YouSaid · the spoken record

Marco Rubio

lines on the record

101

first

2018-06-24

most recent

2018-06-24

sittings or episodes

1

sources

podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “Well, you may say he's differential in terms of the statements. I would point out that the sanctions imposed have continued to increase. There's been continued sanctions and imposition on Russia and on its”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “I don't believe that we should allow Russia back in. It continues even to this day, we know, to try to influence and divide societies, not just here in the US, but in other parts of the world. So its behavior hasn't moderated in any way that would encourage us to bring them back in.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Yeah, I don't think it's a formal one. I think it's a statement that he made. And bottom line is that it can't happen if the other countries don't agree.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Well, I don't think it's an idea. I think it's just a statement that he made. The other countries have to agree. Second, I wouldn't agree with it.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Well, and others have, I mean, the Senate passed them. Palm cotton was the other Republican on this who's close to the president. We've also worked with him on Venezuela, on Cuba, on other matters that we agree on. Bottom line is, I'm not here to do combat with the president. I'm not here to support everything he's for. I'm here to work with whoever's in the White House to try to get things done when we agree on something, offer a contrasting view when we do not. And that's what I told people I would do if I got elected.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Well, everybody makes their own decision. I would tell you two things about what you've just pointed out. The first is it's not about being careful or not careful. It's about one of the things that I gives the president strength in the party is many Republicans feel like he's treated unfairly. The media is outraged by everything he does and overreaches. And so the more they do that, the more they feel people are not oblivious and don't agree with everything he does, but they feel he's treated so unfairly on such a consistent basis, whether you agree with that or not, that they feel like they've got to kind of balance it out by defending him. And the second thing that they support him is he's doing exactly what he said he would do if he got elected. As far as my perspective on it is concerned, we have taken the president. We disagree with the president ZTE is an example of...”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Blow up our allies? I can't pass a law. None of us can pass a law to edit or change how the president expresses himself on these issues. And frankly, he would rightfully say this is how I behave and this is what voters chose. My job is to look at things like ZTE and say on this one, it's bad for our country. We're going to figure out a way to address it and work with him when we agree on things, try to change his mind when we don't. And if he makes a decision we don't agree with, then try to confront it that way. And that's otherwise we'll spend all day as cable news commentators setting our hair on fire, but that's not my job. My job is to try to help the country move forward and get better. And sometimes that's working with the White House. That's sometimes trying to change his mind. And sometimes, you know, frankly, supporting him when he's right and trying to change his mind when he's not.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “I'm a policymaker, and so my job is to ensure that irrespective of the rhetoric and the daily outrage cycle, our public policy is the ones that the people of Florida and our country are.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Well, and again, I would just tell you that I don't know Donald Trump that well until we started running for president in 2015 or 2016. Here's the one thing I know, and that is no matter how much outrage I or others express, he's not going to change his behavior. He is who he is. He was elected this way. This is what voters voted on, and he's behaving today how he did on the campaign. And that's what voters chose, and I respect.”

