--- title: Marco Rubio Struggles to Say Whether Iraq Invasion Was a 'Mistake' description: Latest GOP presidential hopeful to get entangled in the question canonical: https://time.com/3881844/marco-rubio-iraq-invasion-mistake-question/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-17T19:04:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:39.652Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio Struggles to Say Whether Iraq Invasion Was a 'Mistake' og:description: Latest GOP presidential hopeful to get entangled in the question og:url: https://time.com/3881844/marco-rubio-iraq-invasion-mistake-question/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio Struggles to Say Whether Iraq Invasion Was a 'Mistake' twitter:description: Latest GOP presidential hopeful to get entangled in the question twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Marco Rubio Struggles to Say Whether Iraq Invasion Was a 'Mistake' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e318acc4-ec74-4c6c-94d2-38804367933d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 17, 2015 7:04 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 17, 2015 7:04 PM UTC Florida Senator Marco Rubio became the latest GOP presidential hopeful on Sunday to become [entangled](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/17/rubio-defends-bush-iraq-and-tougher-stance-on-foreign-policy/) in answering a question about whether it was a mistake for the U.S. to go to war in Iraq in 2003. When asked by _Fox News Sunday_ host Chris Wallace, Rubio said it wasn’t a mistake at the time by then-President George W. Bush, given the intelligence he was presented in regards to weapons of mass destruction said to be in Iraq. Wallace asked Rubio whether that was a flip-flop from previous answers, and then pressed him several more times. “It’s not a mistake. I still say it was not a mistake because the President was presented with intelligence that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,” Rubio said. “It was governed by a man who had committed atrocities in the past with weapons of mass destruction.” The question came after a week when a number of confirmed or presumed Republican presidential candidates found themselves addressing the same issue. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush came under fire for multiple answers about his brother’s action. He later clarified that he [wouldn’t have ordered the invasion](http://time.com/3859074/jeb-bush-iraq/) given what he knows now about the intelligence at the time. \[[Fox News](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/17/rubio-defends-bush-iraq-and-tougher-stance-on-foreign-policy/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3881844/marco-rubio-iraq-invasion-mistake-question/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3881844/marco-rubio-iraq-invasion-mistake-question/"},"headline":"Marco Rubio Struggles to Say Whether Iraq Invasion Was a 'Mistake'","datePublished":"2015-05-17T19:04:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:39.652Z","description":"Latest GOP presidential hopeful to get entangled in the question","url":"https://time.com/3881844/marco-rubio-iraq-invasion-mistake-question/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3881844/marco-rubio-iraq-invasion-mistake-question/","name":"Marco Rubio Struggles to Say Whether Iraq Invasion Was a 'Mistake'"}}]}] ```