QUESTION: Let's bring in the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining Fox and Friends this morning.
QUESTION: Thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Good morning.
QUESTION: So Mr. Secretary, we were hoping that you can give us a preview. Apparently, the President wants his famous message of peace through strength today at the UN. What do you anticipate him saying?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think one of the things the President is going to have to address, and is going to address, is the UN itself, and that is: Why do we still have a UN? It has tremendous potential. The UN is an organization that has the potential to do some great things around the world, but it's not doing it. If you look at Russia and Ukraine, you have a war going on there. It's the President that's been carrying the burden of trying to bring it to an end. The UN is playing no role. If you look at what's happening in Gaza with Hamas and everything that's happened there with Israel taking them on, what role is the UN playing? None.
We're going to try here in the - even close to home in the Western Hemisphere, in a place like Haiti that's been overrun by gangs that control that country and has destabilized the region, the U.S. is asking for the UN to step up and play a very important role. We have a lot of support, but it looks like China might stand in the way of this effort to bring that about. The UN will play no role if they do that.
So I think what the President is going to do is challenge the UN to find its meaning and its purpose and its utility as an organization, because it doesn't seem to be doing the job and it's pretty good at spending a lot of money. I think the - you can anticipate the President will point to his own history with the UN going back to his time here as a developer, where he actually offered to fix the UN building, and instead they chose to go in another direction, wasted a bunch of money, and really didn't achieve on the building's perspective what needed to happen. And I think it's emblematic of how feckless the UN has become as an organization; it's just a place where once a year a bunch of people meet and give speeches and write out a bunch of letters and statements, but not a lot of good, important action is happening.
So again, the UN has a lot of potential but it's not living up to it right now.
QUESTION: So the Turkish leader Erdogan sat down with Bret Baier yesterday. We got two topics to talk to you about that, one of which was asked about the war in Russia. He's basically - he's indifferent, he likes both guys. And in Gaza. But he seems to take a shot at President Trump. Listen:
PRESIDENT ERDOGAN: (Via interpreter) I can only say this: Mr. Trump, you might remember, he used a term when he said I will finish the Russia-Ukraine war. Did it end? It still goes on. Similarly, he said I will finish the war in Gaza. Did it end? No. That means once we start analyzing the issue, there are prices to pay. And when we look at the hostage exchange, that was done. It goes on.
QUESTION: So he says the President doesn't get it done. This is a NATO Ally. Your thoughts.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, I didn't hear the entirety of the interview. I can only tell you that on both of those issues - on the case of Russia-Ukraine, the only leader in the world that has any chance of bringing it to an end is President Trump, and which is why he has put more time and energy into it than anybody else. All of these other countries, including Türkiye by the way, are begging us to be involved. They want us to be involved. Look, these people go out and say what they want to say, but at the end of the day when they want something done, they come - they want to come to the White House. President Erdogan is coming to the White House this week to meet with the President. They all come to the White House, they all want to speak to President Trump, they all want President Trump to fix it.
So they can say whatever they want to say. The truth of the matter is that we have leaders - we have meetings going on today that we have leaders begging to be a part of it. They are calling and saying: Can we be included? Can you bring us in? Can you get me five minutes to shake the President's hand? He is the indispensable leader in the world right now. He is the only one who has any chance of not just brokering a deal to end the war with Russia and Ukraine, but also bringing about the war that's going - and getting all the hostages released in Gaza.
And I think he has put more time and energy into peace proposals and peace initiatives than anybody else in the world, and he's had the most success of anybody else in the world. He doesn't get a lot of credit, but let's not forget the DRC and Rwanda had a war going on; it's the President that's brokered that. Azerbaijan and Armenia - it's the President that brought that about. Thailand and Cambodia - it's the President that brought the end to that about. India and Pakistan.
That's just four right off the top of my head in the last few months. And the President is the one that did that, not any other leader in the world and not the UN.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Fox is exclusively reporting that Hamas wrote a letter directly to President Trump asking for a pause in fighting for 60 days in exchange for half of the hostages. Do you know if this letter has been delivered yet, and will the President entertain this idea?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I don't know who they gave that letter to. It wouldn't have mattered, though, because the President has been clear, and that is that we haven't seen the letter, we don't have that letter, and even if we did, it wouldn't matter. The President has already made clear he's not interested in 60 days, 10 people. He wants all the hostages out, all 48, including the 20 who are alive, the 28 who are deceased. He wants them all out.
There should have never been any - why are we even talking about hostages? Why do we still have to talk about hostages at this point? There shouldn't be any. They should all be released immediately, period. That's the President's position, and so he would have rejected that offer had it come, but we haven't seen that letter. I think they gave it to the media or somebody, but they haven't given it to us.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the President sent a final warning to Hamas. What does that mean?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I mean, you've got Israel is right at the doorstep of Gaza City. I mean, they've begun an operation to go in. And all of the leaders of Hamas, all of the main leaders inside of Gaza and Hamas, are all concentrated in Gaza City. It may take a while, but they're not going to survive the Israeli push.
Now, what we would hope to see is that it doesn't have to happen because Hamas surrenders, they lay down their arms, they release all the hostages, and then the important work of sort of rebuilding Gaza and providing a place where Palestinians can live prosperously and peacefully - that work can begin. But that work can't begin until the hostages are released and Hamas no longer exists. And so the sooner that happens, the sooner peace will begin.
QUESTION: I want to make sure to get this in because I know your time is tight. You were brilliant, as in so many speakers, saluting the life of Charlie Kirk. Here's a little of the moments a lot of people are talking about. Watch:
SECRETARY RUBIO: Because he took on that death, because he carried that cross, we were freed from the sin that separated us from him. And when he returns, there will be a new heaven and a new Earth, and we will all be together, and we are going to have a great reunion there again with Charlie and all the people we love.