   2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Do and that's the problem, and that is that we would be much better served, in my view, if we would have said, Look, we all have a problem with China. In the context of the 21st century, that's the bigger issue. Let's work together and address that issue. But at some point, when we're done with that, we're going to have to deal with each other on the other situations that we're facing among ourselves. That's the way it should have been approached. I don't know if we still have a chance to do it that way now. The good news is, look, our alliances with Canada and NATO and Europe are so institutionalized and sturdy that we're going to continue to work together.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “And I think it's a product of this broader view on all of this. I think the president is pointing to something that's real, and that is we have imbalances with Canada and Mexico and others that are unfair.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Well, you have to ask them. I think part of it is they feel like this punishment they're imposing is strong because they're only viewing it as a sanctions. Part of it, I think, is the president made a commitment to President G to take care of this situation and now he feels he needs to live up to it. And I respect it. And I think what the president should tell President G is, I tried to help you, but Congress is really mad because you steal $300 billion a year from us. And so they hit ZTE. And the bottom line is if we can't do this on ZTE, there's no way we're going to be able to confront Huawei and the broader threat that China poses to our telecommunications companies.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “I hope so because if we can't win that fight, we're not going to win the bigger one. I mean, ZTE is an important company, but it's small compared to Huawei and some of the other threats that China poses. For me, the ZT, the disagreement I have with the White House is the White House views this as punishment for violations on the sanctions on North Korea and Iran. And if this was just about that, if this was Samsung and they had done that violation and you said you're going to hit them with these fines and all these other things, I'd have no problem with it. ZTE poses a systemic threat to American telecommunication. They are not just a phone maker. They make routers and all sorts of components in our telecommunications system. Once you embed yourself in the telecommunication network of a nation, you can use it for espionage and collection. It's a threat. They shouldn't be in business. They depend on our somewhere.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Well, either way, the point being that now we have a situation that I think is emerging, and that is you look at our ag interest as an example and everyone's recognizing, my goodness, China has tremendous leverage on American agriculture. Why? If we had TPP and other agreements, we would have additional markets to balance that out. And the same would be true from their perspective on their side. The huge market, 1.3 billion people in China puts places like South Korea and Japan and others sort of in a very vulnerable situation. And so hopefully at some point, whether it's through a series of bilateral agreements starting with Japan, building on what we have with South Korea, or some renegotiated TPP, one of the best things we can do to sort of bring some equilibrium to this relationship with China is to have agreements in Asia.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Was and unfortunately the Trans Pacific Partnership died the day that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won the nomination because both of them said they were going to kill it. That said,”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “Stealing $300 billion a year of American intellectual property through forced transfers and straight out espionage, that needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed now. What I advised the White House, what I talked to Mr. Lightheiser about it, and I think there are many in the administration that would have agreed with this, was let's work with Germany, let's work with Europe, let's work with Japan, and we all have concerns about China, and let's together confront the situation with China and get a proper equilibrium in place. Once we've done that, then we can turn and address the sort of issues that we have with Europe and Asia and the like. So I do support the concept of free trade and the idea of free trade. It has to be fair, and it has to recognize that people are displaced. And even if it's an 80% win and a 20% loss, that 20% is millions of Americans, we need to do something to help them transition in that loss. We haven't spent enough time focused on that. And people like me were given.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Those are two separate topics. So, when you talk to Mexico, Canada, and Europe, and Japan and others, there are clearly trade imbalances. Some are a heritage of World War II, where we knew there were imbalances and we allowed them to exist because these countries were developing. In the Cold War, they were our allies. They were rebuilding from the destruction of the Second World War, and those things have become institutionalized. Those need to be addressed. China, for me, is not even about trade, it's geopolitical. And I can tell you in the history of man, a status quo power and a rising power, if the equilibrium is broken, it almost always leads to conflict. And that's what I want to avoid. China is going to be a great and powerful country. That is a fact. But if that balance with the United States is disrupted, we are going to have a conflict. And it could be a military conflict. It could be an economic conflict. It can be both. This may be our last chance to get that right. In the context of that, they are largely making significant gains by”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “I'm not against it. I'm in favor of lowering it. I just felt we could have taken a small piece of that and used it instead for workers and gotten a lot better return for it. And that was my argument. And it was a huge fight. Most of my colleagues didn't agree with me on that.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “About 20.9%, and use that 0.9% to increase the child tax credit so that it's fully refundable at $2,000. That 0.9% is not going to generate any more growth. It's not going to slow down growth. There is no functional difference between 20 and 21% for a C multinational corporation. But that 0.9% would mean a huge difference for families. And, well, it did. They went to 21%, but it wasn't used for the child tax credit. So my whole point was whether it was 20 or 21%. I was in favor of a lower corporate rate. I campaigned and many people did on a 25% rate. So for me, anything out of 25 was gravy.