Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat down with Fox News Lara Trump for an extensive discussion on his role and responsibilities in the Trump administration.

In the second segment, Rubio actually touched on something many have been curious about regarding his changed perspectives and positions.  It is still annoying that no one has ever asked him directly, ‘why have your views changed so dramatically in the past two years, and/or are you just playing a role.‘

The two video segments and transcript are below:

[Transcript] – QUESTION: Secretary, great to have you back. Thank you so much.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Glad to be back. It’s been a while.

QUESTION: Yeah. There’s so much to talk about, but I want to start with Cuba.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: This has been of particular interest to the State Department right now. You guys released a 100-page report on Cuba, calling it, “The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” And this report talks about the fact that Cuba’s goal essentially is to erase the United States from the Earth. It also details a Cuban spy network that’s been undermining American interests. How did we get to a place where Cuba has become so much of a threat – it feels like again – to the United States?

SECRETARY RUBIO: I think for those who have followed the issue of Cuba, this is not unfamiliar to us. But to the average American, you see Cuba, a small country 90 miles off our shores, nine and a half million people population. But people forget that when it comes to things like espionage and influence operations, they actually are an influence and espionage superpower. If you look at the history of espionage in the United States, Cuba is the only country that consistently has implanted and embedded spies in our system without even paying them.

We had an ambassador, a U.S. ambassador, who ended up being a Cuban spy and was recently convicted. We’ve had them penetrate the highest levels of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Ana Belén Montes was one of the single biggest intelligence failures on the part of the United States and one of the biggest penetrations we ever had in our system.

So – and then on the influence front, if you look all throughout Latin America, every communist left-wing insurgency that’s destabilized governments across the region, every single one of them over the last 40, 50 years has found its support, its help, in many cases its birth, from a Cuban influence operation. So, it was an important report just to highlight the role they play in our country, a very negative role.

QUESTION: The report also links Cuban influence to the rise in Antifa, the riots that we saw in 2020, as well as the surge of radical activism that we’ve seen all over these college campuses. To the average person, those things, I think, feel generally organic, but it turns out there are a lot of different powers – Cuba being one of them – that are influencing all of these things day to day.

SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s the same network of protesters around the country. They were the same people you saw on the streets burning things in 2020. They then flip it around and they become the pro-Hamas protesters, then they flip it around and within 48 hours of Maduro’s arrest have preprinted signs outside the courthouse demanding his release. And then they’re out there doing the ICE stuff, attacking ICE agents.

There’s nothing organic about it. It is funded, it is organized, and Cuba is a part of that network, and in some cases a critical part of that network. And it’s a network they will weaponize against us, and they talk about it openly, about how they will use that network to pressure American policymakers – not just here in the United States, like Code Pink, but all over the world.

QUESTION: Critics of this report, of course, are saying, oh, well, these are scare tactics to potentially justify some U.S. military action against Cuba. It sounds like this is something we should take seriously, and this report sounds very real.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Everything in there is factual. And frankly, I don’t think they can dispute it. People can argue that we shouldn’t do with it, and I know there are plenty of people in American academia – and frankly in American press – that sympathize with the Cuban regime and have for a very long time. Part of it is motivated by their anti-Americanism, and part of it is motivated by ideological affinity. There are plenty – there are enough people in key nodes of our society, including professors, but frankly, in the past we’ve seen people within our own government, that sympathize with the Cuban regime. It’s the way they get spies without paying them. But it doesn’t mean we can ignore this threat.

Put aside for a moment my history, the fact that I’m Cuban American, the fact that I grew up in Miami. This is 90 miles from our shores. A failed state 90 miles from our shores that happens to be aligned with adversaries to the United States is a national security threat to our country.

QUESTION: I want to move quickly to Venezuela. The interim government and opposition leaders there are taking steps towards a possible future with democratic elections. What role is the United States currently playing, and what can you tell us about Venezuela?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, the first thing about Venezuela is I know we’re not in the era of patience and persistence, but these things take time. You’re dealing with a system that’s been in place for over a quarter-century, so those are deep roots that you have to deal with. It’s also a country that faces a lot of problems, I mean a lot of economic problems, not to mention now they’ve had an earthquake.

So, that’s why we’ve always talked about phase one, where our priority was stabilization. We didn’t want the country devolving into civil war, mass migration, civil unrest, and so forth. Step two is a recovery phase, which I think we’re into. Obviously, the earthquake adds complexity to it. You’ve got to have a functioning economy. You need to have laws and rules and regulations in place so that investors from America and around the world can go in and safely invest and create prosperity.

