Marco Rubio on Monday called the shooting tied to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner an unfortunate situation and said President Donald Trump’s response showed leadership, in an interview with Channel’s Trey Yingst. Rubio said the president’s choice to return to the White House, release video and then address the American people in a press conference helped calm the nation and move the country toward the investigation.
Rubio said the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was postponed after the incident because of security concerns and the logistics of clearing and rescreening attendees. “That’s kind of the world we live in right now,” he said, adding that the decision reflected the realities of the moment.
The secretary of state also said the ceasefire with Iran remains in place, even as tensions continue over Tehran’s role across the Middle East. He said Iran is run by radical Shia clerics and described its leadership as deeply fractured internally, arguing that U.S. negotiators are not only dealing with Iranian officials but with other power centers inside the system as well.
Rubio said the nuclear issue is the central reason for the current crisis. He warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would sharply increase the threat to the region, saying Tehran seeks to expand its influence through Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi militias. “Imagine if those same people had access to a nuclear weapon,” he said, arguing that such a force would let Iran hold the region hostage.
He also said the United States would reject any arrangement that gives Tehran control over passage through the Strait of Hormuz or allows it to impose fees or conditions on that waterway. Rubio described the Strait of Hormuz as an international route and said Washington would not accept Iranian leverage there, while also saying Israel’s military activity in Lebanon is focused on Hezbollah rather than the Lebanese state.
The White House incident and the Iran ceasefire sit in the same frame because both underline the same problem Rubio was describing: a security environment in which one crisis does not stay contained. The dinner may have been postponed, but the broader fight over Iran’s reach, its nuclear ambitions and the rules governing key regional choke points is still very much underway.