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “But the context of that is important because the broader context was as follows. The personal rate is not what I was speaking about. I was speaking about the Corporation rate. And initially the proposal was at 20%. And I said, why don't we make the”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Well, because they serve a purpose, right? I mean, my mom is on Medicare. There was no Medicare and no Social Security. My mother would struggle. It would be difficult for us and for the family. So no one's talking about, now we are talking about saving these programs. So there is a role for government to play. But I think you can have a government that plays an appropriate role without crowding out the private sector. I do think sometimes we overreach in government, and that's what we need to be vigilant about.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “I guess, I mean, in terms of a traditional point of view, some would consider it a heresy, but it's the reality of what their country's at. And I'm prepared to have that argument. And I think a large number of Republicans would agree. No one's talking about repealing Social Security. No one's talking about repealing Medicare.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “And government has to play a role in all of that. It's important for government's role. And what we're trying to conserve is the proper role of government. If it does too much, it crowds out other institutions that can do better jobs. If it does too little, nothing happens. So paid family leave is an example. It's probably a generational thing, but there is a role for government to play in fostering it. The market is not just going to magically create a solution for millions of people who cannot, if they have a child or there's an illness in the family, face bankruptcy. because they can't work anymore. That doesn't have to necessarily be a large government entitlement, but it could mean something that we're working on.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “To 5G technology. And there's a role for government to play in buffering the sort of transition that we need to do. How do we create a higher education system in America that not just trains people for jobs of the 21st century, but potentially has to retrain some people multiple times over a 30 or 40 years?”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “There was a fear reached in the issues of health care and stimulus spending and the like. But I've repeatedly said throughout my including during that campaign when I first ran that I'm not an anarchist. There is a role for government to play. There's a role for regulations. I want my doctor to have gone to medical school. I want to make sure that when my kids are prescribed medicine, what's in the bottle is what it says it is. I'm glad that people flying these airplanes I'm on every week are licensed and that somebody inspected it before it takes off. I think it's over-regulation that you're against. But in terms of these transitions, there is a role for government to play investing in basic research, creating the ability, particularly in our infrastructure and transportation, to connect from mass long-range transit systems, which I think we can do public-private partnerships with government steps in and does the connection from those hubs down to the local level. There's a role for government to play in expanding access.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “I don't think conservatism is ever true conservatism has never been about being anti government. There is a streak in the conservative movement that's become increasingly libertarian in its view of economic. But the role of government, I mean, the role of conservative movement is not to be anti-government”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “as opposed to embracing or becoming more we're going to move people back to farms as opposed to saying we're going to embrace the advantages of industrialization this post-industrialization provides an opportunity but you have to embrace it and it isn't going to happen overnight i mean these transitions take time and there's going to be pain along the way and the job of government is to buffer that pain in the short term but ensure that our policies are moving us towards the long term where these jobs in these new industries are located in america and are broadly available to people throughout the country”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Well, I think you can be a manufacturing country again. I don't think we're going to go back to being a textile country, or are manufacturing going to look different? It's going to be higher-ended. The manufacturing jobs are going to pay more. They may not be as many because it'll be more heavily automated. And so we can manufacture again, but we're not going to manufacture like 1950 because no one's ever been able to go back. You can only go forward. So the opportunity becomes, what does the future look like and how can we embrace its opportunities? It would be like telling people at the turn of the century we're going to go back to the horse-drawn carriage industry.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “You have the ability to provide for your family and contribute to your community and see productivity out of your life. We need to remember that as well. It's not just enough to create jobs. It has to be the kind of jobs that allow workers to achieve dignity. And that should be the purpose of our economic policy, is to create the opportunity for dignified work. You need growth to do that, but we need an economy that works for people, not a country where people work for the economy.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “Of jobs that paid enough. A bartender and a maid like my parents with those jobs and very little education were able to own a home and a car and take vacations. So if the economy grew, everybody benefited not because of evil, but because of the structure of the economy. That's not true anymore. You can create economic growth, but the way it flows is it increasingly flows to industries and jobs that are valued in the new economy. And as the cost of living rises, everybody else gets left behind. I think we've also made a mistake in my party and in general that we view Americans as consumers. In essence, we view happiness measured by how many things can you buy, hence how much money do you make, and certainly the amount of money you make is relevant. But we've just view Americans as consumers, then what's the difference between a government check or a paycheck? And my argument is there's more to work than just a paycheck. There's the dignity attached to that that provides”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “And by the way, I tried to do it in 2016. Obviously, it wasn't the right campaign to do it. I didn't do a very good job of it. But I think if we could separate ourselves from the daily life and the micro and look at the macro of what's happening, the world is going through a transformation of epic proportions. I would say it's like the Industrial Revolution, except it's happening every three to five years. And it's disrupted everything from the kind of jobs we have to the geography of our country in terms of where people live. These disruptions are coming faster than ever. And when that happens, insecurity always follows. Political insecurity, social insecurity, economic