Ultimately, you have to have transition. At some point in time there has to be legitimate elections at every level so that people know that the government that’s there is a legitimate government chosen by their people. Step one towards that is a national reconciliation. This is a people that have been divided politically for a very long time against each other, and you’re going to have to look at models like what you saw happen in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. I think the role the U.S. Government can continue to play is as a facilitator of all of this.

QUESTION: You’ve been outspoken for many years about the threat from China. President Xi, of course, is going to come visit here in Washington, D.C., in September. You’ve had to sit across the table, though, from China’s foreign minister. You’ve had to negotiate and talk on America’s behalf. How have you found, in this role, negotiating with Beijing?

SECRETARY RUBIO: On the one hand, all the things that China wants to become the most powerful country in the world, and they want to do so at our expense. Obviously, we are Americans; we’re not going to allow that to happen.

At the same time, they are the two most powerful economies in the world, probably the two most powerful militaries in the world, though ours is further along than theirs, but nonetheless. And I think it’s important for two big countries like this, the two most powerful countries in the world, have to have a relationship, have to have the ability to speak to one another and try to deconflict where possible, because it could lead to some really bad things. The foundation of that is the relationship that President Trump has with President Xi, which is a relationship of mutual respect and they get along. And that really is important that our two presidents can speak to one another, and it’s okay. I think it’s almost irresponsible, by the way, to not have direct communications with the Chinese.

We want stability in our relationship. Both sides, I think, recognize that there are areas where we’re not going to agree, and including areas where we’re going to have to compete. Now, there are areas we can work together on. That’s phenomenal, fantastic for the world. But I think there’s going to be a lot of areas of friction and competition, and we have to manage that at the same time as we have to have a relationship with them, but we always have to look out for what’s best for America.

QUESTION: Well, it seems like China has been on their best behavior knowing that President Trump is in the White House, but a lot of people believe that they may just be biding their time in terms of possibly taking over Taiwan. What do you say to that?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I can’t speak 20 or 30 years from now. I can say that our position is we support – we don’t support any change to the current status quo that exists there right now. We would be against any sort of compelled or coerced change in status. That point was made very clear in our meetings with the Chinese. Obviously, they have a very different point of view; it’s a very sensitive issue for them.

So, again, it’s part of that delicate balancing act. Because look, any conflict between the U.S. and China, be it economic or be it military, God forbid, would be catastrophic for both countries and for the world. So, we have to manage that, but we can’t walk away or forfeit our national interests. So, this is the hard work of foreign policy, and it requires every administration to sort of balance these two competing tugs against us.

QUESTION: Well, we hear a lot about tensions with China. We hear a lot about tensions with Russia, with Iran daily. I think Americans probably at some point get very overwhelmed because, unfortunately, the good stuff doesn’t make it out there often enough. What would you say, though, about the stability of the world right now given you’re in your position and the President is who he is?

SECRETARY RUBIO: I think the world has always been complicated and tricky. I think the difference now is if something happens halfway around the world in a place you’ve never heard about before, and it’s really dramatic, you’re going to hear about it almost instantaneously.

I think the world is also going through a period of rapid transformation. I mean, there is clearly a geopolitical reordering that is occurring, and I’ve talked about this repeatedly. We are – after the end of the Cold War, everybody thought the whole world was just going to become free-enterprise democracies and everyone would get along and nation-states would no longer matter. And unfortunately, we made decisions in our foreign policy on that ridiculous basis that actually caused us to hurt our country. We started saying things like we don’t care where things are made, let it be made in another country as long as it’s cheaper prices for America. And it ended up deindustrializing our country and costing us millions of jobs.

So, what you see President Trump doing now is rebalancing those things on the economy using tariffs, on geopolitics using our presence in the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere, our own area neighborhood that we live in.

And then of course there are legacy threats like the Iranian threat of a nuclear program, which can never happen. The President’s been very clear about that. So, you have all the old threats plus the emerging new ones, and they’re all happening at the same time, and they’re happening faster than they ever have before. And it’ll be the work of this administration, but it’ll be the work of future administrations. Some of these things are going to take decades to work themselves out.

(Break.)

QUESTION: And we’re back with more of our exclusive sit-down with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the ongoing conflict in Iran remains top of mind for the American people.

SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t think the Iranian regime has ever faced a president like President Trump, which is someone that actually takes action. They got used to for 20 or 30 years not just the U.S. but the broader world allowing them to get away with things like lying, breaking deals, tricking people into agreements, and so forth.