QUESTION: It looks like that was coming from the heart, not the prompter. Can you bring us back to that moment?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, Charlie - I think what makes this situation so unique is that Charlie Kirk wasn't just a figure involved in American politics and political discourse. Charlie was a friend to a lot of people in the White House and a lot of people in this administration, like on a personal level. He is someone that I had just been interacting with just a few days before he died, because he had just - he was in South Korea and was eager to come back home and tell me what he had seen while he was there. And a lot of other people - the Vice President was very close to him personally. A lot of members of the staff. It's just - so I think it adds a new element to this.
Obviously, this is a major story, a horrific tragedy before everyone in the age of social media. Everyone saw it instantly. And so I think it impacted people across the country. But I think it had a particularly special impact, in addition to all of that, because of the personal connection here. And I thought that on Sunday was a very unique opportunity for many of us not just to pay tribute to the life that Charlie Kirk lived, but the way he lived it and the core of his message. And his faith was at the core of his message.
I think Charlie, if he was here with us, would here - to say that politics is important, what we do in government is important, these debates on issues are important, but the most important thing of all is our faith and our family. And that - and Charlie lived that, and he believed it, and it was at the core of his message. He had an extraordinary amount of wisdom for a 31-year-old young man. He really did. I mean, it usually takes a lifetime to acquire the kind of wisdom that he had.
QUESTION: Mm-hmm. And the President did a beautiful job speaking there, and so did his wife. The President - what is his reaction? What's the administration's reaction about our allies? We have France, we have the UK, we have Australia and Canada recognizing the Palestinian state. What does that say about our influence?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, these countries are doing it, frankly, because of domestic political pressure in their own countries, because of migration policies or countries have been flooded with foreigners who have become politically active and are insisting that their governments do these sorts of things. And so that's what they're responding to.
But look, it's irrelevant. It's going to get a little bit of attention, but there is no Palestinian state. You can put all the - it's kind of emblematic of what the President says about the UN. You can put out all the paper in the world you want. The only way there's ever going to be a permanent solution to this challenge between Palestinians and Israelis is a negotiated settlement, one in which the Palestinians are going to have a territory and they're going to govern it, but it cannot be one that's going to be used as a launchpad for attacks against Israel. And that's something that has to be negotiated with Israel. It isn't going to exist without Israel's participation. That's what these leaders should have spent their time working on: ending this war, eliminating Hamas, so you can get to that stage of talks about that topic.
But for them, and for some of them in particular more than others, it's sort of a vanity project that's trying to make themselves relevant. But here's the bottom line and here's the truth, okay? When it comes to actually getting peace done, when it comes to actually stopping this, they're not going to any of these other countries.
QUESTION: Of course.
SECRETARY RUBIO: They're coming to us. They're going to President Trump and they're asking him to get involved and bring it to an end. You just asked me about a letter to - from Hamas. Hamas didn't send a letter to France. Hamas didn't send a letter to any of these countries on your list. Hamas apparently, supposedly, sent the letter to President Trump. Because everyone knows - even an evil group like Hamas - that he is the only one with the power and the influence to make something happen.
QUESTION: It's such a good point. And I don't want to put you in a bad position, but do any of these countries ever tell you why they're not willing to accept any of the refugees that's coming from Gaza, from the Palestinian Authority? Because we hear publish (inaudible) sometime —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Sure they tell me.
QUESTION: What do they say?
SECRETARY RUBIO: They say: Well, we can't take any more people, we already have too many. They say, frankly, what any country should say, which is - in fact, I think if they - they won't say it publicly.
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: But they'll say it privately. And not just these countries in Europe. I mean, the countries in the Middle East.
QUESTION: Egypt.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Look, it's not like every country in the Middle East is raising their hand and saying: Okay, we'll take 100,000 refugees. It goes back to the migratory debates we've had in this own country. I mean, every country in the world thinks open borders is crazy. Egypt does not have open borders; Jordan does not have open borders; Europe does, or has had for a long time. But none of these countries in the - most countries in the world do not have open borders because it's crazy. It's lunacy. And only we had that under President Biden, and now that's been fixed. And I think the President will point to that in his speech today. America had a migratory crisis unlike any in the world, and we fixed it very quickly under President Trump.
QUESTION: All right. Real quick, Mr. Secretary. What are you going to do about the Russian breaches into NATO territories? They need a muscular response. I haven't seen any.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, NATO is responding the way it should. If a drone comes in over your airspace, you shoot it down. That happened. We've seen flights - and this is not new, by the way. This has happened - maybe not at the frequency we've seen, but a Russian jet or a Russian bomber goes into your defense zone. You send your planes up there to intercept it. That's been happening. We've had to do that off the coast of Alaska repeatedly in many cases.
So NATO is going to respond. Yesterday at the United Nations, his first day on the job, Mike Waltz, our new ambassador here, spoke at the Security Council. He made clear our position, which is that when it comes to NATO, we're going to defend every inch of it. It's an important Alliance. We had the best NATO summit maybe in history just a few months ago in which, with President Trump there, all these countries made their 5 percent pledge except for one, Spain, who doesn't want to do it. But - and you know what? At the end of the day, that - so that issue is what it is.
On the Russia-Ukraine war, look, no one has worked harder or done more to bring this to an end, and it appears Putin may not be serious about peace. The President has expressed his deep disappointment about it, and he knows what his options are at some point here to have to impose additional costs, but he's also said that before we do that, Europe needs to do it. They're demanding all these things of us, and yet you have countries in Europe still buying massive amounts of oil and natural gas from Russia and funding and fueling the Russian aggression campaign. So I think it's important for them to step up.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you so much.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir.
QUESTION: All right, get stuff done. Thanks, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
