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Secretary Rubio Speaks to the Press at Joint Base Andrews Before Departing for Israel, Oct. 22, 2025

October 22, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:13:43

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to the traveling press at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on October 22, 2025, before departing for Israel (the State Department uploaded the remarks on October 24), according to the department’s broadcast.

The trip’s purpose, he said, was the Civil-Military Coordination Center, then just standing up: career State Department personnel would be assigned there as a counterpart to Admiral Cooper, with an announcement the next day, because “the first couple weeks are going to be key” to keeping the ceasefire together. He connected with the President in Qatar on the way. On the Knesset’s West Bank annexation votes, held while administration officials were in Israel, he said the President has made clear “that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now, and we think it’s potentially threatening to the peace deal,” while acknowledging Israel is a democracy whose legislators will take positions. On the weekend’s Gaza violence, he said the administration is “ahead of schedule” in bringing the ceasefire together, but that Hamas “remains a danger, not just to Israel but to the people of Gaza,” which is why an international security force is needed.

On the Treasury sanctions on Russia announced that day, he said the United States would still like to meet the Russians — he cited a good call with Foreign Minister Lavrov — but that the President “has said repeatedly for a number of months now that at some point he will have to do something if we don’t make progress on the peace deal. Today was the day he decided to do something.” In the portion released, he also defended the strikes on drug boats in the Pacific as an operation against narcoterrorists — “the Al-Qaida of the Western Hemisphere,” as he characterized the cartels — operating, he said, with the cooperation of Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles.

Why it matters

One departure gaggle fixed three administration positions on the record in a single day: annexation opposed as a threat to the peace deal, the ceasefire described as ahead of schedule despite its tests, and the Russia sanctions framed as the President’s long-signaled consequence for stalled peace talks — the setup for the Israel trip whose CMCC visit is paged separately on this site.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the sanctions decision as the Secretary explained it on October 22, 2025 — imposed that day because progress on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal had stalled, with a U.S.-Russia meeting still sought. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks to the Press” (official upload, embedded above; Joint Base Andrews, Maryland). Remarks as delivered 2025-10-22; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store; full transcript at state.gov.