Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of his bluntest defenses yet of President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran Tuesday, sharply rejecting criticism and describing the regime as ‘lunatics’ as he argued the president acted at the right moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
‘Let me explain to you guys this in simple English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics,’ Rubio told reporters.
‘They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons,’ Rubio said. ‘This is the weakest they’ve ever been. Now is the time to go after them.’
Rubio said Trump made the ‘right decision’ to dismantle Iran’s military capabilities before they could shield a nuclear program.
‘The president made the decision to go after them, take away their missiles, take away their navy, take away their drones … so that they can never have a nuclear weapon,’ Rubio said.
He acknowledged ‘there will be a price to pay,’ but argued it would be far lower than allowing Iran to become nuclear-armed.
‘That is a much lower price to pay than having a nuclear armed Iran,’ he said.
Rubio grew visibly sharper when pressed on whether Israel dictated the timing of the operation.
‘Your statement is false,’ he told one reporter who suggested the U.S. acted because Israel was about to strike.
Rubio confirmed Monday that Israel was prepared to act independently.
‘We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,’ Rubio said. ‘And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them … we would suffer higher casualties.’
He emphasized Tuesday that the decision ultimately rested with President Donald Trump.
‘The president determined we were not going to get hit first,’ Rubio said. ‘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.’
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after a classified briefing that Israel was ‘determined to act … with or without American support,’ and that U.S. officials concluded ‘a coordinated response was necessary.’
‘I am convinced that they did the right thing,’ Johnson said.
Despite Rubio’s harsh rhetoric toward Iran’s clerical leadership, administration officials have emphasized that the mission is not aimed at overthrowing the regime but at dismantling its military capabilities.
Rubio repeatedly framed the operation as focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers, drone capabilities and naval assets.
‘Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,’ he said. ‘It cannot have the things it was hiding behind to have a nuclear weapons program.’
So far, U.S. and Israeli strikes largely have targeted missile infrastructure and military facilities. Officials have not indicated that nuclear enrichment sites have been the primary focus of the campaign.
Some Democrats questioned whether the administration demonstrated an imminent threat to the United States.
‘There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. It was a threat to Israel,’ Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said after the briefing. ‘We equate a threat to Israel is the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States. Then we are in uncharted territory.’
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said after the classified briefing, ‘I have no idea what the objective is, and I didn’t get any additional clarity.’
Rubio brushed aside the criticism, predicting opponents would emerge from briefings claiming they ‘didn’t hear anything’ while insisting the administration complied with congressional notification requirements.
‘This is an action by the president to address a real threat,’ Rubio said. ‘The world will be a safer place when these radical clerics no longer have access to these weapons.’