U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
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Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Washington, D.C. Thomas Jefferson Room QUESTION: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week’s episode of The Katie Miller Podcast. We’re at the State Department today, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his beautiful wife Jeanette. SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s good to be with you, finally. QUESTION: I know. So excited. So you briefly just said you’d have a career in podcasting after this. SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t know yet. I mean, I’m going to see how this one goes and then we’ll play it from there. But it won’t be about politics. It might not even be about foreign policy. MRS RUBIO: Sports. SECRETARY RUBIO: Sports, yeah. College football, cultural things. QUESTION: You’ve joked about your career after politics. What do you think it would be? SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t know, obviously. I hadn’t even thought about that yet. But I love the sports stuff, so I’d be – I’d love to be involved in, like, the intersection of sports and culture. But basica lly, whatever pays the most. QUESTION: Anything to do the Fox News? SECRETARY RUBIO: (Laughter.) I’d like to do the commercials on Fox. That’s one of our inside jokes is I’m always – I always look at the commercials that are running on Fox, whatever they’re advertising, like a rain gutter or whatever, and I’m like, I think I could be the pitch – if I could line two or three of those, two or three of those alone, I’m probably set for a while. So I think I could be the pitchman, like, whatever William Devane is selling. (Laughter.) He’s got his big thing going. So I have my eye on that. We’ll see. QUESTION: Jeanette doesn’t do many interviews, so thank you for doing this. What did you think about his move from being a senator to Secretary of State? Were you on board the second he brought it up or did you take some convincing? MRS RUBIO: No, I was on board. I was because of everything that’s going on in our country. And so I was totally on board when he told me that this is something he was considering. QUESTION: What’s easier, being a Senate spouse or being the wife of the Secretary of State? MRS RUBIO: I think they’re both different. I would say being a Senate spouse is probably easier just because there were less events; there were things that I didn’t have to do, being now in D.C. But they’re both – they were both – they’re both great. SECRETARY RUBIO: You asked the wrong question. You have to ask which one was more fun. QUESTION: Which one was more fun? (Laughter.) MRS RUBIO: Being – now. Being a Secretary of State spouse. QUESTION: You get a lot of praise for how you hold yourself and the events that you’ve gone to with Marco. Most recently there was a viral moment where you handed him your phone in India. (Laughter.) MRS RUBIO: I did. I did. QUESTION: What other things does he carry for you besides your phone? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh, a lot of things. SECRETARY RUBIO: I’ve had makeup. MRS RUBIO: Yes, my makeup. Yeah, because those purses are so small, so you can’t fit a lot of things in there. SECRETARY RUBIO: But it looks weird. Like, if the outline comes out, you have, like, this – people think I walk around with, like, mascara and compact on my pockets. MRS RUBIO: Which is why I — SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s like, this guy is really vain. (Laughter.) MRS RUBIO: So I learned that I do it in public so he can’t say no. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. But I’ve been fully loaded. There’ve been times where I have a phone and then I have, like, the compact thing here and then the other makeup here and then the little crayon thing — MRS RUBIO: No, that’s not true. SECRETARY RUBIO: Not crayons, but the liner or whatever. MRS RUBIO: Not true. Usually it’s one or two things. QUESTION: Does he carry a ring light every so often? Is he a good photographer? MRS RUBIO: Oh, no. No, no, no. No. SECRETARY RUBIO: What do you mean, like cell phone photography? MRS RUBIO: Like — QUESTION: Yeah. Are you good at cell phone photography? SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, she has one of those light things too. Remember? I had one of those in my pocket one time. MRS RUBIO: I did, but I don’t ever really use it. SECRETARY RUBIO: And I thought it was like a foreign listening device. (Laughter.) Like, oh, my God, they bugged me, what is this thing in my pocket? And then I realized that was, like, a light you attach to your phone. But for about 10 seconds I thought I had been, like – a tracking device had been dropped in my pocket by somebody, so — QUESTION: What’s on your playlist right now? SECRETARY RUBIO: That’s a really good question. I haven’t been able to update my playlist, but I love – I say this like – people think whatever. I love a lot of electronic music because it fuses classical, increasingly it does country music. So I like a lot of the remixes of, like, songs that you’ve heard over the – there’s this EDM mix of Ring of Fire which is really good. So I like that stuff. So I listen to a little bit of everything except for, like – I don’t hate it, okay? I’m not against it. I’m not anti-country music, but that’s not my thing. She loves it. She loves country. MRS RUBIO: I love country music. I do. SECRETARY RUBIO: I think it’s just very sad. Most of the songs are about, like, somebody whose wife and dog left them and so — MRS RUBIO: Well, that’s not true. You need to listen to more Morgan Wallen and others because that’s not true. SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, some of the time, certainly. Some of them are good. QUESTION: So who picks the radio in the car, you or Jeanette? SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don’t have a radio in the car. She listens to radio, but I don’t have a radio in the car ride. MRS RUBIO: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: I can’t have a – I mean, because it’s – you’re always talking or you’re on the phone. But generally she’ll decide, irrespective of who’s driving, which violates one of the great rules of the universe, right? Like, the driver gets to – but not if you’re with her. She gets to decide what you’re going to listen to, and it’s — MRS RUBIO: That’s not true. You – you get – you put your music on as well. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: She says my music gives her a headache, so — QUESTION: Who’s your favorite rapper? SECRETARY RUBIO: Of all time? QUESTION: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, just from an artistic standpoint – and obviously, he never lived long enough to know what he would’ve turned into, but Tupac was very, very talented, I thought. And he was actually very talented, not just – people forget. I mean, he was, like, trained to be an actor as well. I think he went to, like, that school in New York or in Baltimore. I forgot exactly where he went to high school, but he went to a artistic high school, and you can see that later on when he played a number of roles in a number of movies over the years, including the one with Janet Jackson, that he was a good actor. He was a good lyricist in terms of the lyrics that he wrote. He left a lot of music, some of which has still not been released, that his family holds. So I thought he was a very talented person, primarily because I think he was a narrator more than anything else of a certain point of view and lifestyle, or upbringing and worldview. So I think of all time he’s probably my favorite. There’s a lot of other very talented people. QUESTION: Have you ever thought about your own rap name? SECRETARY RUBIO: Me? QUESTION: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I don’t think — QUESTION: Have you ever considered Lil’ Marco? SECRETARY RUBIO: What? QUESTION: Have you ever considered Lil’ Marco? PRESIDENT TRUMP: Little Marco, Little Marco. SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I haven’t. I haven’t thought about it. I mean, I wouldn’t be a good rapper, but I probably could be a good producer in terms of, like, identifying talent and so forth. But I don’t know, maybe not. But – but yeah, some of the modern – like, the younger people that are out there now I’m really not as familiar with because the whole hip-hop genre has changed quite a bit. And it’s not for the worse or the better, I’m just saying it’s changed. But the ’90s were great. The only problem with the ’90s is they all – they’re like – these people, like, were shooting at each other, like, for real. Like, it wasn’t just in their lyrics, especially when the whole Death Row thing and the East Coast thing developed over time. So I grew up in that era, and it’s a little different than it is now, even though some of these guys still get in trouble. But anyway — QUESTION: What’s life like as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor? SECRETARY RUBIO: Every day is different, right? MRS RUBIO: Yeah. QUESTION: So you wake up in the morning, and what happens when you’re both here in D.C.? SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it depends what time you wake up in the morning because the way the world is, like, sometimes you’ll – “wake up in the morning” means 2:30 because there’s something going on at, like – it’s prime time somewhere else. So sometimes that’s what wakes you up. It also depends, although we’ve been pretty busy on the national security front because of Iran and before that other things, but there’s no single typical day. Typically weekends are just a little slower, obviously but – and then the President has an insane work schedule. Like, he works every day, all day. You guys know that, too. So he doesn’t really have, like, days off or vacation time. There is really no slow time when it comes to national – international affairs. So no day is typical, but generally speaking, if I had to plan a day, I would start – I start here at the State Department in the mornings and then try to be over at the White House before or shortly after noon and when the President really gets humming. And then obviously – or sometimes in the mornings he does a lot of foreign leader calls, so I’m on a lot of those calls in the morning. Those are sometimes as early as 7:00 a.m. So — QUESTION: When you wake up at 2:30 in the morning, do you wake Jeanette up as well? And then what do you do during that time? Do you go back to sleep? SECRETARY RUBIO: No, she might hear the phone ring. Or she might hear it — MRS RUBIO: Yeah, I hear the phone ring but I don’t wake up. No. SECRETARY RUBIO: She doesn’t – no. All that — MRS RUBIO: He gets up when he needs. SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I’ll go to another room. I’m not going to – but – and that doesn’t happen every day. I don’t want to exaggerate, but it happens. And then sometimes the phone call is just to tell you can you go down to your classified phone or whatever so you can get the news from there. So then you know it’s, like, for real. So anyway. QUESTION: I don’t think most people realize that when you were a senator, Jeanette stayed back in Florida. What was that decision like, and how is that working now with his schedule? MRS RUBIO: So the decision was made because we figured we wanted to keep our kids with the same day-to-day routine and their environment and not change anything. So that was the compromise that we made. I think the kids are older now. They’re all graduated from high school and now they’re in school, in universities. So now it’s different. I mean, now it’s easier for me because I’m able to now be a part of more of what he’s doing, and I think it was the best decision. It was the best decision for our kids. I mean, he would come down also when he was a senator, down on weekends, and I think he liked it as well because it kept him grounded around his constituents, wouldn’t you say? And also see his family. QUESTION: What was he like as a dad of different stages? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. QUESTION: So what was your favorite — MRS RUBIO: He’s a prankster. He would prank my kids. QUESTION: What’s the best prank? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. He would do — SECRETARY RUBIO: But they would prank me. I mean, they’re pretty good at it too, so. MRS RUBIO: He would scare them. He would just hide. He would just go to any room and they would walk down the hallway and then all of a sudden he would pop out, and he was always doing things like that. SECRETARY RUBIO: The thing is if you scare your kids – I mean, okay, this is going to — MRS RUBIO: This is just weird. (Laughter.) This is weird. This is – this is not normal. SECRETARY RUBIO: Okay. But listen – listen to – if you scare your kids when they’re young repeatedly in the right settings – I’m not talking about, like, mortal death, mortal threat, but then over time they become desensitized to — MRS RUBIO: Or need counseling. