News

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined ABC’s This Week to discuss the ISIS terrorist attack in Russia, ISIS’s ability to exploit America’s open border, and anti-Israel sentiment in the Democrat Party. Watch the full interview on YouTube and Rumble.

On the ISIS terrorist attack in Russia:

“ISIS-Khorasan is the Afghan wing of ISIS. It has reconstituted itself, as we warned would happen when we had this disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. One of the reasons why we didn’t want to withdraw precipitously is because we gave them operating space to reorganize themselves and plan external [attacks]. Since that time, they’ve attacked inside of Afghanistan. They are responsible for the [attack at the] Abbey Gate [and] the loss of 13 Americans, and at the service people right outside the gate of the airport. They conducted an attack inside of Iran not too long ago. Now [they have conducted] this one in Russia. And they’ll do it here in the homeland. 

“I think we should be very concerned. The FBI director confirmed to me that there is a trafficking network out there that specializes in moving people. They do it for profit, moving people and migrants around the world, including across our southern border. [These traffickers] have links to ISIS. I think common sense tells you if they run a trafficking network of people, they would most certainly use it to move operatives into the United States. I’m not claiming there’s an imminent threat to the US. But I am saying that [the] border situation and the existence of that network is a threat to the United States. If they can do what they did in Moscow in the United States, they would do it in a heartbeat. They want to do it.”

On how ISIS has reconstituted itself:

“At the end of 2020, under the Trump Administration, ISIS was basically out of business. They were down to less than a thousand fighters. Now they’ve reconstituted themselves. Once we left Afghanistan, we were no longer there to conduct regular strikes. They can now operate openly. No matter how much the Taliban wants to take them on, they can’t. They don’t have the capability to do it. 

“These guys have found a place to operate from. They need real estate. They need land. They need places where they can organize and do external plotting. Now it’s a lot easier for them to get into Iran. It’s a lot easier for them to get into Russia and do these things. But their aspirations go beyond Russia and Iran. They would love to do what they did in Moscow here inside the United States. It’s something we have to be very vigilant about when we have a border in which nine million people have come across in the last three years.”

On anti-Israel sentiment in the Democratic base:

“I think the president is worried about losing Minnesota and Michigan. He’s getting a lot of pressure from the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party, a lot of activists and people like that. He’s getting heckled at speeches. He’s hearing a lot of complaints. I think he’s trying to have it both ways. [He’s trying to] still stick with Israel to some extent, but also do things that signal to these people and try to appease them. Yesterday, Secretary Blinken was overseas, [and there were] protesters outside of his hotel. I saw at the State of the Union, these pro-Hamas people were trying to block the president from getting to the State of the Union. They’re under a lot of political pressure. That’s what’s happening here. 

“But Israel has to win. They have 90,000 displaced Israelis in their own country, just in the northern region, because of Hezbollah. Who’s going to move back to any of these kibbutzes near Gaza unless Hamas is eliminated? You cannot have a country in which this threat continues to exist. They have to finish this job, and this fighting can end tomorrow. You want a ceasefire in Gaza? It’s very simple. Hamas should surrender. No one’s calling for Hamas to surrender and lay down their arms. That would end the conflict. That would end the conflict immediately….

“At the end of the day, my view of it is pretty consistent. And that is that if you are on the side of anyone who wants Israel to stop, what it basically means is that Hamas will continue to be able to threaten Israel, and so will Hezbollah. This is not a fight over land. This is not a territorial dispute. This is an existential battle. Anyone who doesn’t understand that is, whether they know it or not, an enemy of Israel, or at least on the side of what could lead to the destruction of the Jewish state. That is something that I think is untenable. I hope people will reconsider [who] are out there arguing that Israel should somehow stop.”