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.
“No one has died because the United States has cut aid, no,” Rubio continued. “People have died because gangs steal the aid, people have died because of the distributors of aid have not done well. People have died because other countries haven’t stepped up. But the United States has saved more lives and continues to save more lives than any other country in the world and we’re gonna continue to do it, but we’re gonna do it the right way and in a responsible way. We’re not gonna continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work, and in some cases that were flat-out corrupt.”
DOGE shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in February over its billions of spending on left-wing causes across the world. In 2023, USAID sent over $17 billion to Ukraine, along with 65 million condoms, 9.8 million injectable birth control products and 334,000 IUDs abroad in fiscal year 2022 to facilitate family planning.
The agency also handed a $2 million grant to Guatemala to help provide sex changes for trans-identifying individuals.
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