What Next | A Marco Rubio for All Seasons

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Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Marco Rubio has been collecting titles. In addition to Secretary of State, he’s now also the acting administrator of USAID, the acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration—and he just became a National Security Advisor. It fits his career trajectory, wherein Rubio has proven time and time again to be whatever he needs to be. Guest: Justin Peters, Slate correspondent and author of “What Happened to Marco Rubio?” Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Ethan Oberman, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's this snippet of video from last week that I think is so indicative of our political moment.
0:13.1	All right, now, so we've got a lot of activity down here in the first row.
0:17.9	It was recorded in the State Department briefing room, Thursday afternoon.
0:22.6	Donald Trump had just announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was going to be taking on a new title, National Security Advisor.
0:31.9	Do you know how long he's going to be serving in both roles?
0:35.5	It is clear that I just heard this from you.
0:40.0	I had, I, this is, the way this spokesperson is totally caught off guard here is really something to behold.
0:47.6	It's like she's been treading conversational water.
0:50.8	And the reporter just tossed her a lead weight.
0:54.4	Yeah. So that is the miracle of modern technology and the social media. So that is an exciting
1:02.3	moment here. I think that, as I know Secretary Rubio, this is a man who, as I think you all
1:07.5	know, has worn several hats from day one in managing the nature
1:12.5	to be fair, the State Department spokesperson is right about this.
1:17.0	Marco Rubio is a remarkably busy guy.
1:21.2	As departments have been downsized or purged, Rubio has picked up one title after another.
1:28.7	He's in charge of USAID.
1:30.7	He is supervising the National Archives.
1:34.4	But the last person to be both Secretary of State and National Security Advisor
1:38.9	was Henry Kissinger.
1:41.6	And many people think he failed.
1:49.3	It's really a telling moment, right?
1:54.2	Slate's Justin Peters has been considering Marco Rubio's sudden rise.
	...

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