Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that he and other officials spent roughly 90 minutes aboard Air Force One uncertain whether to intervene after discovering a person lying motionless in a conference room.
Rubio described the incident during an appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast, detailing how the group grappled with whether the individual was merely sleeping deeply or experiencing a medical emergency. The officials hesitated to act, worried about the embarrassment of waking someone who was simply resting.
What Happened
“We spent about 90 minutes sort of debating should we make a move?” Rubio recalled from the flight returning from China. The officials observed that the person had slept through significant noise and showed no response to stimuli around them.
Rubio noted that “the breathing pattern was difficult,” raising additional concerns among those present. Despite their worries, no one summoned the aircraft’s physician or attempted to wake the individual during the extended deliberation.
“But if they were dead, like what do you do? You have a dead body on the plane,” Rubio said, describing the stakes of the decision. The situation ultimately resolved without intervention when the person eventually woke up.
The Resolution
“Luckily, the person was fine,” Rubio said, bringing the unusual episode to an uneventful conclusion. He declined to identify the sleeping individual, offering no details about who else was present during the 90-minute discussion.
The identity of the person and the exact date of the flight remain unknown, prompting online speculation about the mystery passenger. Rubio appeared to treat the entire episode with humor in retrospect, now that the outcome proved benign.
The Broader Context
The anecdote surfaced amid separate scrutiny of Rubio regarding sleeping at official events. During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing roughly a month earlier, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California pressed Rubio about whether President Trump had fallen asleep in meetings.
“I’ve never seen him fall asleep,” Rubio responded at the time. “On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem,” he added, referencing the president’s demanding schedule.