MASTERCLASS: Marco Rubio SCHOOLS CBS Host When She Tries to Outsmart Him On Russia-Ukraine Negotiations

CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan got an absolute masterclass in foreign policy from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday.

Brennan thought she had it all figured out. In reality, she didn’t understand a thing.

Smugly, Brennan tried claiming that European leaders are joining Monday’s meeting Trump-Zelensky meeting in order to protect Zelensky from being “bullied.”

Rubio quickly tore that apart, slamming Brennan for pushing a “stupid media narrative” before setting her straight.

You’ve got to see this:

🚨 HOLY CRAP! CBS' Margaret Brennan thought she knew more about foreign policy and the Russia-Ukraine negotiations than Marco Rubio.

She didn't. He put her in her place. Rubio is a masterclass.

"No it isn't, that's not why…That's not true…No."pic.twitter.com/ZpZASCsFYQ

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 17, 2025

For those who prefer to read, CBS News has a transcript:

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelenskyy is going to be bullied into signing something away. That’s why you have these European leaders coming as back up tomorrow. Can you reassure them?

SEC. RUBIO: No, it isn’t. That’s not why they’re coming as back- that’s not true. No but that’s not, why, that’s not true. They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re not coming- in fact —

[CROSSTALK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well that February Oval Office meeting in front of television cameras, where President Zelenskyy was dressed down —

SEC. RUBIO: — Do you know how many meetings we’ve had since then?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Oh, no, I know. And I was just up in Alaska —

SEC. RUBIO: Yeah, but we’ve had a bunch of meetings since then.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: — watching the one with Vladimir Putin where a red carpet was rolled out for the Russian leader. It was very different–

SEC. RUBIO: — No, but it wasn’t Zelenskyy. We’ve had more meetings, we’ve had, we’ve had, we’ve had one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelenskyy. So that, but that’s not true. They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re coming here tomorrow because we’ve been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week. There were meetings in the UK over the following, the previous weekend —

MARGARET BRENNAN: — And they said the President Trump was going to demand a ceasefire —

SEC. RUBIO: — The President’s talked to these leaders as early as Thursday. No, no, but you said that they’re coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re not coming here tomorrow- this is such a stupid media narrative that they’re coming here tomorrow because the- Trump is going to bully Zelenskyy into a bad deal. We’ve been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come. We invited them to come. The President invited them to come.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the President told those European leaders last week that he wanted a cease fire. The President went on television, said he would walk out of the meeting if Vladimir Putin didn’t agree with him. He said there would be severe consequences if he didn’t agree to one. He said he’d walk out in two minutes. He spent three hours talking to Vladimir Putin, and he did not get one,so–

SEC. RUBIO: –Because obviously something, things happen during that meeting, well, because obviously things,look our goal here is not to stage some production for the world to say, oh how dramatic he walked out. Our goal here is to have a peace agreement to end this war. Okay? And obviously we felt, and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks to allow us to move to the next phase. If not, we wouldn’t be having Zelenskyy flying all the way over here. We wouldn’t be having all the Europeans coming all the way over here. Now understand, and take with a grain of salt, I’m not saying we’re on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow up meeting with Zelenskyy and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this. You talk about the sanctions. Look, at the end of the day, if peace is not going to be possible here, and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands, the President has that option to then come in and impose new sanctions. But if he did this now, the moment the President puts those additional sanctions, that’s the end of the talks. You’ve basically locked in at least another year to year and a half of war and death and destruction. We may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there. We want to wind up with a peace deal that ends this war so Ukraine can go on with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be assured that this is never going to happen again. That’s the goal here. We’re going to do everything possible to make that happen if it’s doable. It will require both sides to make concessions. It will require both sides to get things they’re asking for. That’s how these deals are made, whether we like it or not.

Once again, it’s a swing and a miss for Margaret…and, a home run for Marco!

Margaret is really the new Karen.

— Andrew 🇺🇸🍊 (@_AndrewMaga) August 17, 2025

If you care to watch Marco Rubio’s full appearance on Sunday’s Face the Nation, I have that for you right here: