Rubio: Choice Shouldn’t Be Between ISIS or Assad, Both Need to Go
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RUBIO: “I have an understanding of exactly what it is Russia and Putin are doing. And it's a pretty straightforward. He wants to reposition Russia, once again, as a geopolitical force. Here's what you're going to see in the next few weeks, the Russians will begin to fly combat missions in that region, not just targeting ISIS, but in order to prop up Assad.”
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KELLY: “How about that? It was just two weeks ago that Senator Marco Rubio said that exact thing at the last GOP debate. Predicting that Russia would launch air strikes in Syria, sparing ISIS terrorists potentially but targeting those who are fighting the Assad regime. A prediction we saw unfold earlier today. Joining me now, republican presidential candidate, Senator Marco Rubio. Senator, you nailed it. I mean, that's exactly what we're now seeing. How did you know that was going to happen?”
RUBIO: “Well, it was quite predictable. It already been reported in the media that the Russians were positioning airfields in Syria and it was clear why, they were propping up Assad. And they make conduct some operations against ISIS but this is not about ISIS, this is about propping up Assad, who was a client state of both Iran and Vladimir Putin. And it's about something even broader. And that it's showing the world that Russia is now a power broker in the Middle East. And the message they're sending is, they're actually more reliable than America under Barack Obama. So this is a multifaceted plan by Vladimir Putin to prop up Assad but more importantly to replace America as the most important outside power broker in the region and that's the purpose of these airstrikes.”
KELLY: “How big a setback is this to the United States and our allies in the region?”
RUBIO: “Well, it diminishes America's importance and the eyes of the world, we're beginning to look like a junior partner under Barack Obama. You saw that this week play out at the United Nations. And nations in that region, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and others looking and say, you know, America, we've had a tough time getting them under Barack Obama to do anything meaningful. In fact, all they talked about is what they're not going to do or how they're going to get out of here. Maybe Russia would be a good partner to work with.”
KELLY: “Just last night, here on the Fox News Channel, one of your competitors for the 2016 nomination, Donald Trump, had a different idea for how to deal with Syria, with ISIS in Syria that looked a lot like what we saw today from Putin. Here's what he said.”
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TRUMP: “Putin has now taken over what we've started. And he's going into Syria. And he frankly wants to fight ISIS and I think that's a wonderful thing.”
O'REILLY: “Once Putin gets in and fights ISIS on behalf of Assad, Putin runs Syria. He owns it. He'll never get out. Never.”
TRUMP: “All right. Okay, fine, I mean, you know, we can be in Syria, do you want to run Syria?”
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KELLY: “Your thoughts on that Senator in the –“
RUBIO: “Well, he's wrong about that. And it's just a misunderstanding about the reality of this. The purpose of what the Russians are doing is not to defeat ISIS. I mean, they ultimately -- they needed to defeat ISIS in Syria in order to protect Assad. But the purpose of this is to prop-up Assad.”
KELLY: “But Trump's answer to that is, so what, Assad, you know, if I had to choose between Assad and ISIS, I guess I side with Assad.”
RUBIO: “Assad is a brutal dictator, but he's worse than that. This is a man who gassed his own people. But going further than that, Assad has given refuge, he's given assistance to every major terrorist's organization in the Middle East, he's an anti-American thug. In the Middle East, that's always acted against his national interests. That continues to do so even to this day. And I don't think the choice should be Assad or ISIS, I think they both need to go. I think it's important that they both be replace?”
KELLY: “What should we do?”
RUBIO: “ISIS with obviously -- well, the first thing we need to do is put together a coalition with our Sunni allies in the region. ISIS is a Sunni force and they can only be permanently defeated by Sunnis themselves. The United States will have to help put that coalition together. But it would be Sunni ground forces from Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and even Sunnis from inside of Iraq and Syria –“
KELLY: “Before I let you go. The news just hitting a short time ago that apparently, Hillary Clinton's e-mails, her private e-mail was attempted to be hacked, or at least five attempts or made to hack it by the Russians. And this is just now breaking. So your thoughts on that? On the insecurity of that e-mail she was using for –“
RUBIO: “Yes. When this whole thing about the e-mail broke, one of the first things I said was, she made it susceptible to foreign intelligence agencies. Sensitive information about U.S. strategy and U.S. policies. And I bet you it's not just the Russians, I don't know this for sure. But I bet that you're going to find the Chinese, as well. And maybe some other intelligence sources tried to act as that as well. Again, I thought of all the things that have happened here, the lying is a big deal of course. But the exposure of American sensitive information to foreign intelligence agencies by communicating in an insecure manner is incompetence, it is malpractices, it's inexcusable.”
KELLY: “They're looking into it. And they haven't confirmed whether the hacking was successful in these particular instances. But at least five times it was attempted by the Russians according to latest news. Senator Marco Rubio, thank you so much for being here.”
RUBIO: “Thank you.”
