Marco Rubio Says It's 'Irrelevant' Whether U.S. Intel Showed Iran Building Nuclear Weapons

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Huff Post

Jun 22, 2025, 04:13 PM EDT


Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to say on Sunday whether the United States actually had intelligence that Iran was building a weapon of mass destruction before bombing the Gulf country’s nuclear sites ― dismissing any such assessment as “irrelevant” to the Saturday night attack that will very likely lead to wider conflict.

Rubio was one of several Trump administration officials to oversee the attack titled “Operation Midnight Hammer,” in which the U.S. bombed three key nuclear sites in Iran as part of Israel’s war on the longtime foe. The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman said that the attack caused “extremely severe damage and destruction” to the sites before acknowledging that a complete assessment determining the extent of the damage will take more time.

Appearing Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” the secretary of state described Iran as having “weaponization ambitions” ― leading host Margaret Brennan to press whether U.S. intelligence had specifically shown that Iran’s supreme leader already ordered nuclear weaponization.

“That’s irrelevant,” Rubio said, to which Brennan pushed, “But that is the key point in U.S. intelligence assessments, you know that.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marco-rubio-irrelevant-intelligence-iran-nuclear-weapons_n_685849e9e4b0208df3862872

---

[msongs]

1. 47's worm, rubio - 47 can dol whatever he wants so F.O.

[Progressive dog]

2. Anything that stands in the way of

the man who proved Presidents can be stupid is irrelevant.

[RockRaven]

3. Mask off (again). They won't even bother pretending their actions are justified.

[sop]

4. "Weaponization ambitions." What is this, 'Minority Report'?

Apparently, Rubio has now also been put in charge of Trump's Precrime Department, relying on foreknowledge from psychic "precogs" to bomb other countries.

[area51]

22. GMTA

[Hugin]

5. It's funny the word "irrelevant" should come up in a context with Lil' Marko.

Apparently, he's the expert.

[Bayard]

6. Irrelevant

You peons don't really need to know the truth, because you couldn't handle it anyway. We will tell you what to believe. They had weapons of mass destruction.

And trump has been drooling over bombing somebody, might as well be Iran.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Your honor it's irrelevant that my clients murder victim was unarmed

But my client is very appreciative of the court for giving him due process.

[Norrrm]

9. Little Marco should stick with his area of expertise... Trump's genitals. That was 'relevant' to him.

[DENVERPOPS]

10. That is precisely how Trump thinks of himself

"MIDNIGHT HAMMER" he has been waiting to put he term to good use......

[sakabatou]

11. Because shooting first and asking questions later is the correct thing to do!

[DallasNE]

12. Please Tell Me That Little Marco Didn't Say That

Time to make little Marco irrelevant because whether Iran was making nuclear bombs is the only relevant thing. How much longer do we have to put up with this ignorance at the top?

[Half-step]

13. Rubio is irrelevant n/t

[grandpamike1]

14. Rubio

Marco Rubio is irrelevant

[sakabatou]

15. Grab a fucking uniform then, Rubio. You're on the front line.

[mathematic]

16. Are people really Iran nuclear weapons program truthers? The whole point of Obama's JCPOA was to stop it.

I'm really confused why I'm seeing comments as if Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. They do. The Obama administration famously negotiated a deal with Iran to dismantle it and stop it for a limited time. The idea was if that deal went well then Iran could be convinced to stop pursuing nuclear weapons indefinitely. This deal was also famously canceled (well, withdrawn from, technically) by Trump in 2018. And people are acting in disbelief that Iran restarted their program in earnest 7 years ago?

This is not secret information. Iran is a signatory to the NPT and thus have an obligation to not develop nuclear weapons. So of course they say they don't. And of course they're lying. I mean, I'm supposed to believe Obama spent years of effort and political capital to stop Iran from using nuclear electricity? How is this even a hard call to make on Democratic Underground? People would so readily believe that Obama is a fool that wasted time and energy than they would that a country holds "Death to America" as official policy is lying about their weapons program?

[iemanja]

18. Rubio's comments make clear they did not

Have a program near weaponization. That you believe they did is not evidence.

