Rubio urges conservatives to elevate their ideology, ignores Republican midterm defeats

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday downplayed the Republicans’ devastating defeats in the midterm elections, instead telling his supporters: “Politics requires more than just winning elections.”

“Those who believe that one setback, one defeat, one bad election means the end of the republic should look to you as an example,” Rubio said in his first major speech since Election Day, delivered to the conservative Federalist Society at the National Lawyers Convention in Washington, DC.

Rubio, whose name has been bandied about as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told the audience: “Great things that last are built in decades, not election cycles. »

“There will be more victories and more defeats,” he said. “There will be more triumphs and more disappointments.”

The secretary of state urged the crowd to remember that government “is not the only source of political power,” emphasizing the importance of continuing to elevate conservative ideology despite electoral defeats.

Rubio emphasized the power held by universities, the press and “all of civil society.”

“Elections decide who holds office for a season, but elections, they do not decide by themselves what our institutions teach or what our lawyers believe,” Rubio said.

He also condemned the “relentless barrage of allegations about America’s alleged violations of international rules and norms,” ​​including allegations that the United States violated international law by striking boats allegedly used for drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea or due to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies.

Rubio also defended the United States’ capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the continuation of the war in Iran.

“None of this has anything to do with a truly higher standard of justice. It is a function of the people who control the official bodies of global governance,” Rubio said. “For this global elite, international law is not a set of neutral rules. International law is an instrument, an instrument to promote their interests under the pretext of universal principles.”

Rubio denounced the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, saying: “Americans have never agreed to submit to the authority of the ICC, but this court and its allies in the global bureaucracy have appointed themselves judges, jurors and enforcers of the international order. »

Last month, the Trump administration imposed drastic sanctions on the ICC as part of its campaign to dismantle the court after announcing investigations into the United States.

Rubio also criticized “activist courts” on U.S. soil on Friday, telling the crowd of lawyers: “The weaponization of international law is not entirely different from what we have seen here at home. »

“Activist courts that seek to rule by injunction, distorting the law to suit their preferences in a given time or place,” he said, adding that judges are “allies” of those who have “denounced the Constitution.”

“For these people, the fundamental goal of the law, both American and international, is to weaken the United States,” Rubio said. “It amounts to undermining our power to act as a sovereign nation. It amounts to hindering the ability of the United States government to defend American interests at home and abroad.”

Rubio’s comments echo President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on judges who rule against his interests. The president also increasingly clashes with the Supreme Court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority and includes three justices appointed to the bench by Trump.

The high court this year ruled against Trump over his tariff policies, his plan to roll back citizenship rights, his efforts to interfere with mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections and his firing of a Federal Reserve member.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling on his tariff policy, Trump called the justices “a disgrace to our nation.”