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NPR News Interview With Senator Marco Rubio

Full interview airs on Morning Edition on Monday, September 28.

September 27, 2015; Washington, D.C. – In an interview with NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, Senator (R-FL) and Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio weighs in on the geopolitics surrounding the Syrian crisis and the Iran nuclear deal, along with the domestic political landscape and Donald Trump's presidential campaign, saying, "I'm not interested in the back and forth – to be a member or a part of his freak show. I would just say this: He is a very sensitive person; he doesn't like to be criticized. He responds to criticism very poorly."

Advanced excerpts and further details are included, below. The full interview airs on Monday, September 28, on Morning Edition. Find local stations and broadcast times at npr.org/stations.

On whether he wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to remain in power, Rubio says: "It's important to understand that the instability in Syria began with a uprising against Assad. It wasn't terrorists; it was Syrians who rebelled against him. And the result we see is ISIS and other radical groups on the ground. Obviously, the Russians and the Iranians view Assad as a client state, and they want either him to remain in power or someone like him."

He continues: "That's quite different from our view because, as long as Assad is in power, you will have an ISIS, or an ISIS-like movement, and that vacuum will continued to be filled by the next jihadist group in line."

On how he would handle Russia's interests in the Middle East if he were President, Rubio says: "Here's the argument the Russians are making: The United States broke the Middle East, they got rid of Saddam Hussein, they invaded Iraq, then they left too early and the place collapsed into chaos. And now that they broke it, they're leaving, and they're leaving us with this mess. So, we, meaning the Russians, are going to step in and we're going to provide the leadership this region needs, and we're a much more reliable ally than the United States is."

He continues: "This president [Obama] has fallen into that. He's, in fact, strengthened Putin's hands. If I were president, the argument would be the reverse. We would provide a clear strategy to deal with ISIS – we would have done so already – and those nations would prefer to work with us. But, if left with a choice between Russia and nothing, they're going to choose Russia."

Asked if he believes Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's recent comments to NPR, that ultimately Iran's "religious duty" will compel its compliance with tough nuclear inspections, Rubio says: "I do not, and their history proves that not to be true. In fact, he has openly bragged in the past about misleading the west to reach their objective. I think the likelier scenario is a combination of what Saddam Hussein did after the first Gulf War and what North Korea did, and that is a series of, what they will argue are, technical issues with the deal and, over time, just erode the deal's restrictions on them. They'll challenge them; they'll gamble that the west and the United States has so much invested in the success of this deal that we will tolerate those violations and over time, basically, they'll change the facts on the ground and the world will have to accept it."

On the looming potential for a government shutdown, mainly over funding for Planned Parenthood, Rubio says: "I don't prefer to see it shut down. In fact, I think that if it does shut down it will be because the Democrats and the President have shut it down because they insist that one organization receive federal funding. I don't think there is any single organization in the country that's worth shutting the government down over, and that's what the President is threatening to do. But here's the bigger problem among the base and the conservatives in the Republican Party, it's that they never even tried."

All excerpts from the interview must be credited to "NPR News." Broadcast outlets may use up to sixty (60) consecutive seconds of audio from the interview and must include on-screen chyron to "NPR News" with NPR Logo.

NPR Media Relations: Cara Philbin
Email: mediarelations (at) npr.org

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Cara Philbin