Rubio Smokes Annoying CNN Hack Manu Raju Over Why U.S. Attacked Iran

Secretary of State Marco Rubio graciously went to the microphones simply off the Senate subway forward of a late Tuesday afternoon briefing for senators concerning the U.S. conflict on Iran and, in an entirely predictable growth, was shouted at repeatedly like a drunkard by CNN’s Manu Raju, who tried to additional peddle the liberal media-wide lie that Rubio had mentioned Monday the U.S. was dragged into the conflict by Israel.

Regardless of having yelled repeatedly at Rubio and even after different reporters had been known as on, the secretary made Raju seat till the back-end of the media availability.

Raju insisted “I need to simply make clear what you mentioned” Monday to lots of the similar reporters concerning the U.S.’s reasoning for putting Iran, however Rubio interjected to state “[t]right here’s nothing to make clear” as long as “you’re going to learn the entire assertion.”

BOOM: @SecRubio was not having any little bit of the gotcha video games from CNN’s Manu Raju….

Raju: “I need to simply make clear what you mentioned. I need to make clear what you mentioned since you mentioned —”

Rubio: “There’s nothing to make clear.”

Raju: “— you mentioned — no, however you mentioned —”

Rubio: “No, however… pic.twitter.com/G39fJupZ7B

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026

Raju had an agenda to push a few haphazard administration at conflict with itself, so he saved going: “No, however your quote is about, ‘we knew that there was going to be an Israeli motion. We knew that will precipitate an assault on American forces[.]’”

The CNN hack saved sputtering, so Rubio waged his finger and took again management by demanding Raju “let me reply as a result of that is my press convention.”

“I used to be requested a really particular query, so that you guys can misrepresent it, however I used to be requested a really particular query yesterday. The underside line is that this. We — the President, decided we weren’t going to get hit first. It’s that easy, guys. We aren’t going to place American troops in hurt’s means. When you inform the President of america that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have extra individuals killed and extra individuals injured, the President goes to go first,” Rubio defined.

Rubio went on, arguing Trump was executed negotiating with a regime stalling whereas “hiding behind these missiles and hiding behind these drones” and Iran may “attain a degree the place you couldn’t contact them, after which they may do regardless of the hell they needed with their nuclear program and there was no means on this planet that this terroristic regime was going to get nuclear weapons.” Rubio didn’t straight deal with it, however there was additionally the intelligence angle that CIA intelligence situated the Ayatollah and senior officers, thus cluing in Israel for the kill shot.

Raju saved pestering: “So, the U.S. assault had nothing to do with Israel? It had nothing to do with Israel?”

Rubio moved onto NewsNation’s Joe Khalil, who bailed Raju out by asking the identical factor. In response, the secretary additional defined “this weekend introduced a novel alternative to take joint motion in opposition to this risk, and I’ve simply outlined we needed this to have most success” by “destroy[ing] their missiles and their missile launchers,” “their credibility to make” mentioned weapons, and remove “their navy.”

.@NewsNation’s @JoeKhalilTV: “[T]right here’s a basic query of why the President gave the inexperienced gentle. After which there’s a query of why did it must occur this weekend? Are you saying it needed to occur this weekend due to that Israeli motion?”@SecRubio: “No, this weekend… pic.twitter.com/uQpKpqMddm

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026

Ever the pest, Raju needed spherical two and resulted in Rubio arguing the U.S. acted not due to Israel’s orders, however President Trump “act[ing] on the timing that gave us the best probability of success” this weekend and within the days to come back:

Having heard a reporter invoke the 2001 approved use of army drive to enter Afghanistan, an exasperated Rubio known as out the purposefully obtuse press:

Since he wasn’t hectoring Rubio like Raju was, Khalil obtained the final query, which invoked “Democrats criticiz[ing]” Rubio for the justification of going to conflict.

This triggered Rubio to closed with a masterful encapsulation of the way in which liberal critics function and would on Tuesday:

Rewinding to the start, Rubio opened by encouraging the information media to publish the State Division contact data for Individuals stranded within the Center East and reiterating the U.S. army goals.

Raju then began shouting, however was denied by a feminine reporter on the opposite aspect of the gaggle, who additionally drew Rubio’s ire primarily based on her assertion that “[y]esterday, you informed us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that’s why we wanted to get entangled” the place as “[t]oday, the President mentioned that Iran was going to get [struck].”

WATCH: Secretary of State Rubio smacks down reporter for LYING about his statements from yesterday, falsely claiming he mentioned Israel dragged the U.S. into conflict with Iran….

Reporter: “Yesterday, you informed us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that is why we wanted to get… pic.twitter.com/AIKIbsrLBn

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026

Rubio promptly schooled her and the opposite reporters, telling her “your assertion is fake” and reiterating we weren’t being led round by Israel.

In actuality, he asserted, “the choice [President Trump] made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to cover behind its ballistic missile program” and reporters “have to play the entire assertion, not clip it to achieve a story that you simply need to do” (click on “broaden”):

No. Yeah, your assertion is fake. So, that’s not what — I used to be requested very particularly…[S]omebody requested me a query yesterday, did we go in due to Israel?…And I mentioned, no, I informed you this needed to occur. Anyway, the President decided, and the choice he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to cover behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to cover behind its capability to conduct these assaults. That call had been made. The President systematically decided to systematically destroy this terrorist functionality that that they had, and we carried that out. I used to be very clear on that reply. This was a query of timing, of why this needed to occur as a joint operation, not the query of the intent. As soon as the President decided that negotiations weren’t going to work, that they had been enjoying us on the negotiations, and that this was a risk that was untenable, the choice was made to strike them. That’s what I mentioned yesterday. And also you guys have to play it. When you’re going to play these statements, you could play the entire assertion not clip it to achieve a story that you simply need to do, all proper?

After a query about one other of the left’s favourite narratives that Congress have to be allowed prior approval to any army motion they don’t like, Raju tried once more, however was denied in favor of a extra necessary query in regards to the well-being of Individuals within the area:

Reporter: “Was there a plan in place to evacuate Individuals earlier than the assault occurred?”

Secretary of State Rubio: “Properly, that’s the plan we’re making an attempt to hold out. The issue is, or the problem we face is airspace closures. If a rustic closes their airport — for… pic.twitter.com/T3abDWV2bw

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026

It was following this necessary reiteration of the necessity for stranded Individuals to contact the State Division did Rubio lastly enable Raju to strive (and fail) to play some type of journalistic superhero.

Someplace, Jim Acosta will need to have been proud.

To see the related transcript from the Rubio media availability on March 3, click on right here.