Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Rubio lays out his immigration plan amid terror fears; Rev. Graham: 'Our nation is in trouble'
Interview
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SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." And tonight, the 2016 GOP presidential race is heating up. Now, new polls show that the field is tightening as we move closer to the Iowa caucuses. In a brand-new Fox News Iowa poll, Ted Cruz has now moved into first place with 28 percent, just edging out Donald Trump. He's got 26 percent. And Senator Marco Rubio now is in third place with 13 percent.
Another new poll out of Iowa has Ted Cruz with a 10-point lead at 31 percent. Donald Trump comes in second. He has 21 percent, followed by Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, who are both in double digits.
Now, those numbers out of Iowa are impressive. But an a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Senator Marco Rubio does the best against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in a potential head-to-head matchup. Rubio would beat Clinton 48-45.
Here with reaction is the 2016 Republican presidential candidate Florida senator Marco Rubio. Senator, good to see you. I know these polls
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) you're getting a hundred numbers thrown at you a week. It's probably difficult to stand back and take them all in. But head to head is an important -- only two people to beat Hillary in that poll head to head, and that was you and Ben Carson.
RUBIO: Yes, look, they're interesting for people that follow politics on a daily basis. We've never paid a lot of attention to them because there's so much to go just before Iowa, not to mention the elections in November.
But the fundamental defense now for us is we need to move forward on explaining to the American people why the right way forward is limited government, free enterprise and a strong national defense.
What we know for sure is this. We can't afford another four years like the last disastrous seven-and-a-half years. And we need to -- the next president of the United States needs to hit the ground running on day one to begin to reverse the tremendous damage that this president's done to America.
HANNITY: What about this revelation that we had today? And we'll get into more detail later in the program -- that the Department of Homeland Security -- well, number one, has 72 people on the no-fly list working for them.
But number two, that according to the DHS secretary (sic), that they wouldn't look at people's social media for fear it was an issue of optics, about privacy and civil liberties when vetting people. Now, these are public forums! This is social media by its definition!
RUBIO: And this is exactly why the American people increasingly have zero confidence that this administration has any idea on how to keep our country safe.
We know, for example, that one of the early indicators of radicalization is what people are doing on line. That is what ISIS is using to recruit fighters and radicalize people, including American citizens, to take up arms against us and join the war against the United States.
To not look at that as a factor in determining whether someone should be allowed to travel here just defies all explanation. So how do you go to the American people, who feel as insecure as they ever have in recent memory, and say to them these things? And when they realize what's happening by this administration, they realize this is nOt an administration that is serious or knows what they're doing when it comes to keeping us safe.
HANNITY: How big -- how big an issue -- when you have General John Allen and you have James Comey and you have James Clapper and you have John Kirby and you have Michael Steinbeck (ph) and you have the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee all telling us that ISIS has a plan that they will infiltrate the refugee population, that we are not safe, and then you see that this woman in San Bernardino had posted all of her terrorist leanings on social media, and we don't even look at that! Is it now -- is it now
RUBIO: Yes, it just -- it defies logic.
HANNITY: Does that tell us it's time for a pause in immigration?
RUBIO: Well, what it tells us, first and foremost, is that when it comes to allowing people into this country, we must realize that things have changed just in the last two years. You have a sophisticated terrorist group, ISIS, who understands our legal immigration system and is looking for ways to exploit it.
So it's not just refugees. They're actively looking for people that can come to the U.S. as professionals, whether it's students or doctors, and so it's going to require even stronger scrutiny with regards to that, again not because America's a country that wants to turn anyone away, but because the most important obligation of the federal government is to keep us safe.
And when you realize that your enemy is trying to attack you in a very specific way, it is irresponsible, it is reckless not to look at that and figure out ways to make it work better. They're not doing that.
HANNITY: And it's a dereliction of duty. OK, you say it would be reckless not to have a plan. What should the best plan be? Is it a pause in immigration until we get it fixed? You know, you have said
RUBIO: Well
HANNITY: Go ahead.
RUBIO: No, I mean, it's not just simply a pause. I mean, obviously, common sense still applies. I think it really depends on exactly where people are coming from, how much we know about them. There are people we know a lot about. They've been here multiple times. You know, they own businesses. We know what they're involved in. And then there are people we just don't know a lot about and there are open questions about them.
And that's the kind of common sense application that I think we need. So you have someone that comes from Taiwan, has a business in California, comes four or five times a year, that's an easier person to vet. You have someone that's arriving for the first time, who we know nothing about, that's someone you're going to have to take more time to look at a little bit more careful and err on the side of caution.
And that is the sort of approach we can take instead of this notion that somehow, our immigration system needs to be a place in which, you know, we play political messaging games with it, which is what this administration does.
HANNITY: You don't think a pause from Middle Eastern refugees is a good idea for a time being?
RUBIO: Well, I have said that, I mean, especially because we know that ISIS is trying to exploit the Syrian refugee crisis. But again, if it's an 8-year-old child who is an orphan, you can vet that. But the vast majority of people that are trying to come are people that we just don't have information on. You can run their name on the database a thousand times, nothing's going to pop up because there's no databases for people coming from Syria.
And this an issue that you have to be right 100 percent. You cannot afford to be wrong on even one because if you're wrong on one, that could be an ISIS killer that's entered the U.S. and carries out a terrorist attack.
RUBIO: There's no margin of error when it comes to this.
HANNITY: On the issue of immigration reform, you have told me a number of times the American people don't trust us to do any type of comprehensive reform. And you're saying we need to prove to them that we can secure the border. If you become president, how long do you think it would take to fully and completely secure America's borders?
RUBIO: Well, it depends on how quickly Congress is prepared to move forward on a real border surge. For example, hiring thousands of new border patrol agents, completing fencing and walls in key and critical sections where people are crossing, more cameras, drones and sensors, these things that we'll require to physically secure the southern border.
We also need to put in place a mandatory e-verify system, which won't happen from one month to the next. That'll take time. We need a tracking system that tracks visa overstays, a better way, by the way, of vetting people before they come in on existing visas.
All of this will take some time. It has to be passed by Congress. It has to be funded. So it won't happen from one day to the next, but I'm convinced that we can do it. We know how to do this. We've secured borders before. And we know how to do it. It's an issue of willingness. And once we do it, you will see the legal -- you will see the illegal immigration numbers come down dramatically.
HANNITY: all right, you saw the back slapping and congratulatory tone of people at this climate summit. It's non-binding. It's not worth the paper that it's printed on. But yet you would think that they just made the greatest deal in the history of mankind. What are your thoughts
RUBIO: It's all for show.
HANNITY: What's that?
RUBIO: It's all for show. It's all for show. I mean, the whole thing is for show. Number one, as you said, they're not binding. Number two, the administration has committed the United States to certain caps, but hasn't told us how they're going to do it, which obviously means they're going to have even more of these sort of regulations. At least, that's what they intend.
Here's the most outrageous part. This is a deal that's going to require the American taxpayer to send billions of dollars to developing countries. Well, China considers itself a developing country. Does that mean the American taxpayer is going to send billions of dollars to China to help them comply with the arrangement here?
And number four, let's be clear on the issue of China, the number one carbon emitter in the world, and India, number three carbon emitter, they have said, We're going to meet those guidelines, but only if it doesn't hurt economic growth. Well, guess what? It is going to hurt economic growth. That's why we shouldn't do it here. This is just -- it's actually, quite frankly, an unfunny joke.
HANNITY: All right, Senator, congratulations on your poll numbers. We're now 48 days away. It's going to be interesting in Iowa. Thanks for being with us.
RUBIO: Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks, Sean.
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