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Washington, D.C. – In today’s installment of Marco’s Constituent Mailbox video series, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio responds to two constituents regarding the terrorist attacks on American diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya.
The first letter came from Janice, a Florida constituent living in Longwood. Janice was angered by the attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in both Egypt and Libya and saddened by the loss of American lives. In the aftermath of these tragedies, she called for Rubio to present legislation halting all foreign aid to these two countries.
Our second letter came from Martin in St. Petersburg who also wrote asking to halt all U.S. funding to these countries. Martin called for an American response to these attacks and asked that his representatives speak out and act on his behalf.
Rubio Calls President Morsi of Egypt’s Response to Terrorist Attacks on Embassy “Unacceptable”
Senator Marco Rubio: “What really troubled me is that for 24 hours after that attack, and the murder of Ambassador Stevens in Libya, we heard virtually nothing from the president, President Morsi of Egypt. Instead he focused on condemning a YouTube video, a YouTube video that anyone can make. At the end of the day, the response to a YouTube video that someone is offended by is not to burn down an embassy or murder an ambassador. Yet, that is what has happened overseas.
“And the response of President Morsi was not to express outrage about that, but instead to ask his embassy here in the United States of America to sue the makers of the YouTube video. It is very troubling, quite frankly unacceptable, that the leader of a country that receives as much aid as Egypt receives from us would take so long to express any sort of outrage or condemnation on what’s occurred and focused the almost entire majority of his attention on a YouTube video instead of condemning violence that ultimately led to the death of four American diplomats overseas.
“So, I am very disappointed with what has happened with Egypt. I think we need to continue to demand not only that they secure our embassy in Cairo, but that they find out who it was that was responsible for organizing this attack on our embassy, and do everything they can to bring those folks to justice.”
Rubio “Pleased at the Cooperation” From Libyan Government
Rubio: “It is important for folks to understand that, at least at the outset, we know very clearly that there is a dramatic difference between the way the Libyan government reacted to this and the way the Egyptian government has reacted to this.
“And I think that now our commitment needs to be about three things. Number one: we need to make sure that this never happens again. We need to fully assess the security at all of our diplomatic outposts all over the world to ensure they have the appropriate security in place to deal with anything like this, now or in the future.
“Number two: we need to find out what happened. Why was there not adequate security? Why wasn’t the consulate able to protect itself from this kind of attack, and protect our personnel in there? Was it a failing on behalf of the Libyans? Was it a failing on behalf of our security personnel? We need to find that out. Were there warnings that were ignored? We need to do the hard work of investigating how this happened so it will never happen again.
“And number three: we need to find the people who did this and bring them to justice. And at that end, I am pleased at the cooperation that we’re getting from the Libyans, in allowing us and in assisting us in finding these people, and bringing them to justice.
“Because folks need to understand that there are consequences for murdering Americans overseas. There are consequences for attacking the United States of America. And those consequences will be met and will be paid. And that’s what’s happening right now. And as I said, I am encouraged by the cooperation we’re getting from our Libyan friends and allies and I think we should be concerned about the lack of cooperation, to date anyways, that we’ve gotten from Egyptian authorities. We hope that will change.”
Each week, Senator Rubio receives thousands of letters, emails and phone calls from Floridians voicing their opinions. Through this video series, Rubio regularly responds to a selection of constituent letters on various topics.
View Rubio’s video response here. For television stations interested in airing today’s response, a broadcast quality video is available here.
Constituent Casework Corner
Each week Senator Rubio’s staff assists Floridians with a wide range of federal issues both from our state offices and through our staff-run “Mobile Office Hours.”
This week a member of Rubio’s staff was able to help Kenneth, a disabled veteran residing in the Florida Panhandle. A few weeks ago, his wife went to their bank to withdraw money in preparation for a possible hurricane. To her surprise, the bank said Kenneth’s veteran’s compensation benefit check was rescinded because the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had listed him as deceased. The couple called Rubio’s office for assistance and a member of the staff contacted the VA. Kenneth’s benefit check was reinstated within a week, but his subsequent monthly benefit was delayed. The VA has since corrected the error and Kenneth has received his VA benefits in full.