Rubio asked about Trump's hellhole remark against India. What he said

Marco Rubio sidestepped questions over Donald Trump's endorsement of "hellhole" remark about India and Indians.

In Short

• Rubio dismissed the issue as random online behaviour and trolls
• Trump's repost of a racist message sparked outrage in India earlier this year
• Rubio emphasised Trump's support for India despite the controversy

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared visibly uncomfortable after being confronted in New Delhi over racist remarks targeting Indians and Indian Americans -- including a controversial comment issued by US President Donald Trump which referred to New Delhi as a "hellhole".

The exchange unfolded during a joint press conference on Sunday following Rubio's meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, where the top US diplomat was expected to focus on strengthening ties between Washington and New Delhi.

Instead, Rubio found himself cornered by questions about growing anti-India rhetoric from sections of American political and online discourse, at times amplified or outright endorsed by Trump and members of his administration.

"We have a lot of racist comments coming from the United States against Indians, Indian Americans. This goes against the basic premise of the India-US relationship. What's your take on that?" Rubio was asked.

Rubio immediately appeared caught off guard.

"Who made those comments?" he asked. "Which ones?"

The reporter responded that the comments were "pretty well known" and had received "endorsement of those comments", an apparent reference to Trump reposting a "hellhole" remark made earlier this year by conservative radio host Michael Savage.

RUBIO STRUGGLES TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM CONTROVERSY

Rather than directly addressing Trump's role in amplifying the remark, Rubio attempted to dilute the issue by framing it as random internet behaviour.

"I'm sure that there are people who have made comments online and in other places, because every country in the world has stupid people. I'm sure there are stupid people here. There are stupid people in the United States who make dumb comments all the time," Rubio said.

The response did little to answer the actual concern being raised that the comments were not coming from anonymous fringe accounts but were amplified by the sitting US president himself.

Rubio repeatedly tried to sidestep the issue as general online noise after he was directly asked about Trump's repost during Monday's press interaction.

"I don't even know. Some of those could be a troll, it could be a bot. But the bottom line is that in the modern era, you go online and there people saying all kinds of crazy stuff online. I don't even know if they're real people or who they are," he said.

The difficulty for Rubio, however, was that the controversy was never about anonymous internet users. It stemmed from Trump himself.

When pressed on the controversy, he said, "The President loves India. The President is a big fan of India, a big fan of Prime Minister Modi."

"I wouldn't be here if the President (Trump) didn't want me to be here."

HOW THE 'HELLHOLE' CONTROVERSY BEGAN

The controversy erupted in April after Trump reposted a message on Truth Social from conservative radio host Michael Savage during a discussion around birthright citizenship in the United States.

The post read: "A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring in their entire family from China, or India or some other hellhole on the planet."

Trump's repost triggered outrage in India. The Ministry of External Affairs later condemned the remarks as "uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste", while stressing that such comments did not reflect the actual nature of India-US relations.

That context made Rubio's effort to dismiss the controversy during his Delhi visit even more politically awkward.

Rubio is currently on a four-day visit to India and is expected to participate in a Quad meeting involving the US, India, Japan and Australia.

- Ends
With inputs from agencies