From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, February 17th.

New Jersey Senator Andy Kim will join us shortly for a monthly Call Your Senator segment. He's just back from the Munich Security Conference.

Foreign Affairs is a key interest of Senator Kim's. He was on the Foreign Affairs Committee when he was

in the House. And to set this up, I want to play an extended excerpt from Secretary of State Marco

Rubio's speech at the conference. You may have heard little sound bites and newscasts.

The Munich Security Conference includes the United States and what we used to casually call

the U.S. as allies in Europe. Now, of course, the extent of that alliance is more of a question

than a given, and that's what Secretary Rubio addresses here. But what you may find most interesting in this clip is how he tries to connect the United

States and Europe through a kind of MAGA cultural heritage lens.

This runs just over two minutes, and we'll talk to Senator Kim on the other side.

We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed

decline.

We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization

in human history.

What we want is a reinvigorated alliance that recognizes that what has ailed our societies

is not just a set of bad policies, but a malaise of hopelessness and complacency.

An alliance, the alliance that we want is one that is not paralyzed into an action by fear.

Fear of climate change, fear of war,

fear of technology. Instead, we wanted alliance that boldly races into the future.

And the only fear we have is the fear of the shame of not leaving our nations prouder,

stronger, and wealthier for our children, an alliance ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests,

and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny, not one that exists

...