CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Florida Senator Marco Rubio

Interview

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TAPPER: President Trump has not offered any indications on what that punishment could be.

This morning, Saudi Arabia fired back a warning shot, warning it will retaliate against any punitive action.

President Trump is also managing a major domestic disaster after Hurricane Michael, the worst storm to hit the U.S. in at least a quarter-century, left at least 18 people dead and thousands without power or resources. President Trump is planning a visit to the hardest-hit areas of Florida and Georgia in the coming days.

Joining me now is Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees.

Senator, I want to start with Hurricane Michael, the strongest storm to hit the United States in a quarter-century.

I know you have been down in the hardest-hit areas in Florida, including Panama City, where people are desperate for aid, waiting in long lines for food, for gasoline. When do you think all those who need help or supplies are going to be able to get them?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Well, I don't want to -- this is a disaster. This is what disasters look like.

That's why it's so difficult, and we always ask people to evacuate if they can and to have extra food.

I think everyone's doing the best they can. The state government is the lead response agency. They're the ones in charge of the response. The federal government steps in and provides them whatever help they need. And our job is to make sure the federal government is providing whatever the state is asking for. And it's going to be a while. Look, Panama City is -- looks like Homestead down here in South Florida after Andrew. What I saw there, I didn't see any electricity poles standing or any wires still up. So that's going to have to be totally rebuilt.

Telecommunications is still a challenge. Mexico Beach is wiped out, I mean literally flattened out. And then something I hope we don't lose focus on, there are a lot of inland counties, away from the coast, where there are a lot of older people, a lot of poor people, people that could not evacuate even if they wanted to, living miles apart from each other in rural areas who have been badly hit by this.

And, right now, many of them are even cut off. They don't have phone. The roads are blocked. They might even live off a dirt road. We got to get to them too. And I hope that -- that's going to be the one area I really, really focus on, because I think that's where the dire need is also there.

And they're going to be the hardest people to identify and find. We still don't have an accurate assessment of how many people we have cut off from everybody else.

TAPPER: Now, you say that it's your job to make sure that everything gets to the areas that need it.

Is there anything that you're trying to tell either Tallahassee or Washington that they need to act on that they are not acting on?

RUBIO: No.

So, the state government is in the lead. And what I said is, our job is to make sure, if the state is asking the federal government for something, that the federal government provides it. The state government is in charge of this response.

And, so far, I have not seen any state request that has not been met by FEMA and the federal government. There are additional federal assets out there could be used, like the Department of Defense. And I could very well come back tomorrow, when I go into some of those rural counties, and argue that there's more that needs to be done.

But I'm not prepared right now to tell you that there's a need that's not being met by the state government that the federal government can do that hasn't been asked for. And I usually try to stay out of the way of the experts who train for this.

[09:05:01]

But if I find something, I will jump all over it. And I believe the federal government is ready to provide any assistance that the state asks for.

TAPPER: Speaking of experts, we can't specifically say that Hurricane Michael was so strong, so devastating...

RUBIO: Yes. TAPPER: ... because of climate change, but there is scientific

consensus that warmer waters due to climate change are making storms such as Michael even more devastating.

A new report from the U.N. outlined a dire global forecast within the next 20 years. The Union of Concerned Scientists said Florida could lose more than one million homes by the end of the century due to rising sea levels because of climate change, which they say is manmade.

What do you say to constituents who say, well, who ask, why are you not one of the leaders in Congress on this issue?

RUBIO: Well, I would say that that's not true. We are.

We -- for example, we have funded this study in Congress that I have pushed for to better understand exactly what you have just said, primarily on the Atlantic side. Sea level rise and changes in the climate, those are measurable.

So I don't think there's a debate about whether that is happening, because you can measure that. The secondary aspect is, how much of that is due to human activity? And from a policy-maker, the question is, what policies can we change to deal with that human activity?

That's where the debate really has been. So I confront it two ways. The sea level rising. We know that. I mean, you can measure that. That's something anyone's debating. And that's why I have pushed for mitigation and mitigation standards and things that we need to be doing, primarily because the insurance marketplace is going to start market -- is going to start pricing this in.

So we better have answers on places like Miami Beach here in South Florida and the like. The second question about how much is human activity contributing towards that, what percentage of that is due to human activity, and the third question, what laws can we change, that's the more complicated one, especially the third one, because some of the things they're asking for is already happening.

If you look at U.S. today, we're cleaner than we used to be. Natural gas is a clean source. Nuclear energy is very clean. But you have to fight the same people to approve of that.

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TAPPER: Do you believe it's manmade?

RUBIO: What's that?

TAPPER: Do you believe it's at least in part manmade?

RUBIO: Yes, look, scientists are saying that humanity and its behavior is contributing towards that.

I can't tell you what percentage of that is due to human activity. And I think many scientists would debate the percentage of what is attributable to man vs. normal fluctuations.

But that there's actually a rise in sea level, that temperatures are warmer in the water than they were 50, 80, 100-some years ago, that's a measurable. There's no -- I don't think there is a honest debate about that.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: But in 20 years...

