News

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined The Ingraham Angle to discuss how Hamas manipulates Western media, how to evaluate news reports from the war, what Israel needs to accomplish, and more. See below for highlights and watch the full interview on YouTube and Rumble.

On how Hamas manipulates Western media:

“This is all part of the Hamas playbook, and that of Hezbollah and Iran for that matter. They don’t just want to go in and kill a bunch of civilians, slaughter babies, the terrible stories that we keep hearing coming out. They want to damage Israel around the world. That’s why they take advantage of this. They know that there are all these willing media outlets, not just Al-Jazeera. The initial reports from some American news outlets was that Israel had struck a hospital. They know how to play with [Western audiences].”

On how to evaluate news reports from the war:

“At the end of the day, if you ask me to choose between believing Israel and believing the people that just slaughtered a bunch of babies, I believe Israel. It makes all the sense in the world. I’m glad they’re going to release this footage. Side by side with the actual kinetic battle that you’re seeing, you have an informational war going on, and unfortunately it has all these people that join it, both on the far left in American politics and in much of the media around the world. I predict at some point that you’ll start to see that seep into a lot of the coverage here as well. We’re still talking about the atrocities, but the day is coming when the whole focus will be on how mean Israel is, because they are eradicating a group that poses an extraordinary threat to their future and has already committed incredible atrocities.”

On what Israel needs to accomplish:

“The goal is to make sure that Hamas is never in a position to want to do in the future what they did at this moment. Beyond that, I think it’s important for Israel’s enemies to understand what happens when you do these kinds of things to Israel. Israel doesn’t just respond with 10 rockets and a condemnation in writing. You pay a tremendous price. This is a part of the world where the only language that’s understood is the language of strength. Israel didn’t start this war. They didn’t want this war. This war was foisted upon them. Now they have to do what needs to be done. Israel is a nation that is literally fighting for its survival, as it is surrounded by enemies that seek their destruction.”

On linking aid for Israel and Ukraine together in the legislative process:

“They shouldn’t be linked. I think that there is support for Ukraine funding, and I think there is near-unanimous, with the exception of some people – we know who they are – support for Israel. I don’t think the two should be linked. The good news here is that a lot of the defense agreements the U.S. has with Israel have been codified. They have the authority right now to pull forward about $24 billion. Congress has already passed that. What Israel is asking for is that we sell them resupply if they start running low on munitions. We will need to do something. But I think we need to see how this develops until we know specifically what Israel is going to need, because what they’re going to need for a fight in Gaza is very different from what they’re going to need if it’s a fight in Gaza and against Hezbollah coming out of Lebanon.”

On denying visas to people who support terrorist groups like Hamas:

“It’s the law. The law says that if you are a supporter of a terrorist organization, you shouldn’t even have a visa. Once you get that visa, if you identify yourself as a Hamas supporter, then you should have your visa canceled, and you should be removed from the country…. They were able to take video and find out who all the people were that went in on January 6th to the Capitol. They spent a lot of resources identifying those people. If they wanted, they could go through the roster of these organizations, the people that sign those letters, the people that were out there protesting. To me, it’s very simple. If you are in this country on a student visa, a teaching visa, a journalist visa – if you’re a visitor, and then you come out and say, ‘I support Hamas, I support the slaughter of babies’ – you should be out of here, and your visa should be yanked.”

On the irony of American citizens supporting Hamas:

“There are people that were born in this country [who support Hamas]. I saw a sign last week that said, ‘LGBTQ for Hamas.’ Does anyone want to break the news to these people about what life is like in places that are governed by people like that? Not just for gay and lesbian people, but for women? It is so ridiculous. We have a higher education system, combined with a corporate media, that has poisoned the minds of an entire generation of Americans. It’s a real problem for this country moving forward.”