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: No, no, no, no. None of my kids – they’ve become desensitized. So, like, nothing surprises them. And so — MRS RUBIO: Okay. Yeah, well, yes, they’re – they’re ready. SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. MRS RUBIO: According to Marco Rubio’s theory. But – but no, I mean, we had a lot of fun and we have four kids. They all had different personalities, and when Marco would come down it would cause a great stir. QUESTION: It’s been the summer of babies in the West Wing. What was Marco like when you guys were first having kids? Do you have any good stories for having babies? MRS RUBIO: He was good. He was good. When he – he would help me especially as they multiplied, right? So when – so I would get my sleep and he would put on the alarm, and he would – when he was doing his speeches he would wake up, he would get the baby, right, and he would feed the baby at night sometimes for me. I mean, the majority of the time I did it, but he would help me a lot. He did. That he was very good at. QUESTION: What was your favorite age of parenting? SECRETARY RUBIO: Look, there are times – like, you know when you’re on your phone, like, you’ll get those memory pictures that pop up? And I always tell people, like, I would give a lot of money for one more day, like just 24 hours of that era. And so that was fun when they were little because you remember that part of them. But I also enjoyed, especially with the boys in some respects, the sort of the adolescent high school years because they were involved in sports and I had a chance to be a part of some of that. So that was fun. But I think every stage, every season of life has its own – like, I always tell people one day you’ll look back at this and say these are the good old days, and that’s true of every stage. MRS RUBIO: It’s true. SECRETARY RUBIO: You look back at every time, and when you’re in the middle of it you don’t realize it. And then — MRS RUBIO: And it goes by so fast. It really does. SECRETARY RUBIO: Ten years from now, we’re going to be looking back at these times and say, oh, remember we were in Washington and the kids this, that, and the other. So I think you almost – probably one of the things that I learned over time is you try to appreciate the moment that you’re in right now, because that moment’s not going to come back. And every stage and every – every season of life has its things that you should enjoy. So I don’t know if I had a favorite. They were all very different. And it was easier when they were little because they kind of didn’t have schedules and you’d just scoop them up and take them where you’re going. MRS RUBIO: Yes. SECRETARY RUBIO: As they got older, they had activities and things they had to do. MRS RUBIO: And they wanted to do your – they wanted to do everything you were doing. QUESTION: Were the kids ever embarrassed of him? SECRETARY RUBIO: Embarrassed? MRS RUBIO: I don’t think so. I don’t – no. QUESTION: Because he tells a lot of jokes, right? Like, what’s your best dad joke? MRS RUBIO: No, but they have — SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t have – I don’t do dad jokes. My jokes are either good or – I mean, I don’t — MRS RUBIO: No, he doesn’t – he likes – no. He is a dad that would come home and, like, whatever the kids were going to do, he was going to do. Like, he loves scary movies, he loves those – and my kids, of course, I would say no to them, and he would say let’s do it. So that’s — SECRETARY RUBIO: Again, desensitization. MRS RUBIO: Exactly. (Laughter.) QUESTION: So who’s the strict parent? SECRETARY RUBIO: She is. MRS RUBIO: I am. QUESTION: What does he give in easily on when the kids were younger? (Laughter.) MRS RUBIO: Everything. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: Not everything, but — MRS RUBIO: No, I mean, obviously when – there’s boundaries, right? But I mean, for the most part he’s the one let’s them get away or do whatever they want. QUESTION: So what’s the family group chat like these days? Is it a bunch of, like, memes going back and forth? SECRETARY RUBIO: It is actually our kids generally making fun of each other. MRS RUBIO: Oh, yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: They’re very — MRS RUBIO: My kids banter a lot. Yeah, they – so everybody’s opining in something that’s going on. SECRETARY RUBIO: But my – the two middle ones. So my oldest one and my youngest one are not the greatest at bantering. I mean, they – it’s not natural, like they don’t naturally enjoy doing it. But my second one, Daniella, my daughter, and then my third, Anthony. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. SECRETARY RUBIO: Especially them two, but also just generally, to the point where it’s uncomfortable sometimes, the stuff they say about each other, to each other. So — MRS RUBIO: It’s fine. SECRETARY RUBIO: And which reminds me I’ve got to go back and delete all the stuff because I can’t say — MRS RUBIO: No, it’s not that bad. But it’s fine. It’s fine. I mean, this is – every stage has its great moments. And then, of course, as they get older you get sad, but at the same time you’re proud of them. QUESTION: What’s your favorite Marco meme? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh, I have – there’s so many of them. I don’t know. Obviously, the ones when he’s sitting on the chair, or the ones with the President and the Vice President. Those make me laugh as well. SECRETARY RUBIO: No, but you mean of the ones of me sitting in the chair. MRS RUBIO: I mean, the one — QUESTION: No, I get that. MRS RUBIO: There’s so many of them. QUESTION: There’s so many. MRS RUBIO: Right, yes. QUESTION: But which is your favorite? Of all the ones of him sitting on the couch — SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t keep track of them. Honestly, I don’t do a lot of social media, like, myself, but so I don’t just track that stuff, but people send them to me all the time. MRS RUBIO: Or even the baby ones, that – they make me laugh as well. SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, those – yeah, that baby thing, whatever. QUESTION: Did you see the WNBA one this morning? SECRETARY RUBIO: Somebody might have sent me that one. At this point it’s like – I think they’re running out of material. (Laughter.) But