Who?
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) — Vice-Chair of Senate Intelligence Committee
Ask a Pol asked:
“Did you see any of Sean Kirkpatrick’s — from AARO [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office] — his statements since leaving?”
Clutch Rubio:
“There's a whistleblower complaint filed by one of them, and, ultimately, I mean, we haven't spent a tremendous amount of time on it lately but I was hoping that’s what AARO would do!”
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LISTEN: Laslo & Rubio
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Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Marco Rubio
SCENE: Sen. Rubio just finished a scrum with a slew of congressional correspondents on the stalled Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan aid package, when Laslo intercepts him as he’s standing on the tram with an aid next to him. The attendant running the train — which is full of people in the other cars —holds it for the senator to have a brief, if illuminating, exclusive chat with Ask a Pol.
Matt Laslo: “Hey, did you see any of Sean Kirkpatrick’s — from AARO — his statements since leaving?”
Marco Rubio: “I might have read a few of them about, you know...”
ML: “Well, he seemed to contradict you...”
ML: “He seemed to say that none of the witnesses that David Grusch says corroborate him — he says none of them have anything to do with these programs or whatever. And he kind of — you seemed to want more information from those whistleblowers?”
MR: “These are people that have clearances — high clearances — in the United States government, and it's not one. It's Navy pilots. It’s other people who have come forward. I don't know if they're telling the truth or not. I'm not going to call them a liar. I'm just saying, if people that have that level of clearance and responsibility are coming forward with stuff, we should at least sort of — it's not one person; it's multiple people.”
ML: “Are we gonna hear from those people within the Senate?”
MR: “There's a whistleblower complaint filed by one of them, and, ultimately, I mean, we haven't spent a tremendous amount of time on it lately but I was hoping that’s what AARO would do!”
ML: “Right? Yeah. We’ll see. Preciate ya.”
“Doors are closing,” is heard as the Senate tram doors begin to shut.
EXCLUSIVE — Rubio's frustrated fmr AARO director dismissive of whistleblowers