Rubio and Trump contradict each other over Iran

Marcio Rubio backtracks over Israel comments as Democrats warn Trump has no plan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been forced to backtrack. The hapless Rubio told reporters ahead of a classified briefing to Congress members that Israel made US join the attack on Iran.

US and Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon

Rubio had previously said that:

a plan from Israel to attack Iran spurred the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes.

His statement was then contradicted by US President Donald Trump who said on 3 March:

If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.

Rubio then told reporters by way of backtracking (and without reference to his original statement):

I told you, this had to happen anyway, the president made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program

Once the president made a decision that negotiations were not going to work … the decision was made to strike.

Adding:

The bottom line is this. We, the president, determined we were not going to get hit first.

Democrats go anti-war

US Democrats received a classified briefing from Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior officials on 3 March. There are limits on what those briefed can disclose to the public.

Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on X on 3 March:

It is so much worse than you thought.

You are right to be worried. The Trump administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies, and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation.

I just left a classified briefing with the Trump Administration about the war in Iran.

I was worried before, but I’m more worried now. pic.twitter.com/HoSWLVWrR8

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 3, 2026

The death toll in the war has risen rapidly to over 1000 as of 4 March:

🚨At least 1,097 civilians have been killed in U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran since Feb. 28, including 181 children under 10, according to monitor HRANA.

In the past 24 hours, the group recorded 104 attacks across 19 provinces, with strikes hitting military bases, medical… https://t.co/dBi6DraVkL

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 4, 2026

The US-Israel attack on Iran is now pulling in European countries like France, Greece and the UK. Israel has begun a ground invasion of Lebanon. In Washington DC, the heart of US empire, they’re debating matters of procedure.

Featured image via the Canary

Comments 2

Taxiarch says:

3 months ago

Once again, the “State of Exception” as articulated by the Nazi era journalist Carl Schmitt.
“For his “political theology” and National Socialist legal doctrine, thinking in terms of friend-foe schemata was just as central as ideas of the end times and states of emergency. These ideas are currently most politically influential in the United States, where they have found their way into government policy through right-wing libertarians such as J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Peter Thiel.” [quote form the website of the Judisches Museum Berlin].

The people can vote for lawmakers as often as they like. That’s democracy.
But the Law does not apply to the Government, except when they wish it so. That’s fascism.

Taxiarch says:

3 months ago

hah! Journalist = jurist. I imagine he was rather better at reading back through what he published than I am.