Marco Rubio in Greece urges allies to renew Western civilization

LiveNOW from FOX posted a YouTube video on Oct. 7 titled "Rubio delivers urgent plea to save Western Civilization." The channel’s description says Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech in Greece calling for a renewal of Western civilization and urging U.S. allies to stand together against what he describes as the decline of the West.

Rubio refused to discuss misconduct claims against the ambassador. At a joint news conference with the Greek foreign minister, he declined comment on allegations against U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, according to Associated Press reporting by Matthew Lee, Derek Gatopoulos and Farnoush Amiri. “Suffice it to say our embassy here is doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here,” Rubio said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees, have opened probes into the matter, the AP reported. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Guilfoyle told guests at a reception the United States could undermine the Greek government if it chose, promoted a Greek construction and energy company’s interests, and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings. Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis greeted Rubio on arrival in Athens. The AP said Rubio embraced Guilfoyle there.

The speech came Wednesday at the Pnyx hill, where ancient Athenians held democratic assemblies, with the Parthenon atop the Acropolis behind him, the AP reported. Rubio was on the second leg of a three-nation NATO tour that had already taken him to Iceland and was set to end in Portugal on Thursday. Dylan Johnson, the State Department’s assistant secretary for global public affairs, told Fox News that Rubio would “call upon Americans and Europeans alike to join together in a great renewal of the Western spirit - an inheritance stretching from Athens and Rome to Christendom to the founding of the American Republic.” Johnson said the secretary would look to ancient Greece as the first full expression of “curiosity, courage, ambition, and a restless spirit of exploration and discovery of the unknown.”

“It has become fashionable today to believe that enlightened foreign policy means prioritizing the ‘global community’ over one’s own people,” Rubio said, according to the AP. “And I think here, too, we have much more to learn from the men of ancient Greece. They knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation, nor anything selfish or wrong about fighting to defend its interests above all else.” He cast the choice in blunt terms. “We will either choose to act now, or lose the choice to act at all. Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice. We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power.”