insecurity, and it manifests itself politically, but societally as well. And our policies are antiquated. They're not built to react to that. So, for example, economic growth alone doesn't tell us enough anymore. There was a time in this country where economic growth was broadly shared because our economy provided millions”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “Well, I don't know. I mean, I think this one is so dramatic and so impactful that hopefully it can break through the noise. So I'm hopeful, but unfortunately what we're going to find out pretty soon how bad things are around here on an issue like this”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “No, and I don't think it is good leverage, to be frank. I don't necessarily think that this is going to force people to somehow decide, well, we're going to vote on DACA the way you want in exchange for this issue. I don't agree with that assessment. Perhaps that's how they felt or somebody in there felt, but I don't really think it should be leverage. I think there's a desire. We're going to try to fix it in the Senate. We're going to put out a bill that allows people that are detained for illegal entry to remain together with their children and be processed. We're going to try to get passed in the Senate. Hopefully the House will pass that as a standalone, and we'll deal with the other issues as well.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Well, I think this is an emergent crisis. Like, this is before us now. Every day, more and more kids are being put in these centers. Nobody says they like. Everybody says they don't like it. Everybody says they want to fix it. So I think common sense says, let's jump on that. Let's fix that issue. And then we can work on the other issues later. But if the House insists on marrying the two together, then I think we're going to have problems, there's no doubt. But if we can just do this as a standalone issue, let's focus on this family separation issue. We can get it done. It'll be a real test to see if we can function in a crisis type situation right now. And I hope we can, because otherwise there's a human toll for it.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Well, there's an appetite in the house to do it. I think the question in the house is going to be whether they're going to try to put that together with other changes, dealing with the DACA recipients.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “Well, I think every effort so far has failed, and I fear that this issue to deal with the kids is going to fail as well. Because if Chuck Schumer's position becomes, we're not going to pass any law. Let the president change it by just going back to the old policies, for example. These kids are going to continue to face this situation. I think we have a chance to pass a law that says we're not going to separate the families, we'll hold the families together, but we're not going to go back to the old policy. That is better than what we have right now. No one can argue that at least holding the families together is better than separating them, but we'll see if we can get that big.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “Into a law, you have to come up with something that can pass the House and get 60 votes in the Senate and be signed by whoever the president and be upheld by courts.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “Back away from that. It's pretty straightforward. I'm in the law passing business. I'm a lawmaker. So you can always produce a piece of legislation that sounds really good but has no chance of passing. In the end, you can only change the law if you can pass a law that passes the House, the Senate, and is signed by the President. The bill we passed in the Senate was the best bill we could produce as a Republican in a Senate in which Harry Reid controlled the flow of legislation. But it had no chance of passing in the House unless it was dramatically amended, which they could not do. And we also had to get it signed by President Obama. So the construct of what we put together couldn't become law. So in the end, that's my job. And to pass a law in America isn't just this is the way we want it to be. And so either jump on board or we do nothing at all. That's why we got nothing at all. That's why nothing has passed on immigration. Not since 2013, nothing has passed on immigration going back to efforts that failed in 2005 and 2007. So it's great to have great ideas. But in this republic, in order to turn an idea,”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “The United States continues to be a pro immigration country. We accept more legal immigrations to America than virtually, in fact, any country in the world, and we'll do so again this year.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Yeah, I would say there's always been an audience for that. I mean, every wave of immigration in this country has met with resistance every single time, but that's not unique to America. Angela Merkel is on the verge of her government collapsing over the issue of immigration. Immigration has driven the rise of Nationalist parties throughout Europe. Canada just issued a very stringent warning. The TPS beneficiaries in the United States not to go to Canada because they will not be allowed to stay. The Mexican government over the last seven years has stepped up enforcement on its southern border. So country after the Italians turned away a ship of migrants that had to divert to Spain. So every society, when facing a wave of people from other places, reacts in this way. And this has been true for thousands of years.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Illegally, we can be generous, but we have to have a process by which people enter the country. There has to be a process by which we decide when they come, how many come, and who comes. And that has to be enforced in order for it to work. So I think, again, you can be for an immigration system that works and that is enforced in laws, but I think you also have to do it in a way that doesn't violate who we are as a people, what our character is as a nation. And that's what I think we continue to kind of struggle with, because, and you see it play out, you know, Franklin Graham doesn't like the separation, but he supports the president on other things. That's where you start to see these sort of debates play out because it puts these two principles in conflict sometimes.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Well, first of all, I think he campaigned on it and was elected on it, whether you agree with him or not, to the extent that what he's doing now is consistent with what he promised he would do if elected. I think people have to acknowledge that. They may not like it, but this is what he promised he would do. I think you have to separate the politics from the public policymaking. And that's become increasingly hard. We live in a constant cycle of trying to figure out what we can do today. We all have to pay policy. Look, you can't be here to make a difference if you don't win an election. But at the same time, you've got to do things that are good for the country when you get here. And in this particular case, on this issue, it may very well be a winning issue among a lot of people because there's real frustration in this country. There is that the immigration laws haven't been enforced. I live in Miami Day County as a majority minority community, large number of immigrants. There's frustration there among people that immigrated to this country that we accept 1.1 million people a year to come here with green cards. And yet more people want to come here.