Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Hold Saudis accountable

Interview

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MACCALLUM: So tonight, they want to cross illegally into America but now two particularly bold groups from the caravan reportedly entered the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana and insisted that they be allowed entry to the United States or be given $50,000 to return to their country. They said that money was owed to them so that they could go home and start a business.

My next guest has called for an end to the mass influx at our southern border. He also has a new op-ed on foxnews.com calling for more attention to the crisis unfolding in Yemen.

Senator, good evening. Great to have you on THE STORY tonight. Thank you for being here this evening.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA.: Thanks for having me on.

MACCALLUM: Talk to me you know, a little bit about this. It's kind of outrageous to hear that these claims -- that these requests are being made for $50,000. They also want President Hernandez of Honduras removed. What's going on here?

RUBIO: Well, first of all, it's a joke. I mean, obviously it's not a serious request that's being done for publicity purposes. Obviously, someone's directing it. These are probably activists. But I think it also -- they're sort of at least these two individuals whoever they are and whoever's behind them is sort of revealing their hand and it's something I've suspected. And that is part of this caravan movement at least I'm not saying everybody in there as part of it, but certainly at least some group organizing it is involved in the domestic politics of Honduras.

And so think about it. They were able to trigger a mass migration or the apparent -- appearance of a mass migration from Honduras. They would anger U.S. authorities because Honduras didn't control it. And then they would be able to fracture the relationship between President Hernandez's government in Honduras and the Trump administration. So you can kind of see here where this is a potential provocation to sort of create friction and create headaches for the President of Honduras coming from within Honduras, you know, groups that are politically active there.

So you know, that -- when you read about something like that, it sounds like one of those things that's done to outrage and it's not a serious request and of course, it's not going to be paid.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, they definitely showed their political hand and they did plan to a lot of the ideas that a lot of us have been looking into with regard to the political situation in Honduras. And they roped a lot of innocent people into that process in the meantime. I want to ask you a little bit about the editorial that you wrote today. You say hold the Saudis accountable with regard to the Khashoggi killing, but don't ignore Iran in Yemen. Explain what you mean.

RUBIO: So let's first understand what's happening in Yemen. What's happening in Yemen is that the Houthis are a group that Iran is sponsoring. And not just sponsoring, they've given them long-range missiles, munitions and so forth, precision munitions. That give them the capability not just to strike within Saudi Arabia but theoretically to shut down shipping that leads to the Indian Ocean and on a key choke point there, and also to target U.S. military members who are stationed throughout the Middle East.

So if you think about Hezbollah, Hezbollah is basically an agent of Iran. They used them to as agents on behalf of whatever Iran asked them to do. That's what they're turning the Houthis into as well. And so if you look at Yemen for a moment, the Khashoggi thing is an outrage and there should be accountability. I believe the Crown Prince is responsible and I think we need to take measures in our foreign policy to address that.

MACCALLUM: I mean, as you say, the Khashoggi killing is an outrage, but when you look at the proportion of outrage as it is not applied to what's happening in Yemen, you've got 57,000 people dead, 28 million who are on the brink of starvation as you write in your piece, and 2.3 million who have been displaced. The pictures that we're seeing are horrific but there's a lot of people who believe that we should get out of that -- of war in terms of our support for Saudi Arabia. What do you think is the solution before I let you go?

RUBIO: Well, first of all, we're -- there's going to be a war whether we're engaged or not. Saudi Arabia has got no problem buying weaponry from China or anybody else that will sell it to them. And the issue of the humanitarian aid, the key ports -- there's -- one of the key port cities has been shut down. You can't get aid into the country. That's not even the Saudis. That's primarily the Emirates that are involved in that fighting.

They're both on the ground and from the air, but also the Houthis. They have shut down two of the major four access roads. They have put mines at the entrance of that port. They are as responsible for this suffering and they're the ones you're going to reward if somehow you take away from Saudi Arabia the capability to fight back. They're going to keep fighting them anyway.

MACCALLUM: It's a great point. Senator Marco Rubio, thank you very much. Always good to have you here, sir.

RUBIO: Thank you.

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