On Wednesday morning, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) pursued an aggressive line of questioning during Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson‘s confirmation hearing — specifically as it pertained to Russia, with Rubio pressing Tillerson on whether or not he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.

Meeting with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Rubio refused to commit to voting for President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee.

“This is a very important decision,” And I recognize the hardened split on the committee, and what it would all mean. So I have to make sure I’m 100% behind whatever decision that I make. Because once I make it, it isn’t gonna change.”

Rubio was referring to the fact that the 21-person Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is holding Tillerson’s confirmation hearing, has 11 republicans and 10 democrats. So if all 10 democrats vote against Tillerson, it would only take one republican nay vote to prevent the nomination from reaching a full Senate vote.

When asked if he was prepared to be the lone Republican on the committee to vote against Tillerson’s confirmation, effectively killing Tillerson’s nomination, Rubio said, “I’m prepared to do what’s right.”

Rubio added that the position of Secretary of State demanded more scrutiny than others because of its high-visibility.

“He’s been nominated to what I believe is the second most important position in the US executive branch,” Rubio said. “The second most visible American on the planet from a government perspective. And so I intend to take this very seriously.”

Rubio went on to praise Tillerson for wanting to leave the private sector for public service, but he added that his line of inquiry was aggressive for a reason.

This is a gentleman who didn’t need to do this. I mean, he was headed for very comfortable retirement. And the only reason he’s doing this is ’cause he loves America and wants to serve it. And I respect that deeply and I wanted him to understand it. But I also wanted him to understand these questions were designed for a very specific reason. And that is that if we’re going to have moral clarity in our foreign policy, we need to be clear. And I don’t want to see us move towards a foreign policy in which human rights only matters when nothing else matters. When something more important isn’t standing in the way.

Watch above, via CNN.

[featured image via screengrab]

–

Follow Joe DePaolo (@joe_depaolo) on Twitter

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]