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U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Kudlow to discuss terrorists crossing the southern border, the conservative case for industrial policy, and more. Watch the full interview on YouTube and Rumble.

On the senator’s recent op-ed about terrorists crossing the southern border: 

“We have to stop the continued flow [of illegal immigrants]…. The Biden administration is continuing to allow people to enter the country and has been releasing them. They say, ‘We vet everyone at the border.’ They can’t, because in some of these parts of the world that people come from, we don’t have any information about them. We have no databases from there. 

“We don’t know if they’re terrorists or here to do terrorism. But if it’s 10 million people…, and just a small percentage of them have been sent here to conduct a terrorist attack, that’s a lot of people, and that’s a lot of terrorism. If you listen to what the FBI director has been saying repeatedly now over the last couple of months, this is one of the most dangerous [situations in terms of terrorism threats] domestically in over a decade in the United States. It’s just the sheer number of people that have come in from all over the world that we have no idea who they are. 

“And we know that ISIS has been in the business of trafficking people to the U.S., meaning charging them to do it. Common sense tells you if you have a business moving people, they would move their own terrorists using that same network.” 

On the threat posed by uncontrolled mass migration: 

“This is not immigration. This is mass migration. It’s uncontrolled, it’s chaotic, and that’s not good under any circumstance, but much less when you know that there are groups all over the world, not just in the Middle East or Central Asia, that have cells of ISIS terrorists and al-Qaeda terrorists who seek to conduct operations in the United States. 

“Just put it together. They want to attack America in America. It’s easier than ever to get into America and stay. They don’t have to worry about being vetted at the border, because there’s no records of them to check on. Common sense tells you these things all come together, and the threat is upon us. 

“We all have reason to believe, based on common sense, that in this country right now, there are people that are here for the purposes of conducting a terrorist attack. How many? Who knows, but too many.”

On what President Biden needs to do to secure the border:

“He has to reinstitute the Trump program, which is what he got rid of with his executive orders. We have had over 90 executive orders on immigration telling Border Patrol and DHS not to enforce the law or creating all kinds of exceptions in the law, whether it’s parole or releasing people pending an asylum hearing, allowing people to come in and turn themselves in and go. If you come to this country illegally, cross the border, and turn yourself in, you have an 88% chance of being released into the country. All of that is because of the executive orders that [President Biden] put in place to repeal the Trump policies.”

On how the immigration issue has changed: 

“There’s a big difference between 11 million people that have been here longer than a decade, some who were brought in as kids, and those 11 million plus another 15 to 20 more on top of them that have come in since, including 10 million in the last year. 

“What is it that drives illegal migration? It is perception. If you believe that getting here is easier than it used to be and staying is easier than it used to be, you’re going to come. That’s what’s driving people. When Trump was in office, they didn’t think it would be easy to get here, and they didn’t think it would be easy to stay. The numbers went down. Biden took over, and immediately they all deduced it’s easier to get there, and it’s easier to stay, and more people come. 

“That’s still the perception. They may change where they cross, because now Texas is doing more on their own, despite Biden trying to stop them. But they’re coming, and the numbers continue to grow every single week, every single day.”

On the senator’s op-ed calling for industrial policy:

“We want to incentivize the behavior of bringing [industry and investment] here. You do that in two ways. One is, you put tariffs on foreign imports in key sectors. I’d like to do it on everything, but that’s not [practical] economically. You have to do it on sectors that you’ve identified as critical to the national interest. 

“It’s not just military gear. It’s pharmaceuticals, the ability to make medicine, the rare earth minerals that the Chinese manipulate all over the world, technology. We can’t make it if we don’t have access to those things…. They are critical to our national interest, and they are the industries we need to identify and then incentivize. 

“In the case of rare earth minerals, the Chinese are subsidizing it. It is being sold on the global market below the cost of mining it. There’s no way to compete against that unless you step in and do something to create a marketplace that people can go into. Because who can invest in something where you’re going to lose money? Only the Chinese can, because they’re subsidizing that industry. 

“We have to be careful. This can’t expand to every business in the world or every industry. But there are some that are critical to our country, and there are some things that we’re going to have to do. That includes denying entry into a marketplace on these critical goods and commodities from countries like China that are deliberately manipulating the market as a strategic imperative, not an economic one.”

On the flaws in the Biden Administration’s industrial policy: 

“In the Inflation Reduction Act and even in the CHIPS Act, what they’re doing is taking money and basically not funding the industrial capacity of the United States. They’re funding favored industries that happen to be in the green energy field. As a result, they’re indirectly funding Chinese companies, whether it’s solar panels or electric cars. 

“They call it ‘inflation reduction,’ but it doesn’t do anything to reduce inflation. It takes government money and spends it in the name of industrial policy. It spends it on pet projects that are part of [the Democrats’] broader narrative on climate change. It is not geared towards the national interest. It is geared towards the base of their party. That’s totally different from what I’m proposing.”