Stomachs were growling. Bladders were straining. Still, Secretary of State Marco Rubio kept on talking.
It was not quite the epic, four-plus-hour performance by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during his annual news conference in Moscow. But Mr. Rubio tested the diplomatic press corps’ stamina as he fielded questions for more than two hours on Friday in his end-of-the-year media appearance.
Coming two days after President Trump’s national address promoting his accomplishments, Mr. Rubio’s sales pitch for the Trump administration’s foreign policy successes seemed part of a White House holiday season public relations campaign. It was still an unusual event by nearly any Washington standard. Veteran reporters struggled to remember other comparably long news conferences by senior U.S. officials of either party, though Mr. Trump, long in a league of his own, appears to have an almost insatiable appetite for press questions at times.
Mr. Rubio’s wide-ranging comments, covering everything from Gaza to Japan to Pakistan, were also notable for their civility in an administration that regularly denounces and insults reporters.
From the podium in the State Department’s briefing room, Mr. Rubio took questions from 46 reporters, who represented U.S. and international outlets. He accused no one of bias or peddling “fake news.” He answered several Spanish speakers in their native tongue before repeating his words in English.
He even had a friendly message for Mr. Putin’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, as he answered a question about whether Russia might come to the defense of Venezuela. “I think they have their hands full in Ukraine,” he said. “And if he’s watching, Sergey, merry Christmas.”
Mr. Rubio also feigned outrage upon learning of Mr. Putin’s year-end appearance earlier in the day. “He’s trying to step on my message!” he quipped, promising not to match the Russian’s four-hour speech.
Mr. Rubio’s aides were clearly proud of the performance. In a social media post, Tommy Pigott, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, claimed that Mr. Rubio’s appearance had been “one of the longest press conferences of any Secretary of State ever,” adding: “The Trump administration is the most transparent in American history.”
For all the words spoken, Mr. Rubio managed to avoid making news, and declined to answer a number of questions. Will Mr. Trump meet with the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro? How does the United States define Hamas’s so-called disarmament? Is the United States willing to recognize Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia as belonging to Moscow? Mr. Rubio would not say.
The secretary of state, who also serves as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, was vague on the question of whether U.S. attacks on Venezuelan soil would require congressional approval. He suggested that military action was “always strongest” when it had broad support, but he questioned the validity of the War Powers Act. He also said that many members of Congress “reflexively” opposed Mr. Trump’s every move, implying that there may be little point in asking lawmakers to sign off.
Matthew Miller, who served as the top State Department spokesman under Mr. Rubio’s predecessor, Antony J. Blinken, credited the Trump diplomat’s long appearance, but noted that it had been months since the department had held one of the daily televised press briefings that had been a norm for decades.
“Good for him,” Mr. Miller said of Mr. Rubio. “It’s not a substitute for the daily press briefings the department should be having, but it’s important that State Department leaders regularly subject themselves to questions from the reporters who know foreign policy best.”
Mr. Rubio, who ran for president in 2016 and is widely thought to retain White House ambitions, was perhaps most feisty when asked about the common charge from critics that he had abandoned core principles to serve Mr. Trump. These include his past support for robust foreign aid and his deep skepticism about negotiating with Mr. Putin.
“The Constitution did not say, ‘You elect a president of the United States and then you put in place a State Department to undermine the president if the person who’s the secretary of state doesn’t agree with him.’ That’s ridiculous. That’s stupid, really,” he said.
He was also dismissive of reports of low morale among career diplomats, arguing that his streamlining of State Department functions — resulting in more than 1,200 layoffs — had “empowered” many Foreign Service officers.
Mr. Rubio had already earned a reputation among State Department reporters for his informal, chatty nature. On foreign trips, Mr. Rubio has sometimes made himself available for so long that reporters have strained to generate new questions.
It is a stark contrast to some of his Trump administration colleagues.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for instance, rarely deals with mainstream reporters and recently imposed stringent imitations on Pentagon reporters that led dozens of them to hand in their press credentials rather than abide by new rules.
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
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