the truth is that – there – I don’t remember if there was, like, a favorite one. But some are very creative. MRS RUBIO: There’s a lot of them. It’s impressive what they can do. SECRETARY RUBIO: I know. Well, it’s not – I don’t know about – because it’s not you in the picture. MRS RUBIO: I feel like it’s impressive – (laughter). SECRETARY RUBIO: So anyway. QUESTION: What’s the most surprising thing about being Secretary that nobody warned you about? SECRETARY RUBIO: The interesting thing is – again, it’s the – it’s a different job, but when you’re in the Senate for 14 years doing foreign relations, you know a little bit about how the place happens and works. I think that the breadth and scope of the State Department, and power in particular, it wasn’t surprising. It was revealing to me because you sort of perceived it, but you didn’t realize, like, there’s a lot that other agencies do that requires the State Department to either okay or sign off on or initiate. And so I think that’s surprising to me. The other – I wouldn’t say it’s surprising, but I came to appreciate it more, is a lot of the customer service work we do, because people think of the State Department as, like, diplomacy, and it is. But we also do passports. We also help people all over the world in the consulates and embassies – American travelers somewhere and they get in trouble or have a bad situation, and we help them. So I think you come to appreciate, like, the professionalism of the people that do that work and how valuable it is, because for a lot of Americans their only interaction ever with the State Department will be the day they lose their passport, or the day they realize they have a cruise on Saturday morning and it’s Friday and they haven’t – they didn’t renew their – they didn’t renew their passport. So I think I’ve come to appreciate more that part of the job that the State Department does. QUESTION: You’ve mentioned that this job is a bit more fun than the last job. What’s been the most surprising part of that for you? MRS RUBIO: The amount of events they have. I mean, I wasn’t prepared for all the things that they do. QUESTION: What’s the best event you’ve been to? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh, there’s been so many. Obviously, the events that the First Lady and the President put together at the White House are wonderful. SECRETARY RUBIO: 250. MRS RUBIO: The 250. SECRETARY RUBIO: Those were crazy fireworks. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh, 250, those fireworks – I mean, they were spectacular. That was – I would say that was great. QUESTION: What’s life like in a typical day for you in D.C.? MRS RUBIO: Hmm, it depends. It depends whatever I’m doing. I mean, I’m working. So I’m working. I usually work, or I’m doing something with my daughter, or I’m doing something with Marco. QUESTION: What’s your neighborhood life like these days? SECRETARY RUBIO: Here? QUESTION: Yeah, your neighborhood. SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I live in a – on a – MRS RUBIO: On base. SECRETARY RUBIO: We rent a military house, so our neighbors are busy all day. They’re generals or people in the military, except for two doors down, Pete lives in the neighborhood so I see them sometimes. And – but there’s not a lot of neighborhood, like — QUESTION: I hear your dogs go over to their house. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh, yes. SECRETARY RUBIO: But not deliberate. So I have a dog – MRS RUBIO: We have two dogs. We have two dogs. SECRETARY RUBIO: We have three. MRS RUBIO: Two goldendoodles, yes. SECRETARY RUBIO: We have three. MRS RUBIO: Right, but one’s in Miami. SECRETARY RUBIO: One’s back in Miami, it was too much for her. MRS RUBIO: Right, and the other two are – right. SECRETARY RUBIO: So the other two are — QUESTION: Is it too much for her to be here? SECRETARY RUBIO: No, it’s just three dogs in a house is too much. QUESTION: Oh, okay. SECRETARY RUBIO: Plus I think it, like – it’s just hard to manage the three. So the one is back over there, and then we have the two. And we have one that’s really smart. These are goldendoodles, but this one is more poodle than doodle – than golden, so it’s very smart. MRS RUBIO: Than retrievers. SECRETARY RUBIO: Knows how to open the door. So one day, I think Pete and his family were just sitting around watching television, and they keep their front door open because they have cats, which I never took Pete for a cat guy. But cats. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: And so – and anyway, and my dog just walked into their living room and looked around, realized I’m in the wrong house, and turned around and walked out. So they’ve had some experience over there. But I think the dogs are attracted to his house because of the cats. They’ll never catch ‘em, but the – MRS RUBIO: So yes, he entered. He was sitting there watching TV, and he entered their house. And he’s like – they’re like, what is this? (Laughter.) And we were dying of embarrassment. But yes, so our dog does open the door, many doors. SECRETARY RUBIO: Now, the flip side of it is that one of Pete’s cats – oftentimes I’ll get home at night and the cat is just sitting on my porch and just looks at me, like, what are you doing here? (Laughter.) Like that kind of attitude about — MRS RUBIO: Well, it’s Jen’s cats. SECRETARY RUBIO: Jen’s cats. MRS RUBIO: It’s Jen’s and it’s the kids. The kids wanted animals so they ended up having cats. SECRETARY RUBIO: But the cat is a very arrogant cat. QUESTION: And there’s a lot of cats? MRS RUBIO: Yeah, yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s an arrogant cat. MRS RUBIO: I mean, they have, like, a lot of kids. SECRETARY RUBIO: To be honest, it’s a very arrogant cat. MRS RUBIO: There’s a lot of kids. SECRETARY RUBIO: Because the cat is on my porch acting, like, what are you doing in my house? And it’s like no, your house is two doors down. (Laughter.) But the cat just looks at you. It doesn’t even – usually a cat, you approach it and it takes off. This one does not take off running. MRS RUBIO: Yeah, he’s not scared of anything. SECRETARY RUBIO: He just sits there. The tail’s going on like this, and he’s just staring at you, like, what’s up? (Laughter.) And I’m like, this cat’s amazing. I don’t even know the name of this cat. MRS RUBIO: Oh, yeah. And not one – not one fear of the dogs. So — SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. QUESTION: Given that you’re