We have to make America and Americans a priority again

and joining me now is the vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee Republican senator from Florida Marco Rubio senator thanks so much uh for joining us this morning um I know the NATO alliance is very important to you uh you just pushed and got legislation to require the advice and consent of the senate or an act of Congress before any president could suspend Terminator withdrawal us membership from NATO so I want you to take a listen to something Donald Trump said yesterday on the campaign Trail the president of a big country stood up said well sir uh if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia will you protect us I said you didn't pay you're delinquent he said yes let's say that happened no I would not protect you in fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want you got to pay um you've endured Donald Trump are you comfortable with him suggesting that he wouldn't defend NATO countries and actually he would invite Putin and Russia to invade them well that's not what happened and that's not how I view that statement I mean he was talking about something a story that he talked about happened in the past by the way Donald Trump was president and he didn't pull aside in NATO you know in fact American troops were stationed throughout Europe as they are today they were then as well but he's telling a story and frankly look Donald Trump is not a member of the Council of Foreign Relations he doesn't talk like a traditional politician and uh we've already been through this now you think people had have figured it out by now what he's basically saying is if you if you see the comments he said NATO was broke busted until he took over because people weren't paying their dues and then he told the story about how he used leverage to get people to step up to the plate and and become more active in NATO he's not the first American President in fact virtually every American president at some point in some way has complained about other countries in NATO not doing enough um you know Trump's just the first one to express it in these terms but I I have zero concern because he's been president before I know exactly what he has done and will do uh with the NATO alliance but there has to be an alliance it's not America's defense with a a bunch of small Junior Partners some of these are Big countries with big economies many of them are doing more the Germans are doing a lot right now so let's uh let's talk about the role of the US when it comes to uh leadership um the the US Senate as you know is going to hold a procedur vote later today on legislation to provide Aid uh to Israel and to Ukraine uh after that uh bipartisan border Bill uh was killed earlier this week that was originally part of that package how do you explain to leaders of is and Ukraine both of them countries in the middle of Wars uh who say they need United States help why you're going to vote against this legislation why you oppose giving them the help the aid that they need I don't oppose giving them the help that they need especially in the case of Israel and if you put the Israel thing up to a if you put Israel a up to a vote right now it would pass I don't even know well maybe a couple people vote against it you know but basically it would pass very quickly the problem is Israel's being held hostage so they could get Ukraine as as far as how do I explain it to them before I explain anything to them I have to explain to my constituents I have to explain to the people of Florida I have explain to the American people CU I'm a US senator and my number one obligation is America if America's not strong we can't help any of our allies and I'll have to explain to them why the Senate is going to work all through Super Bowl weekend which is fine with me we're going to make a big priority except on something that's critical to this country which is the invasion that's going on on our own border on our own border where over according to a house committee and the documents and the St statistics they put out I think these numbers are low but let's just use them 3.3 million people have been released into the country who arrived here illegally over 600,000 of them either have criminal convictions or pending criminal uh charges against them I mean this is a huge problem and it has to be addressed and they put out a bill they can call it whatever they want it wasn't a border security bill it wasn't tough and frankly it was negotiated by three people I don't begrudge it but I I wasn't involved in that negotiation I didn't even ask for a bill I asked for the president to reverse the ex executive orders that created this crisis when he took over in January of 2021 mhm I want to get to border in a second but just to clarify something are you in support of Aid to Ukraine I think if we secure our own border here in the United States I've said that we should do we should help Ukraine look half the money that's going to Ukraine is not going to Ukraine it's to buy back our own weapons that we gave them to restock our own shelves and obviously Taiwan is included there as well my problem is this before we do these things we have have to make America and Americans a priority again in city after City now in New York in Denver in Chicago here in Florida to some extent we are seeing the impact of this migrant crisis not just on social services not not but but on the street and in crime in a crime wave that we have going on and and and now you've got you like the mayor of Denver is now crying because he you know he says the federal government has to send him a bunch of money to help with a migrant crisis and he says the only people that are not to blame for this are the migrants themselves why are we spending all all of this taxpayer money to house migrants feed migrants accommodate migrants we have a bunch of needs in our own country for Americans how is that not our priority so Americans have to be our priority and then we can help our allies so I I totally hear what you're saying that you want there to be a tougher border uh let's talk about this deal uh negotiated by Senators Langford Murphy and Cinema I I understand that you have issues with it a lot of people have issues with it the national border patrol Council which is the union for border patrol AG which is a very conservative group they support this legislation I want you to take a listen to the head of that Union Brandon Jud I'm going to look at this is this bill better than the status quo and it absolutely is nobody can argue that nobody can argue that it's not better than what we currently have although it's not perfect it is a step in the right direction and I would rather have the step in the right direction then nothing now I know you know Brandon Jud but but for viewers this is the head of a union that endorsed Trump strongly in 2020 consistently criticized President Biden go check out their Twitter feed they mock him all the time they say this is better than nothing it should become law are you saying that the border patrol Union is wrong yes if if if that's what they still believe they're wrong it's not better than nothing look there are some things in that bill that we should do you know change the Asylum standard and the like here's what else the bill did you know the bill basically creates an an asylum core okay it it creates a bunch of you know thousands of bureaucrats basically agents Asylum agents that would be empowered right at the border to either allow people into the country with an immediate work permit today they got to wait six months you give them an immediate work permit you're going to have more people coming