In this particular case, it was pretty straightforward. Iran wants a nuclear weapon, and they were building a conventional missile shield that they were going to hide behind. In essence, they wanted to be in a position a year and a half from now to be able to say: We have so many drones and so many missiles, you can’t possibly defend against them.

That’s the place they wanted to get to. President Trump said we’re not – I’m not going to let you get to that place, and he went after – wiped out their navy, wiped out their air force, wiped out their missile defenses, wiped out their launchers, wiped out their factories that make all of these things, and severely degraded their defense capabilities.

Now, they still have missiles and they still have drones and they can still do damage, but they no longer have that shield, that conventional shield that they could hide behind, and that’s changed the whole dynamic. It’s the only reason why they are now willing and in some cases seem eager to do a deal on denuclearization, to do a deal on the straits. Because we’re now approaching them from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness, which is what they perceived from previous administrations and, frankly, from the world writ large.

QUESTION: The regime change has never been the goal, though. As you say, it has been denuclearization. Can you have one without the other, though?

SECRETARY RUBIO: I think what does – the regime has to change. You might not have a regime change, but the regime has to change. The Iranian regime traditionally has been expeditionary. In essence, their view is they don’t want to just govern Iran; they want to govern the region. They view them – they want to export the revolution. That does have to change, and the only way you’re going to change that is if you make the price of it too high for them to be able to pay.

QUESTION: The fact that so many of these Gulf Arab nations have all kind of aligned against Iran, that must be important.

SECRETARY RUBIO: I would say two things about the Middle East and the Gulf – I mean, they’ve always understood who Iran was and the threat they posed. That threat has now become reality. They have now seen Iranian drones and Iranian missiles launched into their cities and against their energy infrastructure.

The other thing that’s changed is I think you’re going to see more and more energy diversifying outside of the Straits of Hormuz, because from a geographic standpoint Iran will always be on the straits, whether they’re governed by this regime or a future government. But that’s going to be two permanent features that are going to emerge from this: You’re going to see the realignment in how energy flows, less reliant on the Straits of Hormuz; and you’re going to countries in the region that are no longer – now understand that Iran is no longer a theoretical threat. As long as this clerical regime remains in place, they are a real threat and a direct threat to their – not just to their economic interests but their security interests.

QUESTION: Well, President Trump says he is going to confront Valdimir Putin regarding reports that Russia helped Iran target U.S. bases. How much does that relationship concern you?

SECRETARY RUBIO: With Russia?

QUESTION: Between Russia and Iran.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Look, unfortunately, I think you’ll find in the world that there are countries, or at least companies within countries, that work with adversaries of ours. And when we identify it, we raise it, and in some cases very successfully.

Nothing we have wanted to do in the Middle East – none of the actions we’ve taken, none of our successes – have in any way been impeded by anything that any other country in the world did against us. There are things that might be irritants, there are things that might be concerning, but there is nothing any other country is doing that in any way is standing in the way of us achieving the things we want to achieve or the objectives we want.

QUESTION: Just to finish with the situation in Russia and Ukraine, is there anything at this point that the U.S. can realistically do to help bring talks together, bring this to an end?

SECRETARY RUBIO: The President has made very clear if United States can play a role in bringing about an end to that war, we’re going to continue to explore it. We spent a lot of time on it in the first year. There came a point where it got to, like, stalemate, but we always stood willing and ready to play a constructive role.

We’re the only country in the world, and President Trump’s the only leader in the world, that can bring the Russian side and the Ukrainian side to begin to talk about how you end it. The reality is that dynamics have changed just a little bit in that conflict over the last few months. The Ukrainians now are able to conduct long-range strikes deep into Russia, bringing the war toward – to the Russian people.

What we are willing to explore is whether that new dynamic has in any way opened the door to some negotiated settlement. I know there’s going to be – you’re going to see some efforts over the next few weeks to see if we can’t restart talks between the two sides and bring this war to an end. But we also understand that both sides have some pretty strong red lines; and until we can bring those red lines a little closer together, we’re not going to be there yet. But we’re ready to go, and the President’s told his team if you see an opportunity to be a force that brings about some momentum behind peace talks, let’s do it. So, he always prefers diplomacy over war and peace over combat.

