Rubio Brushes Off Midterm Election Losses, Says Political Power Swings Are 'Feature of Our System'

Mr. Secretary, I know you don't want to comment on the election, but... But you're going to ask me anyway. But your allies are going to ask because it's the first opportunity that you all meet at the G7. We have elections. We have national elections in our country every two years. I have been now involved... I guess going to 2011 when I was sworn in as a senator, so I've watched these things and even in my time in the legislature, it is not uncommon to have a division of power in this country. We've seen it before. We've seen elections go one direction and a couple of years later go another. It's just a feature of our system. So I've been in the minority. I've been in the majority with regards to being in the Senate. I've been in the majority with a Republican president. I've been in the minority with a Democrat president. I think I've had every iteration of it. And the Republican doors continue So we'll do our work. We'll continue to do our work. Congress will do theirs. I hope they do it in a way that's responsible and focused on issues that are important to our country and our people. But that's our system of government. Many of our allies will be aware, but they too have experienced divisions in government and divisions in their own system. So we'll have elections again in two more years. And they could look very different, or they could look the same. I don't know. But this is the way our system works. Is there a particular message you're looking to bring to allies on this trip? With regards to this trip, will they have an agenda, the French have said, obviously we'll be talking about superintelligence, we'll be talking about some of the global conflicts, I'm sure they'll have a lot of questions about status of affairs. In the Middle East, with regard to Iran, I think there'll be obviously a conversation. The Ukrainians are joining us. to be able to be there. So I'm sure that topic will come up. And I think they'll be curious to know if any progress is being made in the technical talks that are ongoing in Abu Dhabi. And then I imagine there's a host of other issues they'll want to discuss. But the agenda, you'll see it. I mean, it's been laid out, some of the topics they want to raise and talk about. You're going to France. Is there any worry about the protests that are happening there? No, I mean, I trust our people. We ask our people, obviously. If there was a problem, I think they would tell us. So we got.