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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined The Brian Rust Show to discuss the Biden Administration’s far left policies, the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the need for a return to domestic manufacturing, and more. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.
 
On the Biden Administration’s plan to provide federally-funded crack pipes to drug addicts:
 
“When you have a bunch of woke, crazy people in the bureaucracy of the government and the leadership is encouraging [it]… [They say,] ‘Let’s do an anti-drug program.’ Obviously with everything in the Biden administration by rule they pass has to be taken into account, like targeting and prioritizing minority communities, underserved communities and so forth. 
 
“Part of that program is ‘Let’s make using drugs safer. We  don’t want people dying because they’re spreading HIV and other diseases.’ That usually [involves] needles, but it’s also about pipes, right? People use [pipes] to smoke meth, crack, and whatever else. So [new, clean] pipes were part of this program. I don’t care what they say now, I don’t care what they deny now. [The pipes] were absolutely part of the program.  
 
“This program was about getting people off of using needles and stuff like that, you can also include needles if you want… So you’re going to send pipes, drug paraphernalia out to communities so that people that are smoking heroin, crack, or meth can do it in a safer way. 
 
“Now they’re denying that that’s the case, but that’s absolutely what the program allowed. They got caught [because] we called it out. [People reacted saying ‘this is nuts,’ so now they’re backtracking.] It’s interesting because before they backtrack, they [enlisted] a bunch of far left people. [Congressman Eric Swalwell from California,] the one that was caught socializing with the Chinese spy, he took a shot at me on Twitter. These guys are all justifying it. These people are crazy.”
 
On the radical policies proposed by the Far Left:
 
“I tell people all the time, I’ve known liberals my whole life. I’m from South Florida. I served in the Legislature. These are not people that want higher taxes and more government. It’s not even liberal or conservative.There are people that don’t want higher taxes and more government who think these people are crazy because every single day it’s some crazy idea that almost reads like a parody. 
 
“I have to apologize to people before I tell them what’s happening, because it’s so crazy that you just think this can’t be true. This can’t be real. But [it is real] every single day. It’s like we’re living in a parody and they’re trying to outdo themselves every day.”
 
On the Far Left’s impact on Hollywood and college campuses:
 
“College campuses have always been viewed as a world unto itself, isolated from the rest of the planet. It’s a sort of cocoon where you can expand your thinking and come up with ideas that don’t make any sense, but they’re good to talk about and debate. It seems that they’re trying to turn the whole country into that kind of place. 
 
“Hollywood is certainly that place. When you live in a place where everyone you know is woke and crazy, then it seems normal to you. I mean, you’ve got to pretend it’s normal because otherwise you won’t get invited to the parties, get roles in the movies, and things that get you canceled.
 
“It is a unique time right now. It is time to reclaim our culture and our attachment to common sense wisdom. As much as anything else is what we need to do as a culture, not just as politics, but as a culture.”
 
On the treatment of moderate Democrats:
 
“If you’re elected a Democrat and you break away from these guys, they’ll come after you with all barrels, they really just put it on you. You’ve seen what has happened with Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona and Joe Manchin, people harassing them and donors bullying them… So it’s not that easy to do, and most of them just kind of lay low and put their head down and try to avoid it.”
 
On the growing threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine:
 
“This is probably the most dangerous moment since the end of the Cold War. Incredibly tense. I say this to you hoping that I’m wrong, I really do. Usually, I don’t hope I’m wrong — this time I do. But I think the world’s going to look very different in 60 days. 
 
“And it’s not just about Ukraine… The Russians have now begun, and I think early next week will be the full scale of the single largest military exercise they’ve conducted since the end of the Cold War. Naval assets, air assets, ground assets, nuclear forces will be mobilized for it. There will be multiple theaters operating simultaneously. So this is a huge exercise. 
 
“And when you pull out all those military assets and start to mobilize them, your potential adversaries have to mobilize too, just as a defensive precaution. On top of that, and in…the middle of this massive exercise, you could have an invasion. I believe you will have an invasion of Ukraine. So it’ll be hard to tell what’s an exercise and what’s real. 
 
“And then there’ll be sanctions imposed by the European community and the United States against oligarchs and banks. No one’s talking about sending American soldiers to Ukraine, okay? I don’t know if I’ve heard a single person suggest that, but you put sanctions. So Putin has to respond to those sanctions, because they’re going to be crippling. 
 
“And [Putin] can’t respond economically, there’s no sanctions he can impose on us, so he’ll respond with cyber. And cyber attacks are very dangerous. They’re like a virus that leaks from a lab — you don’t know what it’s going to turn into when it gets out there. Same with cyber — you may think you’re knocking out one thing, but suddenly it creates a problem. So then your opposition will strike back at you and it begins to escalate. 
 
“The other thing is the Russians are not Americans. The Russian leaders are not Americans, and they’re very paranoid. They honestly believe that America wants to attack Russia and invade Russia. The Americans have no appetite for foreign wars, but [the Russians] think we do. And so the risk for miscalculation is incredibly high. 
 
“And then at the end of the day, we face the prospect that, for the first time in 80 years, you’re going to have a country decide, ‘That country belongs to me, I’m going to go and take it by force.’ And once that happens, we’re back. That’s kind of how World War I started in World War II started — except we can’t afford a World War III. 
 
“So I think the big challenge before us is not just to respond to Putin in Ukraine, but to do it in a way that contains it to Ukraine and does not allow this to escalate into something much bigger, much more dangerous, [and] much more destructive.”
 
On the importance of working with the Biden Administration to avoid a Ukraine invasion:
 
“To be fair, my confidence level is not high, simply because I just don’t know these people very well. I’m not sure what they’re going to do. What you pointed to was an errant comment that [Biden] made at a press conference. That has real implications. He implied that a small invasion is not a big deal, but a bigger one is what we’re worried about. I do worry about mistakes like that.  But this is complicated and tricky. This is not a time for saber rattling or pounding our chests.
 
“Russia is a nuclear power with nuclear weapons and a paranoid bunch of leaders who think things about us that aren’t true…. This is a time for sobriety and maturity and an understanding that we’re not talking about another Crimea invasion. There were no shots fired there. That was a fistfight at a police station, and it was all over. This is a serious situation, and I think it’s one that calls for people to be mature. And frankly, it’s one that we should try not to politicize, because this is not a game. This could get dangerous really quickly. 
 
“I’m willing to work with the Administration on this and help them as much as I can. Obviously, they have to make the right decisions. I don’t think they’ve done a good enough job yet of laying out the big picture of what all this means. And I don’t think it’ll be long now, I really don’t. I think this is going to be upon us here fairly quickly. I’d be shocked that we get to the end of this month and we haven’t had to confront this.”
 
On the “Freedom Convoy” protests:
 
“We’ve got to let them go back to work. They just want to work and provide for their family, and we’re treating them like criminals. I always shake my head at [how] some yahoo shows up [at a protest] with a Nazi or Confederate flag, and, suddenly, the whole group is smeared by it. We don’t know who that guy is. You know, it’s certainly not anything to do with [the broader movement]. This movement is about people that want to work. And Canada and some states in this country have made things very, very hard on people.
 
On the supply chain crisis and the need for domestic manufacturing:
 
“We have to come to the realization that this country made a big mistake. We thought that it doesn’t matter where things are made. ‘If it’s cheaper, that’s the right decision.’  And that’s true [in a sense]. The free market is always going to give you the most efficient outcome. It is cheaper to make things in China, Vietnam and other places. But there are some things that, even if it’s cheaper, to make it somewhere else is not in our national interest.
 
“Why does America make its airplanes in America? Because if we can’t make airplanes, we can’t fight wars. Same with shipbuilding. There are a lot of industries that if the economy was a pure free market, we wouldn’t have, because some other places have cheaper labor…. We have to be a country that makes things again. Not only is that a source of good jobs, it’s a source of security. 
 
“And if we can’t make it in America, then let’s make it somewhere close to America. For example, why aren’t there more factories in Honduras or Guatemala? So those people have jobs instead of having to immigrate illegally to the United States? And [those places are] certainly closer to the United States than … China. And what if China cut us off? You know, ‘No more pharmaceuticals for you.’ You’d run out of Tylenol in 30 days. 
“So [manufacturing] has to be a priority, and it’s going to require some real changes in how we judge economic policy’s goals. The goals of economic policy [should be] widespread prosperity anchored in jobs, good jobs, for as many Americans as possible.”