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “I don't think it's accurate, and to the extent that it's not accurate, if someone's coming across the border that's not a criminal, or you know them, or they're a family member of yours and you hear them describe that way, of course you'll be offended. I also think, by the way, it may be a small percentage, but significant nonetheless, that there are people crossing the border who are members of MS-13 or are members involved in criminality. We know that too. But I think both things can be true. And at the same time, I think you can acknowledge that the majority of the people that are coming here are not coming here to break any laws or live on welfare. They're coming to work and provide their families a better life. But that doesn't mean we don't have to have laws.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “I don't think it's. And my sense of it is if you're a father, for example, my situation, my family's desperate, they're living in a dangerous situation. I'd do almost anything to protect my children and find a better life for them. So we have to understand that element of it. That doesn't mean we don't have to have laws on our end. Mexico has immigration laws, and Canada has immigration laws. They just warned all the people under TPS and so forth not to come into Canada because they wouldn't be allowed to stay. It's public policymaking is difficult because it often forces you to try to account for both of these. But I don't think we should generalize that. I think the vast majority of people crossing the border are just coming because they want something better.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “Create in Congress a third option under the law, which is the ability to hold families together and expedite, move them to the front of the line if it is a case of unlawful entry that involves children, they will move to the front of the line in terms of getting a hearing and a processing done. At the same time, I hope this redoubles our efforts to help Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and countries such as these to improve conditions on the ground so that these, you know, we don't have a migratory crisis from Costa Rica. We don't have a migratory crisis from Panama. We don't have a migratory crisis from Chile or Peru or Colombia because those countries are places where the people from there can live there without fear of these sort of situations that these people are facing.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “So I think the decision was made to prosecute every one of these cases for illegal entries, primarily as a misdemeanor. Now, this is a consequence of that decision, and they were aware that what the consequence would be, and other administrations have understood that and chose not to do it. So they made a decision that when an adult enters illegally, it crosses the border, unlawfully enters, we're going to prosecute them. That means we have to hold them in criminal detention pending a hearing. But you cannot hold children because of an existing consent agreement with the federal courts under Calde Flores Agreement. So the practical implication of that is you're holding the adult, but you can't hold the children. The families are separated. And that's the situation we find ourselves in. The president really has only two options at this point, and that is to release the adults to have children and ask them to come back for a hearing, knowing a large percentage of them will not return, or detain the parents, thereby separating them from the children. I think we need to”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “Pass a law that says when we have to detain families, we will detain them together so that we don't create that trauma and try to expedite their appearance before a judge so we can figure out one way or another what their status is going to be if they qualify for asylum, if they don't, some other. But I just don't think this is a country that is going to ultimately tolerate a situation like what we have right now. So we can fix it, and I hope we will as soon as possible.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “So perhaps, unlike many of my other colleagues here, I know these people and I know their families because they're in South Florida, many of them. And they are fleeing in Honduras and in Guatemala in particular and in El Salvador, a very dangerous situation, whether it's the inability to get ahead economically or the having to live in a place where an MS-13 gang controls the neighborhood and you're fearful for your life or you're being extorted. I mean, this is very common practice. So it tells me that, which is why I'm such a supporter of the Alliance for Prosperity, because we want to help those countries create conditions where people don't have to undertake these journeys. But what I was saying is on the one hand, I look at it and say, I get it. If we do this, we are actually creating this perverse incentive. We're telling people if you bring children, you'll actually get to stay. The flip side of it is it just doesn't feel right as a country to see these images of children separated from their parents, their crying. And so I feel like the only way we can fix it is to...”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “I hate them. I hate those images, and I wish we weren't in this position, and I think we can fix it. And I think you look at it through two lenses. That's the difficult or the unique part of being in this role. On the one hand, I recognize that if you have a policy that says that the only adults who we release into the general population pending a hearing for which many never show up for are the adults that have children with them, then you have de facto created an incentive for people to come on that journey with children, which is a dangerous journey. The flip side of it is...”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Yeah, my parents were a pretty nomadic in terms of always chasing better opportunities. So living in the U.S., they lived in New York. They lived in Miami, then Los Angeles, then back to Miami, Las Vegas back to Miami, always moving around. But the one thing in early 60s, they thought about going back when Fidel wins, there's this tremendous belief in Cuba that things are going to be better. My father actually goes back to check the place out and see if it's a good opportunity. I mean, that was our intent. And their whole family warned them, you know, don't stay here, go back. This is communism. Which at the time wasn't necessarily clear early on. I'm glad they came back.”

    2018-06-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 254 — Sen. Marco Rubio · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source