from Florida, we’re going to run some – run through some Florida Man headlines. I’m going to quiz you if you think they’re real or fake. SECRETARY RUBIO: Okay. I’ll probably know some of these people, so let’s go. QUESTION: “A Florida man was caught on camera driving a lawnmower through Publix parking lot at 2:00 a.m.” SECRETARY RUBIO: At 2:00 a.m.? QUESTION: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t know if it was at 2:00 a.m., but I can see that happening. MRS RUBIO: Yeah. QUESTION: That one’s fake. SECRETARY RUBIO: But I would have done that. I mean, you’re talking about the ones you drive? QUESTION: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, yeah. I mean, they’re – I don’t know if they’re road-certified, but maybe he was stealing it. (Laughter.) QUESTION: “Florida man fights off alligator with fishing pole and a bulldog helps.” SECRETARY RUBIO: You really can’t fight an alligator off with a fishing pole. QUESTION: This one’s real. SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t – but he didn’t lose – he didn’t win that fight. QUESTION: Probably not. SECRETARY RUBIO: Okay. QUESTION: “Florida man accused of stealing more than $500,000 worth of onions and potatoes.” SECRETARY RUBIO: $500,000 worth? QUESTION: Yeah. MRS RUBIO: I don’t think that’s true. SECRETARY RUBIO: Was this when Biden was President? Because inflation was high, so maybe. (Laughter.) Okay. It’s true. QUESTION: It’s true. SECRETARY RUBIO: Okay. MRS RUBIO: Oh, wow. QUESTION: “Florida man who says he saw the Antichrist before I-75 crash tries to steal medical helicopter.” SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes, that’s absolutely true. QUESTION: Yeah, 100 percent true. MRS RUBIO: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, we – that happens to everybody. (Laughter.) QUESTION: “Florida man calls 911 because a pelican won’t stop following him.” SECRETARY RUBIO: True. QUESTION: Fake. SECRETARY RUBIO: I would call 911. QUESTION: Yeah, me too. Pelicans are scary. SECRETARY RUBIO: The pelican, yeah. That – well, not the – yeah, the pelican. They can be aggressive animals. People don’t realize that. QUESTION: “Florida man breaks” — SECRETARY RUBIO: Don’t ask me how I know about those pelicans. (Laughter.) QUESTION: “Florida man breaks into store with a chainsaw, steals $12,000 worth of Pokémon cards.” SECRETARY RUBIO: False. That can’t be true. QUESTION: Hundred percent real. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. Wow. SECRETARY RUBIO: With a chainsaw? QUESTION: Mm-hmm. SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, okay. QUESTION: What’s a conspiracy theory that you believe in? I’m asking both of you. SECRETARY RUBIO: A conspiracy theory that I believe in? Hmm. Well, I don’t – okay. It’s not a conspiracy theory, okay? QUESTION: Okay. SECRETARY RUBIO: And – but I have long been on this UAP thing, and now I’ve sort of surrendered that portfolio to someone else who you know well who’s very much in charge of the UAP issue. Just – again, it’s not – what I say is I don’t know who it is, I don’t know what it is, but there are things flying over our military installations and they’re not ours, and we should look into this, be serious about it. And I did that for a long time in the Senate, and it had two benefits. The first is that, obviously, it’s a legitimate topic. And the second is, whatever the news of the day was, it was controversial. And if a reporter comes up to you and you say to them, “Look, I don’t have time for these questions about politics. Do you realize there’s things flying over our airspace, we don’t know what they are?” And the reporter’s like, “Oh, what do you know? Tell me more.” So it was extraordinarily effective as a diversionary tactic in addition to. Now, that said, it’s also a very legitimate topic that we should be covering. So I don’t call it a conspiracy. I don’t know if I – I don’t know the answer to any of it. I’m just asking the questions about we should know what’s flying over our airspace. But I don’t think that’s a conspiracy theory as much as it is just – it can be, in some sense, because people do believe we’re covering something up. And I assure you, like, in this administration, if we knew, like, the President would be all over it. Like, there would be a primetime address. He would — MRS RUBIO: Oh, for sure. SECRETARY RUBIO: He’d be showing the pictures and the videos. But Stephen is on that case now, and I think he’s doing a great job with that. Do you hear a lot about it? QUESTION: He’s very excited. No, he says it’s classified. SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, okay. (Laughter.) QUESTION: I try. He’s like, “It’s classified.” SECRETARY RUBIO: She doesn’t believe in any conspiracy. QUESTION: What’s your conspiracy theory you believe in? MRS RUBIO: No, I’m not – no, I don’t really – I don’t really pay much attention to that, to be honest with you. QUESTION: We landed on the moon? MRS RUBIO: I believe that we landed. I mean, I do; I do believe that. SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, we landed on the moon. MRS RUBIO: I mean, I don’t believe in any of that stuff. SECRETARY RUBIO: I know there’s some people that — MRS RUBIO: I don’t pay attention to that stuff. Honestly, I don’t have – like, I’m doing my things with my kids. I don’t really — QUESTION: How do you decompress after a long day? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. I go to the gym. SECRETARY RUBIO: She doesn’t decompress. (Laughter.) That’s – she does not. It’s doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, all day until, like – right? And then she goes to sleep and she’s asleep in 30 seconds. It’s unreal. MRS RUBIO: It’s true. I am. I am. Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: And I’m, like, watching YouTube videos about college football or something else or — QUESTION: So what do you fall asleep to at night, YouTube videos? SECRETARY RUBIO: Sometimes. It depends, like – all right. So this – they have this stuff where you can put – like, it’s a dark screen and it sounds like it’s raining outside, and you hear thunder. You ever seen those? And they run, like, 12 hours. And those things are great, because — MRS RUBIO: They sell Hatch machines for babies. SECRETARY RUBIO: I know, but those can be – this is YouTube and this is perfect. And so it’s running, and then the only problem with these videos – because it’s like a dark screen, rain and thunder, and rain sometimes will make you sleepy if you listen to it the right way – is you got to pick the right one, because otherwise, like, four hours into the video some commercial pops up, and it wakes you up, and so — MRS RUBIO: Oh, no, yeah, he struggles with sleep, no doubt. So, like, for instance — QUESTION: So what do you fall asleep to? MRS RUBIO: I don’t – I can just — SECRETARY RUBIO: To closing her eyes. MRS. RUBIO: I just close my eyes and I’m asleep. QUESTION: You can? MRS RUBIO: I can. Yeah, I do. I just do my – I’m tired, and then I go to sleep. But what happens sometimes — SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. MRS RUBIO: — I’ll have some concern, and I’ll tell Marco it’s something with the kids or whatever, and he’s like, don’t tell me. I’m like, I have to tell you. And then of course he can’t go to sleep. He – that’s it. He’s pacing up and down. Then he’s calling the kids in the middle of the night. What’s going on? So then it’s — SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, so she can go to sleep in 30 – it’s a problem because, for example — QUESTION: So she’ll, like, dump on you, and then you stay up. SECRETARY RUBIO: No, but, like, at night she’ll be scrolling — MRS RUBIO: No, I stopped doing that, just because of that. SECRETARY RUBIO: She’ll be looking, like, at Instagram stuff at night, just videos about stuff or whatever. And so I’m half asleep, and all of a sudden some video pops up and it’s really loud and it wakes me up, and then that’s it. That’s another hour for me, an hour and a half. She, on the other hand, has – literally can put the phone down, close her eyes, 30 seconds later she’s asleep. MRS RUBIO: No, I’ll pray and then go to bed, and I’m done. So you should pray more. (Laughter.) QUESTION: What keeps you up at night? SECRETARY RUBIO: Everything. I mean, especially her phone. MRS RUBIO: Everything. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: Imagine you’re falling asleep, and all of a sudden a video comes up: “Hey guys! I’m here to” – you’re like, what? What happened? Who’s here? Who’s in my room? MRS RUBIO: Or I go, Marco — QUESTION: (Laughter.) Get ready with the — SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s crazy. So that — MRS RUBIO: And the thing is that you need complete silence in that room. So then of course, sometimes I’ll just start cracking up, whatever, and something will happen, and then he’ll get mad. SECRETARY RUBIO: Mad at the glow. It’s a scientifically proven thing, the glow of the screen. QUESTION: The blue light, yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: Right, will keep you up. And her phone is always, like, on the brightest thing, so the whole room is lit up. MRS RUBIO: That’s not true. SECRETARY RUBIO: And then you hear somebody screaming all of a sudden. MRS RUBIO: That’s completely exaggerated. Completely. Completely exaggerated. QUESTION: It’s very relatable. SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s a form of torture. Like, it’s banned in many countries. (Laughter.) You can’t keep people up at night, like, showing them videos. It’s like, “Look, look at Instagram.” MRS RUBIO: That is true. So, yes. It’s my passive aggressive way of when – when he decides to watch TV the whole day. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: I never watch TV all day. MRS RUBIO: No, I know. I know. I know. I’m just kidding. SECRETARY RUBIO: I wish, but I can’t. Okay. QUESTION: What’s your biggest irrational fear? SECRETARY RUBIO: Irrational fear? QUESTION: Yeah. SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t know if I have irrational fears. I think everything I fear is rational. QUESTION: This is going right to Iran and North Korea. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, you’re talking about at work or in life? QUESTION: No, I’m just joking. About life. SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t know, carbon monoxide poisoning, fire, stuff like that. I mean — MRS RUBIO: Oh, I would say fear of something happening to our kids or something like that. SECRETARY RUBIO: You know what I bought? I did buy this. Okay, I’ll say this. This is a – I can’t believe this, but okay. Have you seen this commercial and it’s, like, a plunger that you put on someone’s throat if they’re choking? MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. QUESTION: Yeah. MRS RUBIO: He bought one of those. SECRETARY RUBIO: The one that Ben Carson sells? I bought four of them. MRS RUBIO: He got one of those. Exactly. SECRETARY RUBIO: My biggest fear is I’m in a hotel room by myself halfway around the world and I choke on a piece of steak, and they find me the next morning; it’s like, “Oh, he died.” “How did he die?” “He choked on a piece of steak.” MRS RUBIO: It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. SECRETARY RUBIO: So I don’t travel with it. I should. MRS RUBIO: So much so that I used to have to cut our kids’ meat so small. SECRETARY RUBIO: People die of choking. It’s a thing that happens. MRS RUBIO: Yeah, but if — SECRETARY RUBIO: But this thing, you put it on their mouth and you go tsh-tsh, and there’s like a plunger, and it — MRS RUBIO: He sure did. He sure did. SECRETARY RUBIO: I’ve seen that. So I bought – there’s, like, two out there. One is Russian. QUESTION: So I’ll share with you my irrational fear of – I saw a TikTok video where the mom had the kid escape the house, because they were going to grandma’s house soon. So the kid opens the mom’s car door, because it leaves the car door unlocked; buckled himself into his car seat. She thankfully, like, had some, like, mom’s intuition, got her kid – it was like 100 degrees outside – and prevented a hot-car death. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. That’s so scary. QUESTION: So now, last night on Amazon I’m sitting there buying, like, the UnbuckleMe clips for my kids and keeping them right by in their cupholders, so they can unbuckle themselves out of the car. SECRETARY RUBIO: But you have to teach them how to use it. QUESTION: Yeah, they’re pretty – I mean, they can buckle themselves in. SECRETARY RUBIO: She has irrational — QUESTION: So now I take it, like — SECRETARY RUBIO: She’s telling you she doesn’t have any irrational fear. So Florida has a lot of canals, right? You know this. You’re from Florida. So she — QUESTION: Yeah, but do you have the window breaker? SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, she had the whole thing. She had the drill with the hammer, and how you break — MRS RUBIO: Yes. SECRETARY RUBIO: — the window if you go under the water. MRS RUBIO: Yes. SECRETARY RUBIO: And she had that whole — MRS RUBIO: I mean, that’s – okay, hold on. I – that’s just one. I don’t really – see, I don’t – he thinks about the worst things. I don’t. I don’t think of that. SECRETARY RUBIO: I think of the worst things because we used to do long drives with our kids and any – if there was a canal, like, near – all of a sudden the – she would bring it up. MRS RUBIO: No. SECRETARY RUBIO: She would leave the kit, like, out just at arm’s – I’d say, we can’t break windows here for the – but she had the whole kit. You break the window. But you – you know you have to be underwater completely. QUESTION: Is there any data, though, that – how many people have actually gone into the canals and then used the window breaks? Because, like, I grew up, too, like, just as scared with the window breaks. SECRETARY RUBIO: Right. I don’t know of anyone. I mean, I personally don’t know anyone that’s gone into a canal. QUESTION: Right. SECRETARY RUBIO: And so I don’t know how common that is, other than — MRS RUBIO: It’s not that common. You just open your window. I mean, I don’t think you have to have — SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, if it’s an electronic window, you’re stuck. Because if the electronic thing doesn’t work, now you’re in there, so that’s why you need the hammer. So I don’t know if it’s irrational, but she was prepared for that contingency. MRS RUBIO: No, my – I would say my fears are more based on my kids, truly; something happening to them or whatever. That’s what my fear were – was. And then, of course, sharks. (Laughter.) SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, sharks are not an irrational thing. QUESTION: No, sharks are very rational. MRS RUBIO: Of course. SECRETARY RUBIO: My – again, going — MRS RUBIO: Of course. SECRETARY RUBIO: I have a little nephew who was visiting us here yesterday, and he wanted to watch Jaws. I said, I have an even better movie than Jaws; Jaws is boring. Sharknado. MRS RUBIO: Oh, my gosh. It was such a ridiculous movie. Such a – who puts that for kids? QUESTION: (Laughter.) Sharknado. Tornado – hurricane brings the – like, the shark to the shore? MRS RUBIO: It was awful. SECRETARY RUBIO: There’s a Sharknado – I think it’s number three – that’s in Washington, D.C. (Laughter.) And the sharks are in the White House, and there’s a president that’s shooting at them, and all that. And which all sounds crazy, but now you could see — MRS RUBIO: And then — SECRETARY RUBIO: Actually, there’s a scene where the sharks are in the Reflecting Pool, in the Sharknado movie. (Laughter.) This is 10 years ago. So I’m like, man, I’ve got to show this to the President. We might – we might have a future here for people. (Laughter.) And can you imagine if there’s sharks in the Reflecting Pool? Oh, my gosh. Anyway. (Laughter.) This whole thing’s off the rails. You’re not going to be able even to air this thing. MRS RUBIO: That movie is crazy. It’s crazy, but yeah. QUESTION: How often do you talk to President Trump? SECRETARY RUBIO: Every day. Multiple times. QUESTION: What’s been the latest at night and the earliest in the morning? SECRETARY RUBIO: Early in the morning? He’ll start working the phones at or around 6:00 a.m. And at night? I don’t know, 2:00, 2:30, maybe. So – that I can recall. But I don’t think there’s – I mean, if he’s working on stuff, he’s working on it. But I would say probably the latest I can recall, like, fielding a call from him is around – shortly after 2 o’clock, and probably the earliest is before – just after 6:00. QUESTION: What’s the best joke he’s ever told you? SECRETARY RUBIO: The best joke? He’s not like a – people – he’s funny, but he’s not a joke teller, right? Like, he’s not – he just – he tells – he’s a great narrator. And he’s got incredible – people don’t realize, like, he’s been a public figure for almost half a century. Like, he has – he met a lot of people, and he’s gotten to know a lot of people over the years. And so he has great stories going back to, like, celebrities in the ’80s and people he interacted with and people he was around. So I don’t know of one in particular that stands out, but I’m fascinated by these stories because some of these are stories that go – I mean, he knew Michael Jackson. He knew – he knew everybody. He knew everybody at some point or another. He had interacted with everybody. He’s just got great stories. If you ask him about somebody, he’ll go back and tell you about them. And it’s a pretty amazing life he’s lived. QUESTION: When he approached you to be secretary of state, is that something you were seeking or did that just happen? SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I don’t know if “approach” is the right term. He just basically called me and told me, you’re going to be the secretary of state. (Laughter.) It wasn’t presented as, like, an option – (a) you can stay in the Senate, or (b) you can — QUESTION: And you said okay. Did you think about it? SECRETARY RUBIO: Not really. I mean, I think I’m – there had been some sense that that – something like that could happen. But it was the middle of the campaign and I wasn’t going to raise it, and he wasn’t going to talk about it. But I think it was maybe, like, 48 hours after – or maybe 72 hours – it wasn’t long after the election. He just basically called me and said, hey, this is what – I think he had even already Truth-posted it, and then he told me about it. So it was – (laughter) – and I was happy to do it, and I was honored to do it. