'That's irrelevant': Marco Rubio snaps at CBS host over Iran attack details
Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not take kindly to a suggestion on "Face the Nation" that the Donald Trump administration jumped the gun by bombing reported nuclear facilities in Iran in a surprise attack on Saturday.
Dispatched to explain the administration's rationale for possibly putting the U.S. on the brink of another war in the Middle East, the former Florida senator ended up butting heads with host Margaret Brennan when she pressed him on what intel was used.
"Let me follow up on a phrase you just used, 'weaponization ambitions,'" she prompted her guest. "Are you saying there that the United States did not see intelligence that the Supreme Leader had ordered weaponization?"
"That's irrelevant," Rubio shot back. "I see that question being asked in the media all the -– that's an irrelevant question, they have everything they need to build the weapon--."
After speaking over each other, Brennan pressed, "That is the key point in U.S. intelligence assessments. You know that."
"No it's not," he snapped to which she replied, "Yes it was," before she continued over his protestations, "The political decision had not been made."
'No, no," he protested. "Well, I know that better than you know that, and I know that that's not the case. You're not –– you don't know what you're talking about--."
"But I'm asking you whether the order was given?" Brennan pressed.
"And the people who say that –– it doesn't matter when the order was given," Rubio insisted. "They have everything they need to build nuclear weapons. Why would you bury –– why would you bury things in a mountain, 300 feet under the ground? Why do they have 60 percent enriched uranium? You don't need 60% percent enriched uranium. The only countries in the world that have uranium at 60 percent are countries that have nuclear weapons, because it can quickly make it 90. They have all the elements they have. Why are they –– why do they have a space program? Is Iran going to go to the moon? No, they're trying to build an ICBM so they can one day put a warhead on it."
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