CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Ukraine

Interview

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COOPER: Senator Rubio, you outlined eight items, which you said the U.S. must do and should do immediately, economic issues, diplomatic issues against Russia. It seems like the Obama administration out of those eight have already embarked on a number of them. What more do you want the United States to be doing?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Well, first of all, let me recognize that they have and I've been pleased with the reaction to this. I think that key to all of this, of course, two things. First is allowing or helping the government in Kiev to become stable. We want to keep this from getting worse and that includes allowing it to spread into the eastern parts of Ukraine and transitioning to the normalcy they seek.

The second part of it is what the president described as isolating Russia. There's got to be a consequence for this action. This can be the new international norm that you can move troops in to a neighboring country when you don't like the way things turn out and in order to successfully be able to do that, we must use the influence of the United States to rally our partners in Europe and around the world to take concrete steps that continue to isolate Russia economically. There must be a price to pay for what they have done.

COOPER: So you're supportive of basically everything that the Obama administration has done thus far?

RUBIO: Yes. I think it was important that Secretary Kerry go there today. I saw his press conference earlier on CNN. Listened to it on the radio actually on Sirius XM and found it to be encouraging in terms of his language. I thought the president was right when he said that this was a major misstep for the Russians who I think are going to pay a tremendous price in the perception of Russia and Putin throughout Europe.

I just think we have to keep that momentum going and my hope is that the takeaway from this is there's no further allusions about who exactly we're dealing with. I mean, Vladimir Putin in the press conference earlier today or I guess last night our time blatantly lied and making these claims.

You are there in Kiev and he's making the claims that troops on the ground in Crimea are native self-defense forces, but we know that not to be the case so I think it's important to recognize we are dealing with an individual that lies on a regular and consistent basis.

COOPER: Many of your fellow Republicans have been very critical of the Obama administration in their relations with Russia. Do you think John McCain, for instance called the Obama leadership feckless on the issues? Others have been even harsher. Is that kind of rhetoric, are those kind of criticisms fair given the fact under President Bush Vladimir Putin had the military action in Georgia, many of the policies President Bush tried to institute against Vladimir Putin didn't seem to have the kind of response the U.S. would have liked?

RUBIO: Well, I think mistakes were made in the Bush administration, as well. I have certainly been a critic of the Obama foreign policy in general. I continue to be. I also think in a moment of international crisis, especially one of importance such as this one, it is critical. We're a free society. We will have this debate for years to come. We have had it in the past. There's plenty of time to critical of the mistakes that have been made by this administration and previous ones. I do think now given the urgency of the moment it is important that we try to find a way to unify behind whatever policy the United States pursues because I think it gives us more strength and influence in the world. Sometimes what we underestimate is because we're a free and open society, the debates are open for the world to see.

And sometimes our opponents and our enemies see that debate as a sign of weakness so it's important at moments like this we avoid the harsh rhetoric that perhaps could be counterproductive and by no means implicates some point in the future we shouldn't get back to having a serious, honest and vibrant debate about the mistakes made by this administration.

COOPER: Senator Marco Rubio, good to have you on the program. Thank you.

RUBIO: Thank you, Anderson.

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