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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Fox and Friends to discuss Senate Republicans’ HEALS Act, his new small business relief package, the presidential election, the possibility of a safe return to youth team sports in the fall, and COVID-19 cases in South Florida. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.
On Senate Republicans’ HEALS Act:
“Anything we put out, the Democrats and Chuck Schumer are going to attack. Let’s not forget there’s an election in about two and a half months and they want to win those seats. So, we could’ve taken their bill and filed it, and they would’ve said, ‘well it’s not good enough, we want more.’ That’s just part of the political game. Ultimately, look, this bill touches on a lot of bases and things that we need to do. The way this place works, we can’t pass a bill without Democrats supporting it as well. We obviously have to get it through the House, which is controlled by the Democrats, and it has to be signed by President Trump, who is a Republican… It’s not going to be easy to get there, but I believe we ultimately will. I don’t know if it will take two weeks or one week or three weeks. It’ll take a little bit of time, but we have to do something, and that’s why I’m confident that we ultimately will do something that’s meaningful.”
On Rubio’s new small business relief package, including a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans:
“It’s more targeted, it’s available, and it’s very similar to what we had before — 60 percent for payroll, 40 percent for other expenses. That now includes personal protective equipment and other technologies that they need in order to comply with local COVID restrictions and so forth that cost money. But it’s only available to businesses that are 300 employees or smaller, who have suffered a 50 percent reduction in their revenues in either the first quarter of this year or second quarter of this year compared to the same time frame one year ago. We also set aside some of that money for businesses with 10 employees or less — sort of the smaller mom and pop and microbusinesses — to make sure that there isn’t a run on the first tranche of money that leaves them behind.”
On the presidential election:
“Polls are a snapshot of a moment … Right now, it is a very strange environment because of the pandemic, but eventually this race becomes a choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And when it becomes a choice between two candidates, that’s where I think Donald Trump will win. It will be a close election, they always are, but I believe he will win and that includes Florida.”
On reopening schools and resuming youth sports:
“We have to be in the job of mitigating risks, whether that’s in our schools or on the sports field. And we have to do the cost benefit analysis. There are benefits to opening schools. There are benefits to sports in high schools, especially because they attach a lot of kids to school … Will the season look the same as it did in the past? Of course not. It’s going to be a different season. It’s going to look different. It’s going to feel different. And we have to be flexible and nimble. In Florida, we have the option of maybe starting a season in October or November. We’re not expecting snow this year over the winter months. Other places have different challenges, so we need to be flexible.”
On COVID-19 cases in South Florida:
“We’re starting to see the flu-like and COVID-like symptoms visits to the E.R. begin to fall. That is usually the first indicator that you’re going to start to see some drop off. We’re hoping, [but] if people go back to doing what they were doing a month ago, the numbers will spike up again. Ultimately, a lot of credit to our doctors, our hospitals, they’ve improved outcomes. I’m hoping that over the next few days and weeks, as people begin to limit the number of people they come in contact with, we can begin to bring this more under control.”