News

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Bret Baier to discuss the latest on Russia-Ukraine tensions and the Durham report. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.

On Putin’s next moves on the Ukrainian border: 

“There [are two serious factors right now]. There’s the invasion of Ukraine, which would be deeply problematic, because it would be returning to a world in which powerful countries can just take over their neighbors. That’s the claim Russia makes about Eastern Europe. [It’s] ultimately the claim China is making about Asia …[, that] all these states are supposed to be vassal states that are tributary states to them. [Russia’s acquisition of Ukraine] would be a big development.

“The second thing to keep in mind is the potential for miscalculation and escalation. You’ve got the largest Russian military operations and exercises going on in 35 or 40 years. You’ve got NATO countries on a heightened level of military readiness, and they’re close to each other. There’s always that potential [for things getting out of hand]. We have already seen some pretty aggressive Russian actions in terms of navigating close to ships and things of this nature.”

On the concern of Putin engaging in cyber warfare: 

“Cyber vulnerabilities is something people are aware of. We’ve seen it because of cyber crime and ransomware. There’s always the concern that a nation-state with advanced cyber capabilities — Russia today, China tomorrow — could launch some attacks. 

“The problem with cyber [warfare] is, these are not precise weapons. They’re blunt instruments. Sometimes, when you cyberattack a system, you think the outcome and impact is going to be one thing, and it turns out to be something far more serious. Then the other country has to respond, and [things] start escalating. No one’s ever conducted this cyber warfare before. There’s not really a doctrine or rules of the road or anything that governs it.”

On how the Biden Administration has handled Russia-Ukraine border tension:

“I think time will tell about whether [the Biden Administration’s approach] worked or not. If … Putin is dissuaded from invading, then that would be a great outcome. That’s one way to go about it. If it doesn’t happen that way, then people have to have a different opinion about it.

“My view of it is, when something this big involves global and national security, political accountability is going to come later…. Right now, we need to be focused on two things, as I said…. We’re not going to send Americans to fight in Ukraine, but there have to be real consequences for an invasion. We have to make sure we manage this very carefully, so it doesn’t escalate into something far more dangerous and potentially catastrophic. We don’t want to see that.”

On John Durham’s latest court filing: 

“This is a big deal. It’s shocking to me that this is not receiving more coverage in the press. I don’t think any of the Sunday shows mentioned it. What we’re talking about here is not simply the probe using data scientists to make up a story or links between Trump and Russia, but [spying within] the White House.

“Apparently, there was a private company that had a contract to manage servers for the President of the United States and the White House. They were sharing information to help build a narrative for a political operation. If this is all proven true, it would be one of the biggest political scandals in American history. It would be a crime, no doubt about it…. 

“[The Democrats] think they can get away with it because the media will not report on it. If this was the other way [around] and was a story about how the Trump campaign had hired some data experts and others to go out there and do this to a President Clinton, we wouldn’t be able to talk about anything else around here.”

On the media’s double standards:

“I don’t know what’s true and what’s not because they [the media] have made up so many stories about Donald Trump over the years that I knew were flat out untrue. Nowadays, in the mainstream media, you just need one source to smear Donald Trump…. It’s hard to tell anymore what really happened and what didn’t….

“At this point, I have seen at least a dozen things said about Trump that turned out to be complete lies. Somebody will just make it up, and some in the media just run with it…. I have seen books with things in there that I know were not true. But they’re widely reported as established facts. That’s why it’s so difficult to take anything they say seriously.”