The straits and the blockade are what are [3:37] interrelated. And so for the nuclear program, in exchange for getting rid of the fiscal material [3:44] out of country, I imagine, is what your highly enriched uranium, we would release sanctions. Is [3:49] that correct? Well, it's not just that. It's also their enrichment activity. They would have to, [3:52] you know, they would have to make very severe and significant concessions on what they intend to [3:57] enrich in the future. And already with the March relaxing of sanctions, allowing Iranians to sell oil to [4:05] the Chinese. Estimates have been between 10 and 50 billion dollars they got from that relaxing of [4:11] sanctions. How much money might we see in a deal in our relaxings of sanctions in order to get rid [4:18] of the highly enriched uranium and stop their enrichment? Well, let me just tell you on that [4:21] portion. The sanctions that were released on Iran were boats on the water. And so that oil is already [4:27] out in the marketplace. It was sold at market rates, but the sanctions covered, and to the extent we've [4:31] been able to enforce them, we have the revenues of those sales. So yeah, the oil, the Iranian oil was [4:36] unsanctioned so that it could be sold, but the revenue would have to flow back to blocked accounts, [4:40] which our sanctions were able to go after. We've also seized, I believe, six vessels in the Indo-Pacific [4:45] that involved Iranian-sanctioned oil on top of it. So that wasn't necessarily a trade. They didn't [4:50] get 50 billion dollars directly as a result of it. They might have gotten some of it. They certainly didn't [4:53] get the majority of it. They are now losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day in revenue because of the [4:58] blockade. And the blockade exists because of what they're doing in the Straits. Right. And I guess the [5:04] conclusion I have in my Times expired is that the Strait of Hormuz was open before this unjustified war. [5:12] We're now scrambling to try to find a way to get it back opened again. Not only is it causing economic [5:18] havoc to our country and to residents all around this nation, families trying to make ends meet, but you see [5:24] on top of that the Iranians finding ways to leverage that as we allowed them to do with the Chinese for [5:31] tens of billions of dollars. And so my point is, before we even get to a nuclear negotiation, [5:36] this regime is getting money to rebuild, purchase more drones, cause more havoc. And this is before [5:44] we're even trying to get back to- But I don't- I apologize. I don't understand how they're getting [5:47] this. What revenue are you referring to? Well, there's two sources of revenue we're seeing. One is [5:51] the revenue from the Chinese. That's factually documented. And number two, the revenue that [5:56] you're proposing that they should receive by releasing all of their highly enriched uranium, [6:01] as well as in making a commitment about their enrichment capacities. Hold on. And that was the [6:07] exact deal that you guys vilified, that the President and you vilified President Obama from having. [6:15] Yeah, I don't think those are not the same. But here we have a worse situation [6:17] Those are not the same. Where our adversary and our enemy, who's causing havoc in the region, [6:24] who is funding proxies and terrorists, has discovered, thanks to you all, the power of shutting [6:29] down the Strait of Hormuz. No, they didn't. They knew that a long time ago, and they've done it before. [6:33] Well, clearly, we all knew that a long time ago. That's why this- And they intended to do this at some point in the future as well. [6:36] The real-conceived war should have never happened. You have made our adversary in a stronger [6:42] negotiating position. We are the strongest nation on the planet Earth, and we're in a stalemate with Iran, [6:48] and now we're begging to get back into a deal that you all trashed in the first place. [6:53] We're not begging. There's no one begging. I don't know. [6:54] Clearly, this is a shame. Senator Booker, Senator Booker, your time's up. [6:57] Senator Rubio, since he's gone over, you can respond. [6:58] I do want to address these points, because they go to the heart of the matter. No one's begging for anything here. [7:02] The Iranians might be begging, because their economy's losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day. [7:07] That they are losing- Understand, Iran had street protests going on before all of this started. [7:12] All of those factors, economic factors in Iran, are far worse today than they were six months ago [7:17] when those protests were happening. They have hyperinflation. Their currency's completely devalued. [7:22] They're struggling to make payroll for their government workers. Iran is in a very serious [7:26] situation, and if it was up to the political class there, and I understand everybody there is [7:29] sort of radical in some way, but if it was up to the people that actually, like, go to elections and [7:33] wear the suits and you see on TV, they'd probably make a deal tomorrow. The issue they're facing is [7:38] that the supreme leader in the IRGC corps are a little bit more immune from those pressures [7:43] until they can be convinced otherwise, and I think that's the direction that they're moving in, [7:47] because the reality that Iran- I don't know where you're getting this perception that Iran is [7:50] stronger. Iran has no navy left. They've lost a substantial percentage of their defense industrial [7:54] base. Iran has lost a substantial percentage of their missile launchers, and their economy is far [7:59] worse today, and I mean far worse today than it was six to nine months ago, and they are looking at [8:04] hundreds of billions of dollars of reconstruction costs just to get to where they were six months ago. [8:09] Mr. Rubio, you keep telling us how we're winning this war. The president keeps saying- [8:11] Well, the war's over now. [8:12] Completely annihilated. The war is not over, and yet the American people see how we're losing at the pump [8:18] and with their costs, and yet this thing still hasn't been resolved. Every day he tweets out, [8:23] oh, we've obliterated them, we've annihilated them, they're going to surrender, but yet we still find ourselves [8:28] spending billions of dollars a week on war abroad. [8:30] Senator Booker, you've gone way over it. [8:33] It would be nice if we had hearings where people- [8:35] Thank you, Senator Booker.