You choose to believe Trump and Netanyahu, who has been declaring Iran is weeks away from a weapon for 15 years. He is obviously a liar, as Trump of course is.

Carnage based on belief or assumptions is not justified.

[Bengus81]

31. Bush Jr went along with the WMD CON for much,much longer than this

But...they were trying to cover their asses. The Trump regime doesn't give a flying fuck what anyone thinks.

[mathematic]

34. Nice, subtle goalpost move to say "near weaponization", instead of nuclear weapons program

Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Nobody disputes that. Not even you, seemingly, since you're only claiming that their program is not "near" weaponization. Iran has openly enriching uranium to 60% for years. This is a nuclear weapons program.

The JCPOA, Obama's Iran deal, sought to limit Iran's "nuclear breakout" time, the time estimated for Iran to have enough material for a nuclear weapon to 12 months instead of an expected 2-3 months without the deal. We've been without the deal for 7 years.

You use "near" to hide behind. But you don't say what you think near is? Obama's deal thought 2-3 months was too little to prevent a weapon if Iran had decided to leave the deal but 12 months was enough. Again, there hasn't been a deal for 7 years. Trump will be president for 3.5 more years. Is there anybody in the world that thinks Iran can't assemble a weapon in within the 3.5 years considering they have advanced centrifuges and a large stockpile of highly enriched uranium?

[travelingthrulife]

35. So Israel is now a rogue state with nuclear arms. So we should bomb them now?

[iemanja]

17. So Iran wasn't close to a nuclear weapon

Quelle surprise. .

[Karasu]

19. Wow. At least Dubya considered it relevant enough to--you know-outright fucking LIE to the whole damn

country about it when he pulled this shit with Iraq.

This fascist regime isn't even fucking trying.

[Aussie105]

20. Newsflash! Greenland successfully carries off a pre-emptive strike on America!

Places possibly harbouring persons of evil intent towards Greenland were hit by Greenlandic WMDs.

Greenland apologizes for any civilian collateral deaths associated with the raids.

Spokesman said "It was only a matter of time before America invaded Greenland. We had to strike first to prevent a serious war.
Besides, fighting a war on your enemy's soil is so much cleaner than a war on your own soil."

Video coverage of the smouldering holes where Mara-a-loco and numerous other Trump properties used to be at 6 pm.

Yes, I'm using creative fiction writing there.
Just to point out, by swapping the players, how insane the US action was.

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

29. That sounds familiar ...

Something like this

[LudwigPastorius]

21. It's irrelevant if the goal is to become a "war president" who can further clamp down on rights and seize more power.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. Bad to the bone.

I tell you what. If a regular American citizen gets killed from Iran's counter offensive, that victim's family is going to think that intel was relevant.

Dear God, here we are again with an ignorant President relying on truthism -- or the non-science method of going by your ignorant ass gut.

[swong19104]

24. "It's irrelevant whether...

she gave consent. I don't care. When you're famous, they let you do it."

[Aussie105]

25. Unfortunately the Australian media is in lock-step with American media and the Trump regime.

Iran the bad guy? Yep!
Planning on making nuclear bombs and obliterating Israel? Yep, any minute now!
(It's been 'any minute now' for decades.)
America is the good guy and done good? Yep!

It's lazy reporting. If I can call it reporting, rather more of an echo.

I need to look at UK media and Al Jazeera to get a less brain dead analysis.

eg
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/22/us-attacks-iran-how-trump-rejoined-team-netanyahu

https://www.bbc.com/news/world/middle_east

The US and AU media are dead to me.

[vapor2]

26. Such incompetence by all

[BlueMTexpat]

27. So unfit for his post.

Just like all the rest of them!

[Godot51]

28. An irrelevant "man"...

... is what Marco Rubio is...

[Bengus81]

30. Kinda what Bush Jr and Cheney later said about Iraq too.............

Because they had NOTHING in that Country to build those touted WMD.

[Hope22]

32. Of course it is...

Aluminum tubes, enemy north, south, east and west of Baghdad…..oh, those were the days. Comb licking f’ers!! At least they took some time to be creative. Unfit to lead is all I can say!

[Bengus81]

33. Yep...and remember the always go to BS "yellow cake".

Same SHIT,same NEO CONS,different YEAR,