Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to claim Wednesday that he had never seen President Trump fall asleep. It didn’t go well for him.
Democratic Representative Ted Lieu confronted Rubio in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, saying that “you’ve been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep.” Rubio audaciously claimed that was false.
“I’ve never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem ’cause he calls me at two in the morning, he calls me at five in the morning, and you know, I like to sleep a little bit, maybe not 12 hours, but at least six—” Rubio said, going on a tangent about Trump’s late-night habits before Lieu cut him off.
“Secretary Rubio, I’m going to show you in a moment a video that shows you just lied to Congress,” Lieu said, going on to play a video of Rubio speaking at a Cabinet meeting in May while Trump dozes off next to him.
Rubio: I have never seen Trump fall asleep.
Lieu: I’m going to show you a video that shows you just lied to congress. Here is a video of him asleep while you are talking. pic.twitter.com/2SE0DjkyAW
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 3, 2026
“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,” Lieu said. “So I’m gonna ask you, have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep or had trouble staying awake?”
Rubio doubled down, repeating that he’d never seen Trump fall asleep and that Trump wasn’t sleeping in the clip Lieu showed.
“So you’re lying again? You’re lying consistently to Congress. You’re lying to Congress, Secretary Rubio,” Lieu replied. Lieu went on to show two more videos of Trump falling asleep, including one most recently at a Memorial Day event for fallen soldiers.
Lieu hammered Rubio as his time concluded, saying, “Instead of holding North Korean–style Cabinet meetings where everyone goes around the room kissing Donald Trump’s ass, I’m gonna 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.”
Lieu: Instead of holding North Korea style cabinet meetings where everyone kisses Trump’s ass, I’m going to ask you to come clean—there is something wrong with Trump. There’s a reason he keeps going to the hospital and they keep giving him cognitive tests. We have not seen him in… pic.twitter.com/xoJIL3SjjO
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 3, 2026
Rubio dismissed Lieu, calling his words absurd and ridiculous and making absurd claims about Trump “working inhumane hours” and taking shots at President Biden’s cognitive abilities. But the videos didn’t lie, and Rubio’s pronouncements, as confident as they sounded, looked hollow next to video evidence of Trump repeatedly dozing off. It’s quite obvious Rubio is covering for his boss.