happening now. No.
QUESTION: No one has died because of the aid cuts? Are all those aid organizations lying?
SECRETARY RUBIO: That’s ridiculous. Well, first of all – well, then they died because England didn’t give enough money or Canada didn’t give more or China didn’t. Let’s blame the other countries who don’t do any foreign aid. How about China? I mean, China’s the second largest economy in the world. They don’t give money to these projects. So did people die because China didn’t give more money?
QUESTION: So you’re no longer disputing that the aid cuts have cost people’s lives? You’re no longer disputing that?
SECRETARY RUBIO: It didn’t – I think anybody who tells you that somehow it’s the United States – if we cut a dollar, somehow we’re responsible for some horrific thing that’s going on in the world. It’s just not true. Beyond that, I would say that in some of these places that they cite, the reason why the aid didn’t get there —
QUESTION: Well, if that dollar’s not going to feeding someone or medicine, someone’s going to die, aren’t they?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No. Excuse me, George. One of the reasons why some of these places didn’t get the aid is not because we cut the aid. It’s because there’s a war going on and the aid never got to the people. So in Sudan, for example, it’s not just a humanitarian catastrophe; it’s a war zone. Okay? The aid is stolen. The aid is impeded. In fact, they use aid as a tool against the people, and so blocking aid is a tool and an arm of war. So in some of these places, the reason why the aid isn’t getting there is it can’t be distributed.
Look at Haiti. One of the reasons why aid can’t be distributed in Haiti is you can send all the aid in the world you want; it gets hijacked and stolen by criminal gangs that control the country. And so they’re the ones to blame for whatever happening there, not us, who’ve provided more aid than anybody else to Haiti, in Africa, in virtually every part of the world.
QUESTION: Well, let me just try one more time. Are you standing by the – are you standing by your contention that no one has died?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No one has died because the United States has cut aid, no. People have died because gangs steal the aid. People have died because the distributors of aid have not done well. People have died because other countries haven’t stepped up. But the United States has saved more lives, and continues to save more lives, than any other country in the world. And we’re going to continue to do it, but we’re going to do it the right way and in a responsible way. We’re not going to continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work and in some cases were flat-out corrupt.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thanks for your time this morning.