that's a huge Magnet or they have the power to immediately release them and Grant them Asylum which now puts them on a 5-year path to citizenship which is what a lot of Democrats want they want to turn a bunch of illegal immigrants into voter into citizens into voters in the hopes that those people will then turn around and vote for them in future elections grateful because they'll know who let them in that's a huge problem that doesn't solve the Border it makes it worse this doesn't provide a path to citizenship for any of these people just to clarify but but it raises yes it does absolutely it does no no yes it does when you have Asylum you are on a path to citizenship an asylum when you get Asylum you are a year away from a green card and four years away from citizenship absolutely ad but you said you approved have the power to Grant you Asylum not even a judge a bureaucrat but the judges as you know are not judges per se they're immigration judges they are it's a different kind of Judge it's it's basically an immigration attorney who's empowered to be an immigration judge you know that but but the you you said that you liked the changes to Asylum I mean they raised the standard for Asylum the people who support this bill say it is uh much needed Senator Langford calls it by far the most conservative border security bill in four decades that includes of course uh the 2013 compromise that you negotiate as part of the gang of eight this bill uh would have allowed the administration to tempor temporarily shut down the Border it included funding for the border wall it would have made it much more difficult to claim Asylum it added detention beds it added ice agents it added deportation flights and Asylum officers and it has none of the democratic priorities that were included in your 2013 compromise such as the path to citizenship why isn't that a win for Republicans well first of all you went through a list of long things that I don't agree with first of all it doesn't shut down the Border it creates the ability to shut down the Border but it also gives the president the ability to say we're not going to do it the the emergency is suspended because it's not in our national interest to do this by the way you still have to process I believe 1,00 illegal immigrants a day even in one of these emergencies and it goes away in three years the other thing it does is it doesn't touch the parole program which is one of the loopholes the president has used to release all these people into this country he's paroling them in that's not even Asylum you talk about the Asylum about the judges the immigration judges here's the difference those judges they're decision can be overruled by the Attorney General the Attorney General could actually step in and overrule them these Asylum officers that they this Asylum core they're going to create they can't even be overturned by the Attorney General these people would have the power right at the border to Grant people Asylum and a lot of people don't talk about that but it's right there in the law it does that as far as the standard of yeah it's good to change the standard but it's going to be applied and and It ultimately going to be applied by an Administration that that has proven its unwillingness to enforce our immigration laws this entire began in January of 2021 when the president decided for the first time in American history that we were going to release every virtually 85 90% of any migrant that crossed the border including this would change that but this would change that isn't this better than the status quo no it would not change that how would it change that it would not change that because it would allow it would allow more people to be uh turned turned back and and return to the country they came from because the Asylum claim standard is so much higher it is not so much higher it it's again it's going to be interpreted at the border by people who've shown a propensity to interpret it very liberally that that's the reason why they're letting them in now because they're basically saying we think you might have a chance at Asylum we're going to release you now in the hands of another Administration perhaps that Asylum standard could be applied differently but ultimately once you have this Asylum Corp hired by my orcus hired by Biden put at the border they're going to be they will have the power if they want they will have the power to either release people pending a future hearing with an immediate work permit which is going to draw hundreds of thousands of more people into our country or they are going to be able to give them Asylum right there and then on the spot and that is a pathway to citizenship Asylum is a pathway to citizenship I I want to turn to another topic because we're running out of time I want you to take a listen to something else Donald Trump said yesterday while campaigning in South Carolina it was about uh Nikki Haley and her husband Michael uh who as you know is deployed as a major with the South Carolina National Guard where's her husband oh he's away he's away where what happened to her husband what happened to our husband where is he he's gone he knew he knew he's in the Horn of Africa serving his country U Governor Haley responded by saying that quote someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being Commander in Chief unquote I know when you ran against President Trump in 20 2016 you said his comments about John McCain were disqualifying what do you think about these comments I think they're part of the increasing nastiness of this campaign and every campaign in American politics I mean they're calling him a grumpy old man they're attacking Donald Trump I remember when Melania uh Trump was not visible for some period of time you had people in the media and others snickering and speculating that she was no longer with Donald Trump we find out later of course that she was caring for her aien mother who was in the last weeks and days of her life so this sort of nastiness you know Trump gives as as good as he gets now we know that um it's just part of these campaign Cycles unfortunately people don't like it they're turned off by whatever it may be but at the end of the day I you know I think one of the things I'm not going to do any longer is like respond to every comment Donald Trump makes and said do you still support him I do and I support him because Joe Biden's a disaster because Joe Biden is a disaster he's done great tremendous damage to this country America is less prosperous and the world is less safe because Joe Biden became president have just to remind folks you know the comments you made in 2016 uh when B when um I'm sorry president Trump then then private citizen Trump said John McCain wasn't a war hero you said those comments were offensive ridiculous and a disqualifier as commanderin-chief I get that you don't like the nastiness I was running for president against Donald Trump right now but I guess we were in a campaign but major Haley mean KLA Harris basically said kamla Harris basically suggested that Joe Biden was a segregationist and then she became his vice president all right we're out of time want to ask you who you got tonight uh the San Francisco 49ers of the Kansas City Chiefs I want the 49ers to win so we know we can get rid of these uh conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift never in my life have have I been motivated by anything other than football but this time I just I think if 49ers win it's perfect it gets rid of all those conspiracy theories but I think the Chiefs are probably going to win all right Senator Marco robbio thanks so much have a great Sunday good luck on the senate floor