Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described a strange moment aboard Air Force One that left some of the country’s most senior officials uncertain about how to respond. During the flight back from China, Rubio and others reportedly spent roughly 90 minutes weighing whether to step in while a person in an aircraft conference room lay completely still, apparently unaware of the activity around them.
Rubio disclosed the episode during an appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast. He said he and fellow officials wondered whether the individual, who appeared to be sleeping, might actually be dead.
A Debate Over Whether to Act
“We spent about 90 minutes sort of debating should we make a move?” Rubio recalled.
He said the group kept asking practical questions. “Should I call the doc?” he continued. “Should we deal with this?”
According to Rubio, the officials hesitated partly because waking someone who was simply sleeping deeply could be awkward. “Because it’s embarrassing if you wake them up,” he said, imagining the person’s reply: “Oh, I was just sleeping.”
The other possibility was far graver. “But if they were dead, like what do you do?” Rubio said. “You have a dead body on the plane.” He added, “Who’s going to — what do you deal with that?”
Signs of Concern
Rubio said the person had slept through “a lot of noise” and was not “responding to any of the stimulus,” which left those nearby increasingly worried. He also said “the breathing pattern was difficult,” another detail that raised fears something serious could be wrong.
Even so, no one apparently called the physician or tried to wake the individual during the roughly 90-minute discussion. The question resolved itself without anyone having to make a call. “Luckily, the person was fine,” Rubio said.
An Unidentified Sleeper and Online Speculation
Rubio did not say who the deep sleeper was, and no other official has publicly identified the person. That gap quickly fueled speculation on social media. One user on X guessed, “The person was probably Mitch McConnell.” Another joked that someone should tell Rubio, “I would’ve just woken him up I don’t care… who cares if it’s embarrassing.”
There is no evidence supporting any of the names floated online, and Rubio offered no clues that would establish who the passenger was.
A Separate Sleep Controversy
The story drew additional attention because Rubio had faced questions about sleep during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing roughly a month earlier. Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu asked, “Secretary Rubio, have you been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep?”
Rubio replied, “I’ve never seen him fall asleep,” adding, “On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem.” He said Trump’s demanding schedule keeps administration officials busy and that the president often contacts him early in the morning.
Lieu challenged that account. He said he had video from a cabinet meeting that he believed showed Trump with his eyes closed while Rubio was speaking. “Secretary Rubio, I’m going to show you, in a moment, a video that shows you just lied to Congress,” Lieu said.
Rubio maintained that he had never seen Trump fall asleep. No formal congressional action tied to Lieu’s accusation has been reported.
Still an Open Question
The identity of the person in Rubio’s Air Force One account remains unknown, as do the exact date of the flight and the names of the other officials involved in the discussion. Rubio, however, seemed to treat the episode with humor now that he knows there was no medical emergency.
