Marco Rubio
Role at the time: U.S. secretary of state
Defended or excused
Statement summary
Rubio said Trump wants to use a 60-day period to analyze what imposing the Graham Act sanctions and tariffs would mean for the global and U.S. economies.
“I think the president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyze what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the U.S. economy”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Trump Needs More Time to Assess Impact of Russian Sanctions, Rubio SaysParagraph quoting Rubio on the 60-day period
The Moscow Times republishes a Reuters report on Rubio's remarks to reporters before a trip to Uzbekistan, a day after the waiver.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is Trump's waiver of the Graham Act Russia measures. Rubio defends the waiver as a pause to study the economic effects of the sanctions and tariffs.