Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revealed a bizarre incident aboard Air Force One in which senior officials spent roughly 90 minutes wondering whether an unidentified person sleeping on the aircraft was actually dead.
Rubio recounted the unusual episode during an appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast, explaining that the incident occurred while officials were returning from China.
According to Rubio, the individual was sleeping inside a conference room aboard Air Force One and remained motionless despite significant activity and noise around them.
The situation eventually became concerning enough that Rubio and others began discussing whether someone should intervene.
“We spent about 90 minutes sort of debating should we make a move?” Rubio recalled.
“Should I call the doc?” he continued. “Should we deal with this?”
Rubio said officials faced an awkward dilemma.
If the person was simply enjoying an unusually deep sleep, waking them and summoning medical personnel could create an embarrassing situation.
“Because it’s embarrassing if you wake them up,” Rubio said, imagining the individual responding, “Oh, I was just sleeping.”
But officials were also considering a much more serious possibility.
“But if they were dead, like what do you do?” Rubio said.
“You have a dead body on the plane,” he continued. “Who’s going to — what do you deal with that?”
According to Rubio, the unidentified person had managed to sleep through “a lot of noise” and did not appear to be “responding to any of the stimulus” around them.
He also recalled concerns about the person’s breathing.
“The breathing pattern was difficult,” Rubio said.
Despite the mounting concern, Rubio said officials apparently did not summon the physician or wake the individual during the roughly 90-minute discussion.
The mystery eventually resolved itself.
“Luckily, the person was fine,” Rubio said.
Rubio did not reveal the identity of the person involved, leaving unanswered questions about who managed to sleep so deeply aboard the presidential aircraft.
He also did not provide the exact date of the flight or identify the other officials who participated in the discussion.
The omission quickly fueled jokes and speculation on social media.
“The person was probably Mitch McConnell,” one X user joked.
There is no evidence that McConnell was the person Rubio described, and the secretary of state offered no indication of the sleeper’s identity.
Another social media user questioned why officials did not simply wake the person regardless of the potential awkwardness.
The story comes after Rubio faced questions about a separate sleeping-related matter during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing roughly a month earlier.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) asked Rubio whether he had attended multiple meetings where President Donald Trump had fallen asleep.
“I’ve never seen him fall asleep,” Rubio responded.
“On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem,” he added.
Rubio said Trump’s limited sleeping schedule keeps administration officials busy and noted that the president contacts him early in the morning, per the Conservative Brief.
Lieu disputed Rubio’s characterization and pointed to footage from a Cabinet meeting that he argued 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 personally witnessed Trump fall asleep.
No formal congressional action related to Lieu’s accusation has been reported.
As for the Air Force One episode, several details remain unknown, including exactly when it occurred and who prompted the extraordinary discussion.
Rubio appeared able to laugh about the situation in retrospect, however, after what officials apparently feared could be a death aboard Air Force One turned out to be nothing more than an exceptionally deep sleep.
