Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a heated congressional hearing on Wednesday, where he pressed for answers about President Donald Trump's health.
Lieu put Rubio on the spot as he presented a video from a December 2025 Cabinet meeting where the president appeared slumped over with his eyes closed as the secretary spoke.
Asked point-blank if he had attended meetings where Trump had fallen asleep, Rubio's response could only be described as frantic denial.
"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 2 in the morning, he calls me at 5 in the morning," Rubio rambled. "I like to sleep a little bit, maybe not 12 hours, at least six ... The other day he was at the Oval Office at 12:30 a.m."
Lieu stopped the secretary, teeing up another clip of Trump in a similarly drowsy-looking state from last month and accusing him of lying.
"You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you," the congressman said as Rubio tried to get a word in.
"If Donald Trump can't stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, imagine what it is like when the cameras aren't there," Lieu went on. "So I'm gonna ask you, have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep or had trouble staying awake?"
Shooting down Lieu once more, he insisted the languid-looking president wasn't nodding off in the clip and told the congressman how "outrageous" the questions seemed for a hearing of the House's Foreign Affairs Committee.
"This is a joke!" Rubio fumed while Lieu steamrolled him to introduce a video from a French news show and claim Trump's "inability to stay awake on the job" has caused other nations to mock him as "weak" and "feeble."
Lieu called the incidents indisputable evidence something was "very wrong" with the president's health or cognitive abilities before playing another video of Trump and going in for the kill.
"Secretary Rubio, instead of holding North Korean-style Cabinet meeting where everybody goes around the room kissing Trump's ass, I'm gonna ask you to come clean with the American people," he said. "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."
As Rubio balked at the congressman's "ridiculous and absurd" questions and piled on more excuses, Lieu shot back saying, "Just keep lying, Secretary Rubio. Just keep lying."
Concerns over Trump's weary state have been compounded by the president's repeated visits to the hospital, visits which his head of Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, dismissed as "routine" during a Tuesday press briefing.
Pressed to answer why someone in "perfect health" would need four checkups since he was sworn in early last year, Oz simply said, "I think he likes the results."
