News

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Fox and Friends to discuss the Democrats’ COVID relief bill and the crisis at the border. See below for highlights and watch the video here.

On the Democrats’ proposed COVID relief bill: 

“The broader bill, it’s a fraud. So look, this is a trick, it’s called the ‘Washington Special,’ right? You put out a bill, you call it COVID relief. And people that are on their way to work, what they hear on the news is a $1.9 trillion COVID relief. And people are like, ‘Ok that’s good, because we need relief and $1.9 trillion is a lot of money,’ and so forth.

“The problem is that’s not what the bill is. That’s what the packaging is, but on the inside it’s all kinds of other things. You know, ultimately it aims to get money into the hands of Planned Parenthood. What does Planned Parenthood have to do with COVID? And by the way, they raise millions of dollars from celebrities and everybody all over the world.

“This is not just about helping local governments that have been hit by the pandemic. It’s about bailing out some of these states, you know, the predator governor of New York, the disastrous governor in California, other places that were irresponsible even before the pandemic.

“And so, I’m prepared to vote for more COVID relief. I think we need it. There’s all kinds of things that I’m for, the individual payments that President Trump was asking for at the end of his presidency and other things like that. But this is not it, and I’m not going to get punked. And we shouldn’t get pressured into voting for something that isn’t what it says it is, and that people are going to regret once this thing passes and they see what’s in it.”

On Democrats’ efforts to disregard the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling on minimum wage: 

“You know, it makes me laugh. You know, if [Republicans] did that when Trump was president, when we were in the majority, [Democrats] would say we were authoritarians and we were violating the rule of law. But now they are openly asking that the rules of the Senate be violated. Listen, there’s so much hypocrisy that it’s impossible to keep up with it.” 

On the ongoing border crisis: 

“This is all about messaging and imagery, right? And so when you have somebody run for president that basically sends out the impression that, yes, we’re going to welcome people even if they come here illegally, that stuff spreads.

“And then these folks don’t get here on their own. There are traffickers that go out and recruit people and say, ‘Hey, I can get you into American for $5,000, $3,000, if you bring a kid with you, or if you send your kid with somebody else. 

“So, you’ve now created an incentive for children to be sent towards the border as a passport to get into the country, and that’s what’s happening. And in Honduras in particular you’re seeing a lot of activity from these trafficking networks. And, you know, the government there doesn’t have the ability to stop it, but even if they did, they don’t have the incentive. You know, 25% of Honduras’ economy, of its GDP, is remittances from the United States. So they have a built-in incentive to see people come here and send money back.

“This is going to get really bad, really fast and it’s about much more than just places where people are being detained. It’s about a rush on the border that I think creates all kinds of chaos and a humanitarian crisis.

“I mean, we don’t know how many kids die on the way here, how many are sexually abused, how many are killed. We have no idea the horrible things that happen on that journey here.”