‘You Are Lying to Congress!’ House Dem Throws Down With Marco Rubio Over Trump Sleeping in Meetings

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) brought video of President Donald Trump appearing to sleep during a Cabinet meeting to a House hearing on Wednesday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Lieu, a progressive Democrat from California and fierce Trump critic, sparred with Rubio over the clips and at one point accused Rubio of lying to Congress.

“Thank you, Secretary Rubio, for being here today. You have been at multiple meetings with President Trump. In a moment, I’m going to show you a video of one of these meetings. It is from last December. It’s a Cabinet meeting. I’m going to ask you to focus on President Trump, and you will see that he is sleeping while you are talking,” Lieu began his questioning during the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

Rubio could be heard saying, “Oh my God.”

“Please show the video,” Lieu added as Rubio laughed out loud.

A clip then showed Rubio speaking next to a slumped-over Trump, saying, “Products they make, and what American farmers grow and produce, has a fair shot to be sold around the world. On issue after issue, that’s been the case. You talk about foreign aid reforms. This is not our money. This is taxpayer money.”

“Secretary Rubio, have you been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep?” Lieu asked.

Rubio replied, “I’ve never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem, because he calls me at two in the morning, he calls at five in the morning, and you know, I like to sleep a little bit — maybe not 12 hours, but at least six. So he works. The other day he was at the Oval Office until 12:30 a.m. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Secretary Rubio, I’m going to show you in a moment a video that shows you just lied to Congress,” Lieu said as Rubio quipped, “Oh, okay.”

“So this is a video of a Cabinet meeting literally from last month where Donald Trump is sleeping while you are talking. Please show this video,” Lieu continued, showing another clip.

“You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you. If Donald Trump cannot stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, imagine what he’s like when the cameras are not there. So I’m going to ask you: have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep?” Lieu pressed, becoming more animated.

Rubio hit back, “I’ve never been in any meeting where he was falling asleep. And the things you’re showing me now — he was not falling asleep — and I think it’s outrageous that I’m before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives answering questions about sleep.”

“You’re lying to Congress, Secretary Rubio. So I’m going to show you another video in a moment. The president’s inability to stay awake on the job has caused other countries to perceive him differently. They mock him. They see he is weak and he is feeble. This is a video of a French news channel talking about Donald Trump falling asleep at a Memorial Day ceremony. Please show this video,” Lieu continued, showing a clip from French news.

“Donald Trump’s inability to stay awake on the job shows that there’s something very wrong with his health or cognitive abilities. And in fact, on a number of occasions, Donald Trump will contradict himself in literally the same meeting or interview. In this video I’m about to show, it shows that Donald Trump says the Iranian military is both destroyed and not destroyed at the same time, something that Dina Titus alluded to. Please show this video,” Lieu said before showing a clip of Trump:

Leadership that we’ve actually left their military alone — people would be surprised to hear that — because mistakes have been made in wars where you wipe out everybody and then you have a country that, you know, for 40 years can never rebuild. You look at what happened with Iraq. We did position them — they have no military, all they have is good talk and they have a fake press.

Lieu concluded his time with a statement, “So, Secretary Rubio, instead of holding North Korean-style cabinet meetings where everyone goes around the room kissing Donald Trump’s ass, I’m going to ask you to come clean with the American people and the White House as well. There’s something wrong with Donald Trump’s health or cognitive abilities. There’s a reason he keeps going to the hospital and they keep giving him cognitive tests. We have not seen the president in eight days. The American people deserve the truth. I yield back.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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