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying it generally wasn’t presented as, like, “Hey, would you be interested in…” It was more like, “Hey, you’re going to be,” and I said okay, here we go. QUESTION: You’ve been one of the toughest voices on Cuba forever. We captured Maduro out of Venezuela. Is Cuba next? SECRETARY RUBIO: I think Cuba – I am confident that Cuba, by the time this administration’s over, before this administration ends, will be on an irreversible path towards a much different future. Obviously, like anything else, especially something like this, I always tell people, like, you can’t have something in place for 70 years, it grows roots, and then think overnight you’re just going to rip out the whole thing and put something brand-new into the ground. There’s a transition that has to happen and a process to get there. Eastern Europe is instructive of that. You saw it took countries in Eastern Europe three to five years to truly become what we know them to be today. Poland is probably the best example. So I think Cuba will be on that path, well along that path. It has to be. But certainly under this administration, given the priority it’s given Cuba, I – I – like, you never guarantee anything, but it’s certainly a priority for us because it’s in our national interest. I remind people, at the end of the day, like, I work for the United States of America. I care about Cuba, obviously I have a personal connection to it, but I don’t work for Cuba; I work for the United States. And I believe it’s in the national interest of our country to have a Cuba that’s safe and stable and aligned with the U.S. – the same feeling I have about Venezuela as well. QUESTION: When the Maduro raid happened, what was it like leading up to that? What was he like? Was he nervous? What was the vibes? SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, she didn’t really know. She knew something was up, but she didn’t know. MRS RUBIO: Yeah, I knew something was going on just based on, I mean, he was constantly in and out; we didn’t do anything during the holidays. So I knew something was going on, but I didn’t know exactly what it was. QUESTION: When there’s big things going on in the world, can you often tell based on how his demeanor changes, or is he pretty calm, cool, and collected? MRS RUBIO: I don’t know. That’s a good question. I think I just see him busier. I just see him more on the phone. He’s just – he’s thinking. But he’s – I would say he’s cool and collected. I mean, I – that’s – I wouldn’t say he isn’t, but — QUESTION: You said to Lara Trump if you had a day off that you would watch football all day. SECRETARY RUBIO: I answered the question completely wrong. QUESTION: (Laughter.) Why? SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, first of all, the true – the right answer is I would spend it with my wife going wherever she wants to go. (Laughter.) MRS RUBIO: Oh, yeah, okay. What a beautiful answer. SECRETARY RUBIO: But the true answer is – and I – here’s where I messed up that answer, okay? Because here’s the thing: The day would actually start much earlier. The greatest show on television today in America is College GameDay. Great show. Starts around 10 or 11, and that leads into noon, and then the noon game, and then there’s a 3:30 game, and then there’s a – so I messed – and the ideal – like, this is a crazy weekend; it would never happen. So I’m just putting this out there. But you could start at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, run the whole college football day, sleep for a few hours, then you wake up and then you’re into NFL GameDay, then you’ve got the 1 o’clock game, the 4 o’clock game, the NBC game that night. That is an incredible weekend, in my opinion, in my view. Obviously, I don’t believe that will ever – I will ever achieve this; certainly not in the next two and a half years or what have you. But – and your audience probably doesn’t care anything about what I just said, but I’m just telling you that that would be a crazy day. But that’s never going to happen. Right? Maybe? MRS RUBIO: Well, you never know. SECRETARY RUBIO: You never know. QUESTION: Would you be okay with him watching that much football, or do you sit with him and watch the football, or are you off doing something else? SECRETARY RUBIO: No, she doesn’t watch. MRS RUBIO: No, no. I don’t. I mean, I’ll sit and watch some, but no. SECRETARY RUBIO: She’ll watch a game if my son is in the game. MRS RUBIO: Exactly. SECRETARY RUBIO: The one that’s at Florida. MRS RUBIO: Exactly. SECRETARY RUBIO: Or – that’s about it, actually. (Laughter.) That’s about it. MRS RUBIO: No, no, I probably would go and do some activities. QUESTION: How long did it take for you to figure out the State Department? SECRETARY RUBIO: Figure out the State Department? QUESTION: Yeah. Like, navigate it, figure it all out, unpack it all. SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think that’s still a learning process. I mean, along the way we’ve also done a – what I think was a very important reorganization of it, to bring it back more to its core principles. I think we did a lot of things that previous secretaries of state – many of whom will never admit it – wish they could have done in terms of, like, bringing foreign aid together with foreign policy so that they’re both pushing in the same direction. QUESTION: Did any of your predecessors give you advice coming into the job? SECRETARY RUBIO: A few. I mean, I don’t know “advice” is the right term; I think they gave me their impressions. But I think so much of what we do here is dependent on the times in which you live. If you were secretary of state in the middle of the Cold War, or secretary of state post-9/11, that’s a very different world from what we’re facing right now. So I think there’s some things they can give you advice on in terms of, like, how they managed their schedule and how – but ultimately the secretary of state works for the president. And so a lot of what you do in this job, and what this place does, should be geared and aligned and built around what the president – who the president is. And so a – a Department of State under President Trump is – should look different than it looks under the next president, what it’s going to look like under the next president, or previous presidents. It should be a reflection of the foreign policy direction that the current president wants to take it. QUESTION: You’ve been married for nearly three decades. What’s the secret to a happy marriage? MRS RUBIO: You answer the question. SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don’t know that there’s a secret. There’s no secret. QUESTION: No, Jeanette smiled first. SECRETARY RUBIO: No, there’s no secret. I mean, it’s no – there’s no secret to it. It’s — MRS RUBIO: You have to have a friendship. I would start at that. You have – I would just say it starts with your faith, for me, and that’s a very important thing, and I think for Marco too, right? SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. MRS RUBIO: And then — SECRETARY RUBIO: Compliance, for the husband. (Laughter.) MRS RUBIO: No, please. (Laughter.) I would say, truly, just have a friendsh
Secretary of State Marco RubioWith Katie Miller of The Katie Miller Podcast