Dem senators express regret over confirmation votes after Rubio backs Trump in Zelenskyy spat

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Jan. 20 to confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

Some Democratic senators who apparently mistook Rubio for someone they could count on to defy and subvert the president are now experiencing regret over their votes in light of their former peer's sustained support for President Donald Trump, particularly for his approach to Ukraine and its president.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance had a heated exchange in the Oval Office Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which resulted in the cancellation of the presidents' planned joint press conference as well as the signing of the proposed minerals deal.

Trump's admonishment of Zelenskyy in person and later on social media — over his perceived lack of gratitude, displays of disrespect for the U.S., and jeopardization of possible peace talks — found widespread resonance, and the incident made some of Zelenskyy's staunchest advocates, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), question their support.

There were, however, numerous critics who took umbrage with Trump's remarks regarding Zelenskyy.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and a handful of other Republican lawmakers joined Democrats, establishment media pundits, and foreign dignitaries in suggesting that Trump's remarks to and about Zelenskyy evidenced a desire to both abandon Ukraine and embrace Russia.

In the face of such critiques, Secretary of State Rubio defended the approach taken by the president Friday as well as Trump's suggestion that Zelenskyy was openly undermining efforts to bring about peace.

'It's unfortunate.'

Rubio told CNN's Kaitlan Collins just hours after the fracas that there was an understanding established in the days preceding the Friday meeting that the proposed minerals deal — which Zelenskyy could have signed several days earlier — amounts to a de facto security guarantee and that it was critical to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. However, the Ukrainian president ambushed Trump and Vance with a lecture "about how diplomacy isn't going to work."

"President Zelenskyy took it in that direction, and it ended in a predictable outcome as a result," said Rubio. "It's unfortunate. That wasn't supposed to be this way, but that's the path he chose and I think, frankly, sends his country backwards in regards to achieving peace, which is what President Trump wants at the end of the day — is for this war to end."

Rubio, who in the previous week defended Trump's "dictator" critique of Zelenskyy, suggested further to Collins that the Ukrainian president should apologize "for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became," adding that "there was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic."

Rubio later reiterated to ABC News talking head George Stephanopoulos that Zelenskyy understood ahead of the Friday meeting that peace is a prerequisite for security guarantees and that discussions of deterrents were pointless before negotiations.

"The question now is, 'Can we get them to a table to negotiate?' That's our goal. Don't do anything to disrupt that, and that's what Zelenskyy did, unfortunately — is he found every opportunity to try to Ukraine-splain on every issue. Then he confronts the vice president," said Rubio. "When the vice president says the goal here is diplomacy, [Zelenskyy] immediately jumps in and challenges the vice president. Well, what kind of diplomacy?"

"I really am puzzled why anyone thinks that trying to be a peacemaker is a bad thing. It's only a bad thing when it's Donald Trump trying to do it, when it's President Trump. It's absurd to me," added Rubio.

'It's very different from what Senator Rubio used to talk about.'

When asked by CNN talking head Dana Bash whether he made the right choice in voting to confirm Rubio, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) said, "Nope. It was a mistake. It was a mistake."

"I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this," continued Murphy. "I thought that when Donald Trump decided to do that, when Donald Trump would come to him and say, 'Help me move America closer to Russia and to Russian values,' Marco Rubio would stand up to him. Marco Rubio has not, and that's been a great disappointment to many of his former colleagues in the Senate."

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has been publicly expressing remorse over his Rubio vote for weeks, told "Fox News Sunday," "I regret that vote because as a member of the Senate, Secretary Rubio was somebody who stood up for American values, for American principles."

"He acknowledged that Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine. He realized it wasn't Zelenskyy who was the dictator," said Van Hollen. "And now he's simply taking his directions at the State Department from Elon Musk and essentially parodying the president's position, which I understand, but it's very different from what Senator Rubio used to talk about."

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