Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said relatively little about the Trump administration’s recent deal with Iran to end the war despite his role as the nation’s chief diplomat, though it would be an overstatement to suggest the Florida Republican has been disengaged.

On the contrary, Rubio has met this week with leaders of several Middle Eastern countries, ostensibly to extend some reassurances to U.S. partners in the region.

The New York Times, however, reported on a detail from one of those meetings that stood out. From the article:

Mr. Rubio began his travels on Wednesday by meeting with the Emirati leader, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, in Abu Dhabi. The two spoke about Iran and commerce between the United States and the Emirates, the State Department said in a summary. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Michael Boulos, a businessman with no official government position, sat beside Mr. Rubio at the meeting.

“He was just there to see me and catch up,” Mr. Rubio said. When asked whether Mr. Boulos was involved in policy discussions, the secretary said, “No, no.”

The secretary apparently wasn’t embarrassed by any of this: Rubio posted a photograph via social media showing him meeting with the United Arab Emirate’s president, with Donald Trump’s son-in-law seated just to Rubio’s right.

Ordinarily when we think about one of Trump’s sons-in-law having access and attending important meetings, the focus is on Jared Kushner. Boulos’ access, however, is a separate matter entirely.

Boulos, who’s married to Tiffany Trump, gained public attention last summer when the Times reported on the businessman and his family benefiting financially from his proximity to the Trump family. Though Boulos denied ever having done anything wrong, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee soon after launched an investigation into him. (Boulos holds no official role in the U.S. government, though he is a trustee of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation.)

Ten months later, Rubio apparently thought it would be a good idea to bring Boulos along to a meeting with the president of the UAE, seating him directly next to the secretary of state.

Asked about Boulos’ role, Rubio specifically told reporters, “He was just here because his brother lives here, and I’m a good friend of Michael’s, so we had a chance to catch up.”

That might sound benign, but the circumstances were, at a minimum, curious. No one would have blinked an eye about the secretary catching up with a good friend during an overseas trip, but Rubio didn’t just hang out with an old pal. He brought a private businessman and Trump relative to a foreign meeting while seated across from the president of a Middle Eastern country.

I have a hunch we haven’t heard the last of this one.

The post Rubio tries to explain why he brought Tiffany Trump’s husband to an official meeting appeared first on MS NOW.

Author: Source Author

From MS Now.