On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took time out of his busy travel schedule to sit down for an interview with Margaret Brennan of CBS. He was met with stupid questions about how free speech "irritates our allies" and how Nazis used free speech to conduct genocide. We all learned nothing and instead were forced to watch him teach this poor woman basic history.
But on Thursday, Rubio sat down for another interview, this time with someone a bit more intelligent. Catherine Herridge worked for Fox New for a long time before spending a few years at CBS. Now, the Emmy winner is an independent journalist who works largely through social media and her platform on X. According to her bio, her goal is "Telling the stories I could not tell before, where the facts have a power all their own."
When I saw that she was releasing a "full and unedited" interview with Rubio, I knew I had to tune in. Not only did I want to hear what he had to say when asked real, meaningful questions — I've always been a fan of Herridge's reporting — but I also think it's incredible that one of the most powerful men in the world sat down for a major interview with an independent journalist who would release it on a social media platform. Take that, mainstream media.
The future of independent media looks bright.
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) February 21, 2025
Thank you @X! https://t.co/HUh95I7WrR
As a matter of fact, at the end of the 42-minute interview, Herridge brought that up. "Will you open up the State Department briefing room to independent journalists?" she asked, adding, "...you could have given this interview to any reporter, any major corporate outlet, but you chose an independent journalist who posts..."
"On X," Rubio finished her sentence before explaining the importance of being able to "go where the people are."
And so we need to communicate with people. We need to be able to...This is their State Department. It's not my State Department. I'll be here for a number of years and then my job is done, and I'll go back to being a private citizen. But this will always be their State Department. And we're making decisions every day, and they deserve to hear from us. Where are people getting their news and information? That's where we need to be delivering our news and information.
I just went overseas. We had a bunch of people from different traditional outlets on our trip and we're not going to exclude them, but we have to be able to communicate, communicate people where they're getting their news and information. What we can't allow to have happen is we can't allow our message to solely be provided through the filter of legacy traditional media outlets whose...I'm not trying to be mean here, but their readership is down, their viewership is down, their ratings are down.
We have to take our message where people are getting their news and information and in these sort of long form interviews where you're getting serious calls and can provide answers to nuanced issues, not little sound bites that they run during the cable news hour, you know, for news and entertainment purposes. So we'll engage everybody, but we almost certainly see a greater emphasis on independent journalism, because that's where people are getting their news and information.
Related: WATCH: Poor Rubio Is Forced to Teach Margaret Brennan Basic History
I can't say enough how awesome it is that this administration is so transparent and accessible. We used to go weeks without seeing Joe Biden, and now it's rare we go hours without seeing Donald Trump.
Anyway, the two hit all the major foreign policy topics: Russia, Ukraine, China, Hamas, nuclear Iran, USAID, cartels, foreign gangs, and even the origins of COVID-19. I'm writing this article about an hour and a half after Herridge posted the interview. I'm sure others, including some of my colleagues here at PJ Media, will pick the interview apart and explore some of these topics deeper on Friday, but here are some of the highlights that stood out to me.
Rubio condemned Hamas, calling them "evil" and claiming there will never be peace in Gaza as long as Hamas exists. He said many of our partners in the Middle East do not like Trump's ideas for the region, so they've been to told to come up with a better one, and the United States will help.
He, once again, disproved the liberal talking point that stopping foreign aid means no more humanitarian support. "We also issued a blanket waiver for emergency humanitarian support, food, medicine, housing, things where there's a crisis somewhere in the world," he told Herridge, adding that countries can also apply for waivers for programs they feel are important or if they align with the interests of the United States. So far, 250 have been approved. Rubio gave a real-world example of a waiver for a training program in Guatemala that teaches authorities how to recognize and intercept fentanyl distribution before it reaches drug dealers. "An America First State Department is not an America only State Department," he said.
On Russia, Herridge asked, "You told reporters in Saudi Arabia that there hasn't been regularized contact with the Russians in three and a half years. How much ground was lost under the Biden White House?"
Rubio's response? There was no ground to lose. He said he's not a fan of Putin and whether you like Russia and Putin or not, communication is a must:
...even at the height of the Cold War, even in the worst days of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had communication. And the reason why, if you want to be mature and grownups about it, I'm not a fan of most of what Vladimir Putin has done. And that's largely irrelevant when it comes to statecraft, because we ultimately have to be able to talk to a nation that has, in some cases, the largest tactical nuclear weapons stockpile in the world and the second largest, if not the largest, strategic nuclear weapons stockpile in the world.
Rubio said that Trump is the only global leader who can bring peace to the situation in Ukraine. While he wouldn't say much about Iran, he did say the there will "never be a nuclear Iran" but that Trump is a "peacemaker." He also said we're not going to live in a world where we depend on China, and it's beyond time for the Chinese to be fair. "Whatever we are allowed to do there is what they should be allowed to do here. Whatever they charge us on tariffs is what we should be charging them. And that's what the President's bringing, not just to China, but to the world is reciprocity and fairness," he said.
He even gave a little inside information on how the whole "Canada as the 51st state" idea came to be. Justin Trudeau told Trump during a meeting that if our trade relationship was balanced, Canada would not exist. "Well, if you can't exist without cheating and trade, then you should become a state," was Trump's response. Fair point.
Fairness and balance are obviously major themes for this Trump 2.0 administration's foreign policy. Rubio pointed out that while we are putting America first, we have to work with other countries because it's in our best interest. We just want them to do their fair share, whatever that might be on a case by case basis.
You can watch the entire interview on Herridge's X account here:
EXCLUSIVE: Our full, unedited interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio(@SecRubio) on his first 30 days leading the Department.
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) February 21, 2025
Restarting U.S./Russia relations following the Biden Administration, direct engagement with Ukraine, U.S. proposal for Gaza, preventing Iranian… pic.twitter.com/cxkHmNZWw0
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