Follow-Up: Rubio Personally Denies Plans to Leave to Run for President: Serving Trump's Full Term 'Has Always Been My Plan'
Washington — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on November 5 personally denied reports that he is considering leaving the Trump administration to prepare a run for president, telling The New York Times in an interview that working for President Donald Trump until the end of his term has 'always been my plan.' The speculation followed the Republican Party's heavy losses in the midterm elections. Bloomberg News had reported earlier in the day that Rubio had discussed a possible departure with White House officials; State Department and White House spokespeople promptly branded the reports fake news, but Rubio himself had not commented publicly until now.
Asked about the reports, Rubio said: 'I don't know where these things come from, to be honest with you.' He said he loves the work he is doing, and joked that whenever people say he is going to leave his job, he wants to ask, 'Which one?' — he serves simultaneously as secretary of state and as the president's national security adviser. On the question of the 2028 presidential election, he declined to engage: 'I literally will not talk about 2028 anymore. I just won't do it.' Rubio said in May that he would support Vice President JD Vance if Vance runs for president.
White House spokesperson Beni Rae Harmony said in a statement the same day that the departure reports were 'a fabricated hoax being peddled by anonymous sources with no factual information.' Republican sources and British government figures cited by The Independent, meanwhile, still view Rubio as a leading candidate to succeed Trump. Rubio is scheduled to deliver his first major post-midterm speech next week at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention in Washington.
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国国务卿 Marco Rubio 出席七国集团（G7）涉乌克兰会议。美国国务院照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a G7 meeting on support for Ukraine. U.S. Department of State photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
