Rubio unloads on ‘alarmists,’ touts State Dept disaster response after USAID closure

By Fox News · Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: Those worried about shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were wrong, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio , who touted the agency’s record in delivering support in the wake of Hurricane Melissa that ravaged the Caribbean in October. Although USAID historically functioned as an independent agency to deliver aid to impoverished countries and development assistance, the State Department announced in March that it would absorb remaining operations and functions in an effort to streamline operations to deliver foreign assistance amid concerns that USAID did not advance U.S. core interests. The move resulted in cuts for thousands of USAID employees. Critics including Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt., said that upending the agency would "lead to millions of preventable deaths," while a group of House Democrats wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in February as USAID cuts got underway that changes would lead to increased maternal and child mortality. But Rubio now claims those skeptics’ fears were unfounded. ‘HYSTERIA’: WHITE HOUSE SHUTS DOWN CONCERNS OVER USAID DOCUMENT PURGE "Alarmists in politics and the media forecasted that the closure of USAID would result in catastrophe. Now, nearly a year later, they’ve been proven wrong," Rubio said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The State Department has realigned foreign assistance with the interests of the American people, streamlined disaster response capabilities, and leveraged the ingenuity of American companies to save lives." Specifically, Rubio pointed to the assistance the State Department provided in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa , which hit Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane and was the strongest to strike Kingston since the island started tracking its storms 174 years ago. The State Department deployed a regional disaster assistance response team (DART) and activated U.S.-based urban search and rescue (USAR) teams to support response efforts in the region as pa…