Secretary of State Marco Rubio graciously went to the microphones just off the Senate subway ahead of a late Tuesday afternoon briefing for senators about the U.S. war on Iran and, in a wholly predictable development, was shouted at repeatedly like a drunkard by CNN’s Manu Raju, who tried to further peddle the liberal media-wide lie that Rubio had said Monday the U.S. was dragged into the war by Israel. Despite having yelled repeatedly at Rubio and even after other reporters had been called on, the secretary made Raju seat until the back-end of the media availability. Raju insisted “I want to just clarify what you said” Monday to many of the same reporters about the U.S.’s reasoning for striking Iran, but Rubio interjected to state “[t]here’s nothing to clarify” so long as “you’re going to read the whole statement.” BOOM: @SecRubio was not having any bit of the gotcha games from CNN’s Manu Raju.... Raju: “I want to just clarify what you said. I want to clarify what you said because you said —” Rubio: “There’s nothing to clarify.” Raju: “— you said — no, but you said —” Rubio: “No, but… pic.twitter.com/G39fJupZ7B — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 Raju had an agenda to push about a haphazard administration at war with itself, so he kept going: “No, but your quote is about, ‘we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would precipitate an attack on American forces[.]’” The CNN hack kept sputtering, so Rubio waged his finger and took back control by demanding Raju “let me answer because this is my press conference.” “I was asked a very specific question, so you guys can misrepresent it, but I was asked a very specific question yesterday. The bottom line is this. We — the President, determined we were not going to get hit first. It’s that simple, guys. We are not going to put American troops in harm’s way. If you tell the President of the United States that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have more people killed and more people injured, the President is going to go first,” Rubio explained. Rubio went on, arguing Trump was done negotiating with a regime stalling while “hiding behind these missiles and hiding behind these drones” and Iran could “reach a point where you couldn’t touch them, and then they could do whatever the hell they wanted with their nuclear program and there was no way in the world that this terroristic regime was going to get nuclear weapons.” Rubio did not directly address it, but there was also the intelligence angle that CIA intelligence located the Ayatollah and senior officials, thus cluing in Israel for the kill shot. Raju kept pestering: “So, the U.S. attack 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 same thing. In response, the secretary further explained “this weekend presented a unique opportunity to take joint action against this threat, and I’ve just outlined we wanted this to have maximum success” by “destroy[ing] their missiles and their missile launchers,” “their credibility to make” said weapons, and eliminate “their navy.” .@NewsNation’s @JoeKhalilTV: “[T]here’s a general question of why the President gave the green light. And then there’s a question of why did it have to happen this weekend? Are you saying it had to happen this weekend because of that Israeli action?”@SecRubio: “No, this weekend… pic.twitter.com/uQpKpqMddm — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 Ever the pest, Raju wanted round two and resulted in Rubio arguing the U.S. acted not because of Israel’s orders, but President Trump “act[ing] on the timing that gave us the highest chance of success” this weekend and in the days to come: CNN’s @MKRaju: “Would the U.S. attack have happened no matter what? Would the U.S. attack have happened no matter what Israel — Israel is planning to do?”@NewsNation’s @JoeKhalilTV: “Speaker [told us] Israel was going to act with or without U.S. —” Rubio: “The President had… pic.twitter.com/0HbZc0GPrJ — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 Having heard a reporter invoke the 2001 authorized use of military force to enter Afghanistan, an exasperated Rubio called out the purposefully obtuse press: .@SecRubio: “Listen, let me explain to you guys this in simple English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons. They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles and drones and terrorism,… pic.twitter.com/48p6bE5TMc — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 Since he wasn’t hectoring Rubio like Raju was, Khalil received the last question, which invoked “Democrats criticiz[ing]” Rubio for the justification of going to war. This triggered Rubio to closed with a masterful encapsulation of the way liberal critics operate and would on Tuesday: .@NewsNation’s @JoeKhalilTV: “Yesterday, several — several Democrats criticized what you said and argue that Israel —”@SecRubio: “Yeah, of course, they criticized. The question is several Democrats criticized — they’re going to always criticize. We’ve been doing this for years,… pic.twitter.com/NN5wnAxk75 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 Rewinding to the beginning, Rubio opened by encouraging the news media to publish the State Department contact information for Americans stranded in the Middle East and reiterating the U.S. military objectives. Raju then started shouting, but was denied by a female reporter on the other side of the gaggle, who also drew Rubio’s ire based on her statement that “[y]esterday, you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that’s why we needed to get involved” where as “[t]oday, the President said 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 said Israel dragged the U.S. into war with Iran.... Reporter: “Yesterday, you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that's why we needed to get… pic.twitter.com/AIKIbsrLBn — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 Rubio promptly schooled her and the other reporters, telling her “your statement is false” and reiterating we weren’t being led around by Israel. In reality, he asserted, “the decision [President Trump] made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program” and reporters “need to play the whole statement, not clip it to reach a narrative that you want to do” (click “expand”): No. Yeah, your statement is false. So, that’s not what — I was asked very specifically...[S]omebody asked me a question yesterday, did we go in because of Israel?...And I said, no, I told you this had to happen. Anyway, the President made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ability to conduct these attacks. That decision had been made. The President systematically made a decision to systematically destroy this terrorist capability that they had, and we carried that out. I was very clear on that answer. This was a question of timing, of why this had to happen as a joint operation, not the question of the intent. Once the President made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, that they were playing us on the negotiations, and that this was a threat that was untenable, the decision was made to strike them. That’s what I said yesterday. And you guys need to play it. If you’re going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement not clip it to reach a narrative that you want to do, all right? After a question about another of the left’s favorite narratives that Congress must be allowed prior approval to any military action they don’t like, Raju tried again, but was denied in favor of a more important question concerning the well-being of Americans in the region: Reporter: “Was there a plan in place to evacuate Americans before the attack took place?” Secretary of State Rubio: “Well, that’s the plan we’re trying to carry out. The problem is, or the challenge we are facing is airspace closures. If a country closes their airport — for… pic.twitter.com/T3abDWV2bw — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026 It was following this important reiteration of the need for stranded Americans to contact the State Department did Rubio finally allow Raju to try (and fail) to play some sort of journalistic superhero. Somewhere, Jim Acosta must have been proud. To see the relevant transcript from the Rubio media availability on March 3, click here.