By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-01-21 02:46:21 | Updated at 2025-01-21 05:59:29
3 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // In a unanimous 99-0 vote, the U.S. Senate confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, to become the nation’s Secretary of State Monday evening, just hours after President Donald Trump was sworn in to begin his second term.
Rubio immediately assumed the post upon his confirmation. As Secretary of State, Rubio is now responsible for advising Trump on matters of foreign policy. Rubio is Trump’s first cabinet nominee to be confirmed.
Prior to Rubio resigning his own seat to lead the State Department, the Senate only had 99 members due to the Ohio seat most recently held by Vice President JD Vance being vacant.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, Florida’s other U.S. Senator, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he was “excited to confirm my friend” Rubio. “He was a great senator who fought daily to improve Florida families’ lives. I’m going to miss him in the Senate, but I know he will do a fantastic job leading the Department of State.”
Excited to confirm my friend, @MarcoRubio, as our next Secretary of State! He was a great senator who fought daily to improve Florida families' lives.
I’m going to miss him in the Senate, but I know he will do a fantastic job leading the Department of State. pic.twitter.com/t6BEZGaM4b
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis had nominated days earlier to replace Rubio in the Senate, wrote on X: “Congratulations to my friend and America’s Secretary of State, @marcorubio!”
“Secretary Rubio’s skill, intellect and distinguished career have prepared him to expertly lead the U.S. Department of State and put #AmericaFirst in all foreign affairs,” Moody added.
Rubio is a pro-life Catholic who actively opposed Florida’s failed Amendment 4, a measure which if voters had not rejected it last November would have nullified the state’s pro-life law and legalized abortion up to so-called “fetal viability.”
While in the Senate, Rubio had also spoken out against the targeting of Catholics by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Secretary of State is one of the four original cabinet posts created by President George Washington in 1789, along with Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, and Secretary of War – which was eventually replaced by the Secretary of Defense position after World War II.
The nation’s first official Secretary of State was Thomas Jefferson – who went on to become the third President of the United States. In addition to Jefferson, five other Secretaries of State became president, the most recent being James Buchanan in the mid-19th century.