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: The core response to me, though, is, what can we do about it?

TAPPER: Yes.

And, in 20 years, are you going to be able to say to your children and my children, these are the three or four things that I pushed for in Congress to help mitigate this factor?

RUBIO: Sure.

Well, certainly, mitigating sea level rise, because no matter what we do -- no matter what we do with laws -- if, tomorrow, we stopped all carbon -- let's say we went to all solar panels and did all that stuff, which is not realistic, there still would be -- this still -- this trend would still continue.

And so we're going to have to do something about the impact that it's having on low-level coastal areas. And that means mitigation, hardening, lifting -- how we manage water. We're all over that. We have been working on that very hard and continue to, strategies to mitigate against those factors that are going to be in place no matter what happens with our energy policy.

But I'm also not going to destroy our economy. There's a reality here and there's a balance on that end of it that we need to be focused on.

TAPPER: I want to turn to "The Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was allegedly killed inside the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Turkey just over a week ago.

President Trump sold "60 Minutes" that -- quote -- "There will be severe punishment" -- unquote -- if Saudi Arabia is found to have offered -- ordered, rather, the killing of Mr. Khashoggi.

But he's not offered any specifics on what that would look like.

What specifically should any punishment against Saudi Arabia look like?

RUBIO: Well, I'm glad he didn't offer any specifics. That is something should be thought through carefully.

But there needs to be a strong response if, in fact, this proves to be true. If they lured this man into that consulate, they went medieval on him, and he was killed and he was chopped up and they sent a death crew down there to kill him and do all this, that would be an outrage.

And just because they're an ally in an important mission, which is containing Iranian expansion in the region, cannot allow us to overlook or walk away from that. It undermines our ability to stand for -- for morality and human rights all over the world.

How can we criticize Putin for doing...

TAPPER: Right.

RUBIO: ... for killing journalists if we're prepared to allow an ally to do the same?

TAPPER: But what should be done?

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: ... the specifics of that?

TAPPER: Yes.

RUBIO: Well, we have already asked for a Magnitsky investigation, which means individuals responsible for that decision would be sanctioned.

Beyond that, there are other options that we can take. As I said, that's something that needs to be thought through carefully, because it -- but it needs to be strong, it needs to be reciprocal, and meaning it needs to actually live up to the level of the outrage then and the criminality, if, in fact, this is proven to be true.

And -- and, like I said -- so I'm glad the president didn't tie his hands in terms of exactly what we're going to do, but it needs to be very strong and meaningful. It can't be symbolic. It can't just be words.

TAPPER: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says he's still planning to go to that economic summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next week. Do you think the Trump administration should participate?

And what do you think of the idea that President Trump says the incident will not derail any arms sales to Saudi Arabia?

RUBIO: Well, two separate topics.

[09:10:01]

I don't think we should continue as business as usual, until we know exactly what's happened here, because what we do know is this. He walked into that consulate, and he never came out.

So, the only two things that could have happened is, he's alive and somehow still in there, or he's dead and the Saudis are the ones who did it. There's no other explanation for it, because if there was video of him leaving, they would have shown it by now. As far as arm sales, I would not have said it the way the president said it. Arm sales are important, not because of the money, but because it also provides leverage over their future behavior. You know, they -- they will need our spare parts. They will need our training. And those are things we can use to influence their behavior.

But I would not take cutting that off, off the table. Every option needs to be there in a response, because, no matter what -- how important they might be to our Iranian strategy, our ability to be a voice for human rights and to go after regimes like Assad, like Putin, like what China does, like what Maduro does in Venezuela, all of that is undermined and compromised if we are not willing to confront something as atrocious as what allegedly happened here.

TAPPER: When you say it's not time for business as usual, I assume you're suggesting that Mnuchin should not go to the economic conference in Riyadh? Is that what that means?

RUBIO: I don't think he should go. I don't think any of our government officials should be going and pretending as it's business as usual, until we know exactly what's happened here.

TAPPER: And one last question.

Are you concerned that White House senior aide Jared Kushner, and, by extension, President Trump have too much invested in this personal relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, and, in fact, that the Trump administration may have been snookered by him, played by him?

RUBIO: I don't think they were played by him.

I think that they wanted to put together a Middle Eastern strategy in which a less-than-perfect government was a key component of constraining -- constraining Iranian ambition in the region.

I don't believe, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, that the amount of time and energy they have put into that relationship will necessarily make it impossible for the U.S. government to take strong action.

But here's the bottom line. I believe the Trump administration will do something. The president has said that. But, if he doesn't, Congress will. That, I can tell you with 100 percent certainty. With almost full unanimity, across the board, Republicans and Democrats, there will be a very strong congressional response if, in fact, the Saudis lured him into that consulate, murdered him, cut up his body, and disposed of it.

There is going to be a very strong congressional response.

TAPPER: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, thank you so much for your time, sir, as always.

RUBIO: Thank you.

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