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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio to discuss today’s inauguration, the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden’s immigration plans, and the impending impeachment trial in the Senate. Listen to the full interview here and see below for excerpts from the interview.
On today’s inauguration:
“At noon today we’ll have a 46th President of the United States… We have a lot of work to do, these are not normal times that we live in, we have a lot of challenges.
“This idea that Donald Trump created all these problems — Donald Trump was elected because of some of the challenges we face in our country. He didn’t create them, he was elected because of them. And those challenges did not leave with him today, they’re not going to magically solve themselves because we have a new president. There’s still real anxiety in this country, and real fear, and concern, and those things need to be addressed for us to be able to move forward as a country.”
On the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic:
“We probably will never know exactly how this happened. I’m not a biological expert, but from what I’ve seen, all the literature that is out there, it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t something that was engineered. But what we don’t know is whether this was something they were experimenting on in a lab and someone got infected because they had an accident and then crossed over, or was it something that crossed over in the normal course of life. And we probably will never know that because the Chinese are not going to want us to know that because it’s embarrassing for them, and that’s what totalitarian governments do. It’s like Chernobyl. They’re always going to try and cover up any mistakes that were made …
“You see the impact, it has literally cost the world, just in this country alone, 400,000 Americans have lost their lives, that number will continue to go up unfortunately. Trillions of dollars in spending before all is said and done. Around the world it’s devastated countries. It’s upended all of our lives — it’s extraordinary. I think when the full story of this is known, China’s reputation will be damaged, and rightfully so, forever.”
On immigration reform:
“Right now, we have some very serious problems. We have the pandemic we just talked about. We have the fact that the core fundamental identity of this country, a country where anyone — whether you have a Ph.D. or you dropped out of highschool — anyone can find a good job, get married, own a home in a safe neighborhood, raise a family and retire with dignity. That’s the American dream, and millions of people feel like it is out of reach for them, and will never be in reach for them. We’ve got to deal with those things first, not to mention, as you said, China and everything else. I’m not saying immigration’s not important — it is — but I don’t think it’s as important as those other things.
“You mentioned the people that are coming [from Honduras]. You could see that from a mile away. When you send out a message that people are able to come here and stay even if they’re here illegally, you’re going to encourage more people to come.
“But here’s the bottom line. Like most Americans, I believe we need to have immigration. Immigration is good for this country. But it has to be via a system of laws. Like every country in the world, we have to have laws, and rules have to be followed, and those laws have to be enforced. That’s what every American believes in. And they want to see that we’re going to enforce those laws first.”
On President Biden’s ability to enact immigration reform through Executive Order:
“[He] can extend DACA and he can do other things, he can defer deportation. He could just decide not to enforce the law, which is a de facto amnesty. You can just say, ‘we’re not going to deport anybody.’ And I think, in fact, they have said that they will stop all deportations.
“Look, I don’t take pleasure in seeing this… I know these people, okay? This isn’t something I read about in a book. I know people who come from Central America, they’re here to work, they send money back to their families. Trust me, I know these people, I know them personally. It breaks my heart to know their stories. But I also understand that if you announce that you’re not going to enforce the law, what you are basically doing is not just being nice to the people who are here, you are inviting more people to come because they know once they get in they’re going to be able to stay for a long time and they’ll figure it out later.
“And frankly, it’s a dangerous journey to begin with. It’s not in our national interest to do that. We also have to take into consideration what that means for our country. No country can be a place where people just show up.”
On foreign aid and immigration:
“What can we do to help those countries address the reason why people are leaving… If a factory that makes certain things is now in China, in Vietnam, and it’s never going to be in America, for economic reasons or what have you, it probably is good for it to be in El Salvador, Honduras… if it has to be somewhere else, let it be some place in our hemisphere — it’s closer to our market, but also provides jobs for people. But obviously it’s up to those countries to step up to the plate, and we should be willing to help them, because I do think that will help address some of this.
“We don’t have a Costa Rican illegal immigration problem. Frankly we don’t have a Mexican illegal immigration problem right now the way we once did. People are primarily coming from Central America and then some other places like Cuba… But there are plenty of countries in the Western Hemisphere that are not sources of illegal immigration, because people don’t feel compelled to have to leave those countries. But the countries that have political problems like Venezuela and Nicaragua and countries that have public safety and economic problems like El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala — those are the source countries for illegal immigration. If we can do something to help them stabilize it that would be great, but we’ve been trying. We can’t just throw money at it and expect it to happen, there’s got to be a real commitment on the other side as well.”
On DHS Secretary Nominee Alejandro Mayorkas and America’s asylum laws:
“When [Alejandro Mayorkas] talks about following our asylum laws, what he’s basically saying is, people figured it out, and they figured out that if you come in and claim asylum, you’ll get a date in court and that’s not tomorrow, it could be two and a half or three years from now. And in the interim, you’re released into the community pending that hearing… Many of these people never show up to the court hearing, they vanish into the country. So people recognize that as long as they say the right word, the magic word when they cross into the border, they are going to be processed and released pending a hearing that they may or may not show up for. So when [Alejandro Mayorkas] talks about that it sounds really legalistic and normal, but in fact what he’s saying is, we’re going to go back to that policy. And you can assume we’re going to see a lot of people coming.”
On the impending impeachment trial in the Senate:
“We have this raging fire already and I just don’t think that when you have a fire that’s already pretty intense, the last thing you do is come in and pour more fuel on it. I also think that given all the challenges we have… we have 400,000 people dead and thousands of businesses wiped out by coronavirus, we have the threat of China, the growing threat of Iran, North Korea has nuclear weapons, Russia continues to be an adversary, we were just victimized by the biggest, most dangerous hack in American history, our economy needs to be reinvigorated after going through this pandemic. All these challenges, but the first thing we’re going to do is tie up the Senate for a week or two on a trial to remove a President that’s already out of office. I just don’t understand how that’s a wise thing to do. On top of the fact that all it’s going to do is churn up some of these divisions at a time when we really need to put some of this stuff aside.
“This is not a game. We inherited the greatest country in the history of the world, and it seems like we’re trying to ruin it on purpose. And I don’t get it.”