QUESTION: Americans have seen so many versions of you, I think. We know Senator Rubio, we know candidate Rubio, now Secretary Rubio. Have you changed throughout the course of all of these different kind of phases of your life? And how do you think the American people’s perception of you has changed? Because you are memes everywhere – I think everybody loves to see all the different sides of you.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, well, the meme thing, it was interesting because when it first came out, I hated that picture. (Laughter.) Because what happened is in that couch, if you don’t have a pillow behind your back, you kind of sink. So, I looked at the picture; I said, oh, this is terrible, I looked like whatever. And then it turned into this other thing. And it was fine, and it’s funny. I don’t really follow it very closely, but people have shown me pictures out there. We have a good friend here that works at the White House, Dan Scavino, made a nice board for me. (Laughter.) And even since he made that board, we had to update it, so – of all the different pictures. So that stuff is funny.

You asked me if you’ve changed. I think everybody – you go through life, right? And as you go through life you learn new things, you see things you hadn’t seen before, you hear things you haven’t heard before. Certainly, I am a different person at 55 than I was at 25 or even 35 because I have 20 and 30 years of experience in between – in life and in work – that inform that.

I think at your core you always want to remain the same person, though, right? And that is what are your priorities in life and what are the values that sort of drive you to do what you do, and I hope that hasn’t changed. And by the way, the world changes too. There are things that are true today that weren’t true 10 years ago. So, I think that – that’s true for all of us, not just me.

QUESTION: I feel like you’ve been busier than ever. You’ve been traveling all over the place. But you’re doing all of that while being a husband, while being a father. Maybe talk about how that is, because I know for every kind of working parent out there, working spouse, it’s hard to take time, but I am sure your family keeps you very active.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, it is, and I’m in an interesting season in life. For most of my time in public service, I had very young children or children that were still growing up. Now all four of my children are adults. My youngest graduated high school this year. I have a 26-year-old, a 24-year-old, a 21-year-old, and an 18-year-old. So, they have lives. They don’t just have – when you’re 15 or 16, you have opinions. When you get to 20, 24, 26, you have lives and you have stuff going on. I still look back at the time that they were young and wish I could have one more day with them when they were little, but you also appreciate the moment you live in.

And then as far as being a husband, I think what’s happened is, because your kids are a little older and they have more time doing their own things, whether their school or their career, you spend more time with your – you almost, like, get back to where you were when you first started dating in some ways. So, you get to spend more time with my wife and sort of rediscover. So, it’s the second phase of that relationship, I guess, after all these years.

So it’s an interesting season in life that I think we’re – mixing with what we’re doing here now – and find it pretty fulfilling and pretty happy.

QUESTION: Well, when you go home, I’m curious: What is the first thing you do when Marco Rubio gets home? Do you sleep? What happens?

SECRETARY RUBIO: (Laughter.) No, not when I get home. I don’t go right to sleep. Of course not. Usually, I mean, if you can – you really can’t in this job, and you certainly can’t working for this administration and this President, who never stops working, but I think it is good to try to disconnect for some period of time from your job or from your work. It could be watching a sporting event, it could be watching a movie, just anything that allows you to sort of disconnect and play the reset button.

It’s harder – it was a lot easier to do that when you’re a senator. It’s much harder when you’re in this role and in this job, because the world isn’t going to stop and wait for you. Like, you may want – you may have made a plan tonight to watch a movie, but in the middle of that movie something blows up somewhere in the world, and you’ve got to know about it and you may have to do something about it. So, it’s harder, but it’s not forever, and it’s fulfilling to be in that role.

QUESTION: So, if you could get a full week off without having anyone access you, what would you do?

SECRETARY RUBIO: If I had a full week off, I’d be wondering what was going on. I’m being honest, and maybe that’ll change when I’m out of this job. But if I could – like, if I could make the world stop for a minute and have nothing going on, I’d love to –

QUESTION: Yeah, (inaudible).

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, my wife’s going to hate this answer, but I’d love to sit down and, like, watch, like, every college football game starting at noon Eastern until one – when the West Coast games end at 2:00 a.m. our time Eastern. I’d love to be able to do that at least one weekend. I doubt I’ll be able to do that anytime soon.

QUESTION: Okay. Final question: Is this going to be the Miami Dolphins season? What do we think?

SECRETARY RUBIO: No.

QUESTION: (Laughter.)

SECRETARY RUBIO: No, they’re in massive rebuilding mode, but I think the needle is pointing in the right direction, but they need a couple years to rebuild that roster.

QUESTION: Okay. We’re always looking to future seasons.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, that’s right.

QUESTION: Well, Secretary Marco Rubio, you are great.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.

QUESTION: Thanks for all you do for our country, and thank you so much for your time.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thank you.

[END TRANSCRIPT]