Rubio In Tense Exchange With Brennan Over Zelensky [WATCH]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sparred with Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on Sunday, accusing her of pushing a “stupid media narrative” when it comes to the Trump Administration’s handling of the war in Ukraine.

“You know, there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelensky is going to be bullied into signing something away. That’s why you have these European leaders coming as backup tomorrow,” Brennan said before being cut off.

“That is not true,” Rubio said, as the two spoke over each other. “But that’s not true, they’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied.”

Talking over Brennan, Rubio dismissed the notion that Zelensky needed protection from bullying and stressed that the White House and Ukrainian officials have held dozens of meetings since the infamous encounter.

“We had one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelenskyy… They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They are coming here because we’ve been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week… The President talked to these leaders as early as Thursday… This is such a stupid media narrative,” Rubio said. 

Watch the exchange above.

From Fox News:

President Donald Trump recently hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for a highly anticipated summit focused on ending the war in Ukraine. The conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, has resulted in an estimated two million casualties, including both military and civilian losses on both sides. Putin previously seized Crimea and backed Russian separatists in 2014. Trump has been working to secure a ceasefire in the war, often claiming it would never have broken out had he been president, and vowing he’d end the conflict on “day one” during his campaign.

The presidents failed to secure a ceasefire during the summit. However, both sides said they made good progress and planned to meet again.

Trump scheduled a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, with other European heads of state, to discuss what was agreed to at the summit and determine next steps.

Trump has signaled his intention to schedule a trilateral meeting involving himself, Putin, and Zelenskyy, or at least get the two warring leaders in the same room to negotiate an ultimate deal. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the concessions made at the summitwere substantial, particularly regarding Ukrainian security guarantees.

“We agreed on much more robust security guarantees, the Russians agreed on enshrining legislatively language that they would attest to not attempting to take any more land from Ukraine after a peace deal, where they would attest to not violating any European borders,” Witkoff said.

More over at Fox News:

Marco Rubio accuses CBS reporter of pushing ‘stupid media narrative’ in fiery clash over Zelenskyy https://t.co/dgJrOimihw #FoxNews

— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) August 18, 2025