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U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the inalienable right to life, the illegal mass migration crisis, and election-denier hypocrisy in legacy media. See below for highlights and watch the full interview on YouTube and Rumble.

On the inalienable right to life:

“I’m pro-life, and to me, this is not even a political issue. I understand it is for a lot of people, and I understand this is a divisive issue in our country, and not everybody shares my views on it. But I believe that human life is worthy of dignity and protection, and I support laws that protect our unborn human life. I always have, as I’ve done in the past. 

“When people talk about a federal abortion ban, what they’re talking about is the 15-week ban, which Lindsey Graham sponsored, and I have co-sponsored in the past. That law is less restrictive or identical to virtually every country in Europe except for two. 

“The extremists here are the Democrats. Not once, but twice, they have voted in Congress to support a law that has no meaningful restrictions. They claim it does, but it has no meaningful restrictions…. On a divisive issue like this, where everybody’s views have to be taken into account, it’s very difficult to find, if there is such a thing, an arrangement at the federal level with people who basically will not vote for any meaningful restrictions on abortion.”

On the Democrats’ pro-abortion legislation:

“That bill [which Democrats voted for twice] didn’t say anything about doctors. It said ‘practitioners,’ so it didn’t have to be a doctor [performing the abortion]. It doesn’t say anything about [permitting abortion to prevent] reasonable harm. It’s not even about the life of the mother. It’s about the ‘health’ [of the mother]. It could be a nurse practitioner or a health care practitioner. Someone needs to define that. 

“[The bill] can [permit abortion] for virtually any reason. I understand what [Democrats] claim the bill did, but in practice, that bill had no meaningful restrictions. It was a vote, not once, but twice, from Democrats to allow an abortion at any time for any reason. If [abortions after 21 weeks are] so rare, then let’s just ban them all. Why are they fighting so hard on that? If there’s a crisis with the life of the mother, a real crisis, every bill has that restriction in place.”

On the ability to pass 15-week abortion restrictions at the federal level:

“A President will never get to sign it, because [Congress] won’t be able to pass it. I’ve never claimed we have 60 votes in the Senate and votes in the House [to pass 15-week abortion restrictions at the federal level]. But I don’t support those bills because I think they’re actually about to pass. 

“What Trump has actually said is that what he wants to do is negotiate with the Democrats. In a country where you’re trying to save unborn human life, I support laws that do so, even if they don’t have everything I want them to have in there. [But Trump] will never get a chance to sign [a 15-week abortion restriction], because right now, we don’t have the votes to pass it. It’s just the reality of politics today. Again, I’m pro-life, so I support laws that save unborn human life. Other people have different opinions on what our laws should be. 

“That law that you’re referring to was passed by elected legislators in the state of Florida. House members have to go back to their voters every two years. Senators have to go back every four years. That’s the way our republic works. It’s a representative democracy, and people have to go back to their voters and justify it. 

“I don’t want to impose anything on anyone. I get that there are two competing rights here that are crashing into each other. But I err on the side of supporting unborn human life, because of the dignity of all human life. That’s my view. I want our laws to represent it. Other people have different views. 

“People who have to answer to voters in the state of Florida voted for that. Voters will now get to take that into account in this election and any future election. But I think even within the pro-life movement, there’s all kinds of disagreement about what the law should be.

“[The question of] what we can pass is practical. I support any bill that protects unborn human life. But I don’t consider other people in the pro-life movement who have a different view to be apostates. They just have a different view about the best way to approach this issue. 

“We are not like the Democrats, where unless you are in favor of their bills that basically say, ‘Let’s just put in all this fancy language, but it’s not meaningful in terms of any restrictions,’ [you are cast out]. [To get Planned Parenthood’s support], you have to be for abortion at any time. I don’t care what they say. That’s the practical impact of their laws. They are radicals on this.”

On illegal mass migration:

“11 million was the number [of illegal immigrants] 10 years ago. We’re [now] talking upwards of 20, 25, maybe 30 million. There’s been almost 10 million people that have entered this country unlawfully in the last three years…. It’s another 9 to 10 million people just in the last three years…. 

“We cannot absorb 25, 30 million people who entered this country illegally. They are here illegally. What country on earth would tolerate that? We don’t even know who most of these people are. They talk about vetting them, [but] they’re coming from nations that don’t even have document systems, in many cases.

“We are going to have to do something. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to do something dramatic to remove people from this country that are here illegally, especially people we know nothing about. 10 to 11 million [people], that was the number 15 years ago. Today, it’s upwards of probably 25 to 30 million, maybe more. 

“The issue has completely changed. Back in 2013, when I was involved in immigration reform, we had 11 to 12 million people that had been here for longer than a decade. Now, we’ve had almost that number in the last three years alone from all over the world, including people that I believe are terrorists, people that I believe are going to conduct terrorist attacks in this country, given the opportunity. Certainly, people [have come] that were criminals in their home country. 

“This is a completely different [situation]. This is not immigration. This is mass migration. This is an invasion of the country, and it needs to be dealt with dramatically. By the way, I’m not a big poll follower, but polls show most Americans agree with us on this.” 

On why Senator Rubio opposed the so-called bipartisan border deal:

“That bill created asylum officers who, right at the border, will be able to give people asylum…without any appeal. No judge, nothing, just an asylum officer. They are on a path to citizenship. That’s why I oppose that bill…. I’m not in favor of asylum officers at the border that can issue asylum rulings right at the border.” 

On legacy media’s one-sided questioning on election denying:

“If [2024] is an unfair election, I think it’s going to be contested by either side. The Democrats are the ones that have opposed every Republican victory since 2000. Every single one. Hillary Clinton said the election was stolen from her and that Trump was illegitimate. Kamala Harris agreed…. 

“There are Democrats serving in Congress today who, in 2004, voted not to certify the Ohio electors, because they said those machines had been tampered with. You have Democrats now saying they won’t certify 2024 because Trump is an insurrectionist and ineligible to hold office. So, you need to ask them [the same question]. Have you ever asked the Democrats this question on your show? I bet you’ve never asked a Democrat that question. 

“I think what undermines people’s confidence in the election is when you have places like Wisconsin with over 500 illegal drop box locations, and when you have places like Georgia, where liberal groups are paying people $10 per vote. 

“What undermines elections is when NBC News and every major news outlet in America in 2020 censored the Biden laptop story, which turned out to be true, not Russian misinformation. [That was] unprecedented. You couldn’t even talk about it on social media, [because] they would de-platform you. People look at all this. They look at what happened in Arizona, [where] 200,000 ballots had signatures that didn’t match. People will lose confidence, [and] at that stage in the process, you have no options. 

“Did you guys cover the laptop…in 2020? The story was banned. You couldn’t even talk about it on social media. You’d be de-platformed. You couldn’t even talk about it, because they said it was Russian disinformation. Voters, in many cases, didn’t even hear about it, because it was blacked out by the media…. 

“If Republicans go to court, we are going to do the same thing Democrats do. We’re going to use lawyers to go to court and point out the fact that states are not following their own election laws. Hopefully, we’ll have a fair election, [and none of that will be necessary].”