Rubio was an embarrassment and illustrative of why we're in a lot of the mess we're in. His sneering cross-examination basically amounted to this:
Rubio: "Mr Tillerson, do you agree that Vladimir Putin has created a political climate in which people are bullied, intimidated and cajoled into agreeing with everything his government says without looking into it for themselves?"
Tillerson: "I'm not ready to say that yet, I want to see the information for mys..."
Rubio: "Let the record show Mr Tillerson supports dictatorships. Now then Mr Tillerson, on October 4th of last year a child was killed in Syria. Putin's planes did it. Do you therefore now denounce Putin as a war criminal?"
Tillerson: "I'm soon to be Secretary of State which is a huge responsibility, so before making such a serious claim I need to see the intelligence for myse..."
Rubio: "Let the record show Mr Tillerson sees nothing wrong with the slaughter of children. Now then, Mr Tillerson, standing in the park yesterday I was wondering why a Frisbee gets larger the closer it gets. Then it hit me."
Tillerson: "Ha, yeah, that's a good one"
Rubio: "Let the record show that Mr Tillerson was laughing 30 seconds after I told him about Vladimir Putin murdering children"
It was fucking shameful. Tillerson was professional, respectful and composed (as his future position demands, I should add), and for this he was mocked before the world's cameras by Rubio. Rubio came off as a guy who resents that this outsider is entering his hallowed turf of politics.
It also pissed me off (it's a pet peeve of mine when politicians do this) how he played that trick of resignedly saying how little time he had left ("I've only got a minute and a half left"), the implication being that Tillerson had disappointed him and wasted everyone's time by not giving him the 'right' answer at the beginning. Rubio wants to suggest that if only he had had more time he would have got to other matters instead of only being able to read off his own rambling and often incoherent (he cited Putin's approval ratings as evidence for why he carried out the Moscow apartment bombings 45 seconds after suggesting there is no regard paid to public opinion in Russia) list of grievances and theories. It wasn't a hearing for Secretary of State, it was Marco Rubio announcing his 2020 candidacy.