Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a forceful defense of American sovereignty on Friday night, using a keynote address at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention in Washington to attack the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and what he called a "global elite" seeking to constrain U.S. power.
It was Rubio's first major speech since Election Day, and he used it to rally a movement still reeling from devastating losses in the midterm elections. The program ran for roughly 84 minutes and included both his prepared Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture and questions from law students.
Rubio accused international institutions of turning international law into a weapon against the United States. He condemned the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the "global elite" and organizations staffed by "international activists and bureaucrats," all of which he said want to weaken the United States.
He reserved his sharpest words for the ICC. Americans never agreed to the court's authority, he said, yet it and its allies have made themselves "judge and jury and executioner of the international order". Paraphrasing the Roman general Pompey the Great, Rubio warned that if the court tried to enforce its edicts against Americans, his answer would be "Stop quoting laws to men with swords."
The Trump administration has sanctioned ICC judges and officials, and Rubio has repeatedly tied those sanctions to the court's actions against Israel. When announcing earlier rounds, he described the ICC as "a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel."
Rubio also linked what he described as the weaponization of international law to "activist courts" at home. In his closing, he said that to submit to "radical judges or soulless global bureaucrats" would be to betray American identity.
In the question-and-answer session, he summed up his approach to foreign policy in one line. "I'm on the American side of every issue," Rubio declared, drawing applause. He added that the fact he even had to say so was stunning, and reminded the audience that he is the Secretary of State of the United States.
Rubio also defended the Iran war, arguing that it was necessary to stop the threat of the Islamic Republic obtaining a nuclear weapon.
On the midterm results, he urged patience. "Great things that last are built in decades, not election cycles," he told the audience. The crowd met him with a standing ovation, AFP reported.
