Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Rubio: We are at war with radical jihadists; Fiorina: Hillary is 'dangerous' for national security

Interview

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HANNITY: All right. Here with reaction, 2016 Republican presidential candidate, the great senator from the great state of Florida, Marco Rubio.  Sir, how are you?

RUBIO: I'm good. How are you, Sean?

HANNITY: You know, it's always peace and prosperity that drive elections. I would argue peace, prosperity, immigration, the refugee problem are going to be really big issues this year.

The president continues to insist that we take in Syrian refugees, even though James Clapper and even though our FBI director and assistant FBI director and the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the House are all saying that is ISIS likely to infiltrate the population.

Why is the president willing to gamble with the lives of the American people, especially in light of the fact that this just happened in Paris?

RUBIO: Well, first, you just ran clips from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that just boil my blood. No one -- who is saying that we're at war with Muslims? No one is saying that we're at war with an entire religion. We're helping the Kurds. They're Muslims. We're trying to empower Sunnis on the ground to defeat ISIS. They're Muslims. We work very closely with Jordan and Egypt. They're Muslims. We are at war with radical jihadists who are motivated by their interpretation of Islam.

By the way, they consider Sunnis that don't agree with them as heretics. They consider all Shia as heretics. They consider, obviously, Christians and Jews as heretics.

We are in a civilizational struggle between these radical lunatics who are motivated by their interpretation of their faith and our values of liberty and freedom and the opportunity for all. And so…

HANNITY: So there is this conflict…

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HANNITY: There is this conflict of cultures. And I think you're raising a good point. The DNC just came out with a new ad saying that equating Islam, all Muslims, with terrorists -- and they actually quoted you in the ad and they quoted four of your fellow GOP candidates. Your quote was the same as theirs. We are at war with radical Islam. That is not saying all Muslims!

RUBIO: Right.

HANNITY: It contradicts their own ad, but that's the false narrative, just like Republicans are racists, just like Republicans want to throw granny over the cliff.

RUBIO: Yes. So one of the arguments I've made consistently is that ISIS needs to be defeated by a ground force that's made up primarily of Sunni Arabs because these are Sunni Arab territories that they've taken hold of. How is -- we're working with them to defeat them. You know, the Egyptian military is someone we need to be working more closely with.  They're a key part of the Camp David accord security arrangements. They're Muslim. And they say that these guys are radical Islamists because that is what they are.

And it is important to identify who they are and what they're motivated by because if you don't know what motivates -- if you're not going to acknowledge what motivates your adversary, then you can't come up with a strategy to defeat them. They're not motivated by wanting to govern Syria and Iraq, they want to dominate the world.

HANNITY: If the top security director in this country, our FBI director, assistant FBI director, Homeland Security chairman -- if all these people are making the case that it's likely that ISIS will infiltrate the refugee population, I go back to my original question. Why would this president gamble with American lives? Why would he possibly do that?

RUBIO: Well, I don't understand. You'll obviously have to ask him if you ever get a chance. I think, quite frankly, they're very irresponsible and very incompetent on the work that they do. But on the Syrian point, on the refugee point, it's not that America is saying, We don't want any refugees. What we're saying is you can't come here as a refugee if we can't vet you. And all I said is we are not going to be able to vet most of these people.

Now, common sense still applies. If it's a 6-year-old orphan, if it's a 90-year-old senior citizen, if it's a Chaldean priest from the Middle East, you can vet someone like that. That's common sense. But if it's someone we know nothing about there is no database -- I don't care how many databases they run these names against, there is no reliable database for to us to use to vet thousands of people coming from an unstable part of the world and where documents are often forged.

And that's the point we've made repeatedly, is we know that this -- we know for a fact that ISIS is seeking to use the refugee crisis as a way to infiltrate fighters into foreign countries. How can we possibly ignore that?

HANNITY: All right, so if we look at the numbers -- and we have 66 percent believe we are at war with radical Islamists, that's a pretty significant number. Sixty-seven percent of Americans oppose the president's refugee plan to bring Syrian refugees here. Sixty-five (sic) of Americans don't think the president's aggressive enough. There was a poll by the Center for Research and Policy Studies, 13 percent of Syrian refugees have at least a somewhat positive view of ISIS. Fifty percent of Democrats oppose the refugee crisis (sic) in the FOX poll.
So my question is, how do Republicans stop this? I know he's the commander-in-chief, but your -- Congress has the power of the purse. Can it be stopped?

RUBIO: It can, and I think part of it is the funding mechanism that's used. You'd hate to use that because it would impact all refugees if you did it that way. The other is, for example, the House has taken measures to make it stricter in terms of the vetting process. It would require the FBI director and other agency heads to personally attest…

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: What if they say, Based on what we know now? I don't have a lot of faith in that language.

RUBIO: Yes, but you know what? They're not even saying that. I mean, that's one of the reasons why they oppose it. They've obviously said -- the FBI director has said and others have said, Well, we can't possibly do that. I mean, we can't guarantee everybody.

Well, that's the problem. And my point that I've made is if you allow 10,000 people in and 9,999 of them are good people and one of them happens to be an ISIS killer, you have a problem.

