Marco Rubio Shuts Down George Stephanopoulos’ Narrative That Cutting Foreign Aid Killed People

Secretary of State Marco Rubio shot down ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday as he pushed the narrative that President Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid caused many people to die.

Stephanopoulos asserted on “Good Morning America” that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) freeze on foreign aid in February killed people on a global scale due to a freeze in funding to support humanitarian causes. Rubio, who served as the head of the agency until early September, stated that the U.S. is not solely responsible for tragedies and misgivings around the world.

“But are you standing by that comment, you’re saying no one’s died? No one has died because of the aid cuts? Are all of those aid organizations lying?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“That’s ridiculous,” Rubio replied. “Well first of all, then they died because England didn’t give enough money, or Canada didn’t give more or China did. Let’s blame the other countries that didn’t give any foreign aid. What about China? I mean, China’s the second largest economy in the world, they don’t give money … so did people die because China didn’t give more money?”

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Stephanopoulos said that Rubio was no longer disputing that cuts to foreign aid led people to die. The secretary of state said some aid never reached certain places because wars and conflicts prevented its people from obtaining that aid.

“I think anybody who tells you that somehow it’s the United States, that somehow if we cut a dollar, we’re responsible for some horrific thing that’s going on in the world. It’s just not true,” Rubio said. “Beyond that, I would say that some of these places that they cite, the reason why the aid didn’t get to there, no, excuse me, George, one of the reasons why some of these places didn’t get the aid is not because we cut the aid, it’s because there’s a war going on and the aid never got to the people.”

Rubio said that the U.S. will continue to provide more foreign aid than ever before, but the administration will not allow billions of taxpayer dollars to be spent on “corrupt” and ineffective programs.