Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with Democrats over the Trump administration’s recent acceptance of South African refugees, telling Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) that he does not “like the fact that they’re white” in a Tuesday exchange.
The heated conversation took place during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, with Kaine calling the State Department’s claims of “government-sponsored racial discrimination” against the minority Afrikaner population “specious.”
Implying that the U.S. government has given Afrikaners preferential treatment to become legal refugees due to their race, Kaine asked, “Can you have a different standard based upon the color of somebody’s skin? Would that be acceptable?”
“I’m not the one arguing that, apparently you are because you don’t like the fact that they’re white and that’s why they’re coming,” Rubio shot back:
“The United States has a right to pick and choose who they allow into the United States,” the secretary continued, before being interrupted by the senator.
“Based on the color of somebody’s skin?” Kaine again pressed.
Rubio replied, “You’re the one that’s talking about the color of their skin, not me. These are people whose farms were burned down and they were killed because of the color of their skin.”
The spat stemmed from less than 60 white South African refugees touching down in the United States on May 12, with President Donald Trump condemning the “genocide that’s taking place” against them.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the group, which included families with young children, at Dulles International Airport, decrying the “unjust racial discrimination” and “violence” they faced in their home country.
“They were really subject to very serious, egregious, and targeted threats, and we wish them well in their journey in the United States,” Landau told Breitbart News at the time. “We underscored for them that the American people are a welcoming and generous people, and we underscore the importance of assimilation into the United States, which is one of the very important factors that we look to in refugee admissions and through this resettlement program for these folks who were vetted in South Africa.”
Kaine continued in his remarks on Tuesday, “Now we’re creating a special pathway for white Afrikaner farmers in a country governed by a unity government that includes the Afrikaner parties.”
“Would you agree, Mr. Secretary, that if we’re interpreting the phrase ‘a well-founded fear of persecution’, we should apply that standard evenhandedly?”
Rubio responded, “I think we should apply it in the national security interest of the United States.”
“The United States has the right to choose who it allows in and to prioritize that choice,” he added.
“And should that be applied evenhandedly?” Kaine asked, to which Rubio replied, “Our foreign policy does not require evenhandedness.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who led the charge to El Salvador to advocate for accused MS-13 gang member and alleged wife-beater Kilmar Abrego Garcia, also had some angry words for Rubio during the hearing.
“I regret voting for you,” Van Hollen told the secretary, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in January.
“Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job,” Rubio responded:
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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