Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “It’s Called Surrender”

As we took to the air this morning, we knew that President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky had agreed to meet today in the Oval Office. It was certainly good to see the momentum continue after Friday’s meeting with Putin. While it’s fair to say that the Alaska summit had its ups and downs, it was encouraging to see that all sides were willing to talk. Which was really the goal on Friday, and likely today as well. Could Trump even get these men to sit down and talk? The answer appears to be yes.

Unsurprisingly, the mainstream press labeled the Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin a “flop” because there wasn’t an immediate end to the Russia-Ukraine war. If the media had actually done its homework, it would have known the meeting was never intended to be a traditional peace talk.

The meeting with Putin was to get everyone on board so they can work toward Round 2. That’s how negotiations work. With every round, you hope for measurable progress until eventually you have a peace accord. But, of course, that’s not how the media chose to spin it.

For example, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the media rounds, he was pressed by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, who immediately and disingenuously framed the meeting as a failure, and even accused the U.S. of accepting Russia’s violent actions and land grabs.

That seemed like an uninformed take at best, to which Secretary of State Rubio retorted: 

This is about what Ukraine can accept and what Russia can accept. They both have to accept it. Otherwise, there won’t be a peace deal, okay? If there aren’t concessions, if one side gets everything they want, that’s called surrender. That’s called the end of the war through surrender, and that’s not what we’re close to doing because neither side here is on the verge of surrender or anything close to it.

Secretary of State Rubio was right. You can’t go back in time. If you want the war to end, you have to accept where we are, and both leaders must sit down together and determine the best outcome for both sides to move forward.

We were joined by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Ric Grenell, who offered his expert analysis: 

Anyone who thinks that you can have one meeting and immediately have a ceasefire has never done diplomacy. This is what the microwave generation likes. They want it instantaneously, but it’s very difficult to bring about peace after you have a full-fledged war, and I will remind everybody that Donald Trump kept the peace, and that is just as difficult. Keeping the peace is very difficult, but once you delve into war, you have to dig yourself out.

Joe Biden handed us a terrible situation where he was unwilling to talk to the Russians, and we saw massive war. It was getting worse every single month, and then suddenly, President Trump came into office, and the media was like, Why aren’t you producing a ceasefire? Well, if it were easy, Joe Biden would have done it. . . . It’s very political. It’s what politicians do. They don’t hold people of different parties to the same standards.

Fortunately, today’s meeting signals a positive direction for all parties involved. It’s a sign that President Trump’s work has gained momentum. And as Ric pointed out, this White House is committed to ending this war:

Remember, Joe Biden put us in a terrible position by creating hostility with Russia, not talking with Putin. So we have to now build a little goodwill. We have to be able to make sure that both sides understand that we want peace. . . . The middle guy is going to be the hard negotiator. It still is all about Ukraine and Russia, but the facilitator, President Trump, is somebody who has an enormous role by pushing, prodding, and also letting them know that we’re listening. And we want a solution.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of the announced meeting between Trump and Zelensky, including more inside analysis from Ric Grenell, as well as my brother, ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow, and what they both think could be the result of today’s meeting. 

Watch the full broadcast below: