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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Trace Gallagher on Fox News to discuss China and the humanitarian crisis at the border. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.

On the threat China poses to the United States: 
 
“…We face a tremendous challenge with the Chinese on every level. They’re challenging us technologically, militarily, industrially, geopolitically. I mean, you can’t point to an area that we’re not being challenged by [China]. I think it’s the most serious challenge the country has faced since the Second World War. We don’t want it to be a shooting war, it should never be one. But it is a geopolitical and economic competition, a very serious one, and one that if we lose, we’ll live in a world dominated by a repressive, communist regime.” 
 
On the Biden administration’s approach to negotiating with China: 
 
“Well, I think that’s something that bears watching. I think the Chinese are going to do a couple things, it’s a strategy that they always do. The first is they try to divide American political figures. So they’ll [be tough on] the National Security Advisor…and be nicer to the Secretary of State. They did that in the previous administration as well. It’s a strategy they use. 
 
“The second is they’ll try to lure us into some sort of short-term agreement. Let’s re-visit the trade deal that was done a year ago, maybe…we’ll let you buy more of your products if you lift some of these tariffs. But ultimately what they’ll try to do is lure us into a deal that we think is so important that we can’t have China walk from it. And then they’ll start insisting on us to stop talking about Hong Kong, stop talking about Taiwan, stop talking about the Muslims that we’re putting in labor camps, stop talking about these sorts of things. So that’s my fear is that [the Biden administration will] get lured into that sort of situation. I hope it doesn’t happen, because it’s bad for our country.” 
 
On the border crisis: 
 
“They [the Biden administration] created it… Not just the President, but the entire Democratic Party, the people running for the president, all the stuff about getting rid of ICE, kids in cages and all that. They created a perception that that’s what that side was for. And if that side wins, then people are going to show up and [migrants] will be treated very differently. You can say whatever you want now at these press conferences. 
 
“These are desperate people that are living in very dangerous conditions from Central America, frankly from 50-something countries all over the world coming across the border. They’re not watching the press conferences online or listening to these things. They’re being told by trafficking networks, ‘There’s a new president, he’s not like the other president. If you show up in America at the border, they’re going to let you in. If you show up with kids, they’ll let you in faster.’ You have created an incentive for people to do it. It was entirely foreseeable, entirely predictable, and entirely created by [Democrats] and the irresponsible things that they said for two and a half years when the previous Trump administration was trying to address these things.”
 
On holding unaccompanied minors in facilities: 
 
“You can’t just release the kid in the country because somebody claims to be their uncle or their aunt. You’ve got to verify who these people are, and that’s why they’re held in these facilities — that’s why the Trump administration had to do it. But ultimately, we don’t want people to come. But here’s what’s happening — and what happens in the real world, not in the press room at the White House, in the real world — every time someone comes into the U.S., they get in, they call. For every person that calls back [home] and says they made it, it encourages more people to call and do the same thing. So we’re going to see this escalate. The [Biden administration] can deny it all they want, but it’s a reality they’re going to have to confront and it was created by them. 
 
“The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter what [the DHS Secretary] says, it matters what people who are coming think. And what people that are coming think is, if I arrive with a child, they are going to hold us for a few days, but then we are going to be released, and we’re going to be told to come back when asylum is up, and most of them won’t show up for that asylum hearing. They know that. People know that. I’m not trying to demonize these people. These people are desperate and we have compassion for them. There’s nothing compassionate about luring people with this journey by taking a position you’re not enforcing. As far as kids being in cages — these kids are in facilities, just like they were in the previous administration, longer than 72 hours because you have to. You have no choice but to do so. Even if you wanted to release them, who do you release them to in many cases? But that’s what they attacked the Trump administration on and now where are all the protesters showing up outside the centers?”