Marco Rubio recently advised ABC News that negotiating prowess was a key to understanding why U.S. President Donald Trump had been cozying up to Vladimir Putin despite Russia¡¯s brutal and unrelenting invasion of Ukraine.
¡°We have to bring them to the table. You¡¯re not going to bring them to the table if you¡¯re calling them names, if you¡¯re being antagonistic,¡± the secretary of state noted. ¡°That¡¯s just the president¡¯s instincts from years and years and years of putting together deals as someone who¡¯s in business.¡±
Rubio was grasping at straws, of course. He had sat idly by at the White House while Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave Ukraine¡¯s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a searing, reckless tongue-lashing in front of reporters and the rest of the world. The perils of name-calling and antagonism hadn¡¯t restrained Trump in that instance ¡ª hardly a surprise given his long-standing preference for flame-throwing whenever he has encountered lackluster obeisance.
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