Rubio Caught Lying to Congress About Trump Constantly Falling Asleep

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to claim Wednesday that he had never seen President Trump fall asleep. It didn’t go well for him.

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu confronted Rubio in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, saying that “you’ve been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep.” Rubio audaciously claimed that was false.

“I’ve never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem ’cause he calls me at two in the morning, he calls me at five in the morning, and you know, I like to sleep a little bit, maybe not 12 hours, but at least six—” Rubio said, going on a tangent about Trump’s late-night habits before Lieu cut him off.

“Secretary Rubio, I’m going to show you in a moment a video that shows you just lied to Congress,” Lieu said, going on to play a video of Rubio speaking at a Cabinet meeting in May while Trump dozes off next to him.

“You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you. If Donald Trump cannot stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, imagine what he’s like when the cameras are not there,” Lieu said. “So I’m gonna ask you, have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep or had trouble staying awake?”

Rubio doubled down, repeating that he’d never seen Trump fall asleep and that Trump wasn’t sleeping in the clip Lieu showed.

“So you’re lying again? You’re lying consistently to Congress. You’re lying to Congress, Secretary Rubio,” Lieu replied. Lieu went on to show two more videos of Trump falling asleep, including one most recently at a Memorial Day event for fallen soldiers.

Lieu hammered Rubio as his time concluded, saying, “Instead of holding North Korean–style Cabinet meetings where everyone goes around the room kissing Donald Trump’s ass, I’m gonna ask you to come clean with the American people and the White House, as well: There’s something wrong with Donald Trump’s health or cognitive abilities. There’s a reason he keeps going to the hospital and they keep giving him cognitive tests. We have not seen the president in eight days. The American people deserve the truth.”

Rubio dismissed Lieu, calling his words absurd and ridiculous and making absurd claims about Trump “working inhumane hours” and taking shots at President Biden’s cognitive abilities. But the videos didn’t lie, and Rubio’s pronouncements, as confident as they sounded, looked hollow next to video evidence of Trump repeatedly dozing off. It’s quite obvious Rubio is covering for his boss.

Once a fraudster, always a fraudster.

George Santos is under investigation for placing bets that he would not attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and then not attending.

Ahead of the State of the Union in February, the disgraced ex–Long Island representative posted a video announcing his intention to appear at the Capitol. His post sent the odds of his appearance soaring on the prediction market site Kalshi, which may be better known for sports betting. Then he skipped the event.

“Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML,” Santos wrote on X.

But Santos had already placed bets that he would not appear on Kalshi, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told NPR Tuesday. They alleged that Santos misled the public, and then earned tens of thousands of dollars through insider trading.

Kalshi referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice, which have both opened cases into Santos, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

When contacted by NPR, Santos responded: “Well, that’s news to me.”

In a post on X Tuesday, the former politico appeared to dismiss the reporting. “I hate to disappoint but I don’t engage with rag reporting anymore.… Business as usual on my end haters! 💋” Santos wrote.

The rise of prediction market sites such as Kalshi and Polymarket have invited a wave of apparent insider trading in politics. Among campaign staffers, betting on the success or failure of political candidates has become commonplace. In late April, Kalshi banned and fined several political candidates after a company probe found they had bet on themselves.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors charged an active-duty Army soldier involved in the planning and capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro for allegedly using confidential intel to win $400,000 on Polymarket predictions related to the raid.

President Trump bristled at the notion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tricking him into a war with Iran, although evidence suggests that Israel has had a significant role in starting and prolonging the conflict.

“What do you say to people who claim that Bibi Netanyahu tricked you into going into Iran?” New York Post’s Miranda Devine asked the president in an interview on Pod Force One released on Wednesday.

“I heard that the other day for the very first time, I said, ‘He tricked me?’ I’m the one that started it because, again, I don’t wanna bore anybody, but I started it because we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Now that pertains to Israel because they probably would’ve been the first one to get hit. There would be no Israel.… If there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel right now.… If I didn’t do that attack … Iran would’ve had a nuclear weapon and they would’ve used it almost immediately.”

U.S. intelligence has confirmed that Iran was not on the brink of building and using a nuclear bomb. That’s a narrative that Israel, alongside Iran war hawks, pushed to justify the current attacks on Iran and Lebanon, as they have been doing for decades. At the beginning of the war, Secretary Marco Rubio himself admitted that the U.S. went to war because the administration “knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.”

Trump also confirmed his profanity-laden argument with Netanyahu, as reported by Axios on Monday. Barak Ravid wrote that the president told him he was “fucking crazy” for sabotaging negotiations by continuing to bomb Lebanon and that he’d “be in prison” if it weren’t for him. “Everybody hates you now,” Trump reportedly told him. “Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

“Is that true? Did you speak to him in those terms?” Devine asked.

“I did. I wouldn’t say angry. I was a little bit … perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know?” Trump said. “I said, ‘Bibi, we gotta stop this. We gotta stop it.’”

Lebanon’s health ministry has reported that over 3,000 people have been killed in Israel’s constant bombardment of civilian infrastructure, with over 10,000 wounded and over one million displaced.

The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is not dead, according to the president.

Donald Trump told the New York Post podcast Pod Force One that his administration had not dropped the $1.8 billion slush fund, putting him at odds with what his officials told Congress.

“No. A court ruled against it. But just so you understand, these are people that’ve been decimated. These are people who have lost their lives over nonsense,” Trump said in an interview published Wednesday morning. “These were many great people, and I gave them pardons, and I’m very proud to have given them pardons. And I think they should be reimbursed for a crooked government.”

The honeypot payments were pitched as reparations, paid for by U.S. taxpayers through the Department of Justice, to virtually any right-winger who felt targeted by the previous presidential administration.

Hundreds of Trump’s MAGA-aligned allies have already lined up for their slice of the pie. They include MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Republican lawmakers. A slew of pardoned January 6ers are also in the queue, including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, a sex offender who bear-sprayed cops, and a convicted child molester who told his victims he would give them money from a Trump payout in exchange for their silence.

But Trump’s ongoing affinity for the payouts defies his administration’s latest position on the DOJ slush fund. As Trump’s interview was being published, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday that the federal financial hub intended to comply with a DOJ directive to shutter the fund.

The evening before, during a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the fund was dead in the water and that his agency would not “ever” move forward with the payments.

The fund was the result of an unprecedented deal that Trump made with himself after he dropped his waning $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. The arrangement included a curious addendum from Blanche, immunizing Trump from further federal prosecution. The government of the United States, Blanche wrote, would be “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “any and all claims” against Trump, his family, or his business.

The idea of the fund fell apart following weeks of backlash, numerous lawsuits, and opposition from Republican lawmakers who felt the issue had gummed up party efforts to pass a reconciliation bill.

President Trump was sporting a swollen eye and hand in an interview with New York Post’s Miranda Devine on the conservative podcast Pod Force One.

Trump’s right eye clearly showed puffiness and looked oddly misshapen compared to his left eye, while his right hand looked much bigger than his left.

Trump and White House staff are constantly disputing reports questioning the president’s physical and mental health. Just one week ago, Trump had his third medical checkup in 13 months, raising questions about whether he has underlying medical conditions. Doctors noticed omissions in the medical report released by the Trump administration afterward, with one saying the “report is almost too good to be true for somebody of his age.”

But it’s very difficult to dispute what people can see with their own eyes, and the president’s outward physical appearance coupled with his tendency to fall asleep on camera don’t inspire confidence in his health. No matter how much Trump talks about how great his medical tests are going or how well he’s doing, it’s plainly evident that the public isn’t being told the whole story.