This is an issue in which you have to be 100 percent right because just to be wrong on one person would be enough to potentially trigger an attack within the United States.

HANNITY: All right, it's scary. Stay right there. We'll have more with senator Rubio right after the break.
Then later tonight…

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HANNITY: Hillary copies President Obama's attack line, claims Republicans warning against accepting Syrian refugees is somehow helping ISIS. 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina's here to respond.
And then later tonight…

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HANNITY: Donald Trump -- he didn't hold back when asked about how he would take on ISIS. Would that be the best way to stop an attack here in America? That and much more straight ahead.

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HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity" As we continue with 2016 GOP presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio. Senator, let's talk a little about the race, put up some poll numbers. Fox News poll has you and Ted Cruz tied at 14 percent. It seems Ben Carson, in light of a lot of -- he took a lot of negative hits last week. He's down fairly significantly.

Then we have a head-to-head matchup, Fox News poll, you beating Hillary Clinton 50 to 42 percent, I believe more than any other candidate.  What is your take on those polls as we now get closer to Iowa?

RUBIO: Well, you know, Sean, I never get too excited about polls one way or the other. We've been up and down. And so to me, I mean, it's interesting to read and look at it, but I'm more interested in the direction of the race that it's going. I mean, this is a race that's becoming increasingly about national security, and it's good that it has because that's what -- that's the predominant job of a president is to be the commander-in-chief.

We also have to talk about the millions of Americans who feel like outsiders in their own country, growing number of Americans who feel like they're being left behind. They have traditional values, and if they espouse those values, they're called bigots and haters. They're stuck in jobs that don't pay enough. They're living paycheck to paycheck or they're at home because they can't find a job or they've been replaced by a machine.
And then student loan debt -- you've got these young Americans with thousands of dollars in loans, and they can't find a job because their degree doesn't lead to a job and the economy isn't creating it.

So I think those are the issues we want to focus on, and those are the issues that are going to allow a Republican nominee, who I hope and believe will be me -- but the Republican nominee to defeat Hillary Clinton, who has no answers to any of these problems. Her answer to every issue is a tax increase and a government program!

HANNITY: Yes. You know, if you look at the president and Hillary Clinton and their foreign policy, I mean, they're kind of joined at the hip. And one of the questions I've been trying to ask is, how can one president be so wrong so often on such important issues, not only the economy, which I make my arguments regularly that he's really been a disaster on, but foreign policy missteps. I put some of it together.  Let's take a look at it.

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HANNITY: Iran's not a threat. Medvedev -- you tell Vladimir I'll have more flexibility after the election. He's been wrong on Syria. Assad is going to outlast Obama, and he predicted that he'd be gone. He also said, of course, this infamous quote in the New Yorker magazine that, The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a JV team puts on a Lakers uniform, that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant, talking about ISIS.

How can one person be so wrong on so many important issues just like he's wrong about this refugee issue?

RUBIO: Well, think about it this way. In 2016, the American people will have a choice to make, and the
answer's pretty straightforward -- and the question's pretty straightforward. Name me one part of the world where America is stronger and safer than they were before Barack Obama was elected president. Name me one instance where the world -- where America is stronger and safer since Hillary -- because Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state.

The answer is we're not. Terrorism is no longer just al Qaeda.  They're still around, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and their spin-off group, the Khorasan group that's located in Syria, as well. But also, you've got now ISIS, a group that didn't exist in its current form before the president took over.
Afghanistan's headed in the wrong direction. We've seen what's happened in Iraq. ISIS has now spread into Libya, one of their prime operating spaces.

So where in the world are we stronger? Russia is more of a threat today than they were when the president made those statements back during the 2012 debates.

HANNITY: Let me…

RUBIO: On every single issue, we have lost ground in our safety and our security and in our global prestige under Barack Obama.

HANNITY: Well, also on the economy. He'll take on more debt than every other president before him combined, this horrible Iranian deal, which is another thing. Then you've got, you know, millions more in poverty, millions more on food stamps, median income down. "Obama care" is imploding.All -- this is a pretty severe situation.

Let me ask about the state of the race from this sense. We saw you in your battles with Jeb Bush inasmuch as we saw the op research he put together on you. Donald Trump has been pretty outspoken in trying to attack you, headlines today that the trade deal and immigration create a big divide between you and Senator Ted Cruz.

What is your answer to your fellow candidate as these -- you know, as we get closer to Iowa and New Hampshire, things are going to heat up even more, right?

RUBIO: Yes, well, but look, I mean, I like my opponents as people, and I think any of them would be better than Hillary Clinton. This is not personal. There are policy differences between us, and we should debate those policy differences. I think that's what we need to be doing in a primary. Policy differences are not personal as long as they're done in a respectful way. And that's what we are all going to endeavor to do in this campaign.

You know, we agree on most of the issues. That's why we're running as Republicans. But there are issues where there are some differences in our opinions or in our records, and those will be subjects for debate in this campaign, and that's a normal part of campaign. I think you can have a policy debate without it becoming personal. And that's what we're all going to endeavor to do, I hope.

HANNITY: All right, Senator Marco Rubio, thanks for being with us.

RUBIO: Thank you.

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