Source: United States Senator for Florida Marco Rubio
Miami, FL — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Spicer & Co. to discuss the latest on Russia and Ukraine and why he will not be attending this year’s State of the Union address. See below for excerpts and watch the full interview here.
On what the modern era of hybrid warfare looks like:
“We’re in an era of hybrid warfare, which… includes overloading websites, overloading social media, putting out fake narratives… It includes space warfare, blinding satellites, impacting their ability to function, guidance systems…cyber attacks against the economies and/or the military, electronic attacks which disrupt telecommunications and internet.
“[The United States is] as vulnerable as our weakest water department or our weakest utility company, and perhaps some of our banks as well. We’re vulnerable now.
The question really is how quickly can we mitigate against it? How quickly can we identify it and restore it?”
On how the U.S. would respond to a large-scale cyber attack:
“One of the things I’m very interested in is, what is our escalation ladder?… An attack [on the U.S.] would be met by some proportionate response in the same realm, and that cycle can continue going back and forth for some time. And my concern is that it escalates very rapidly into something much more serious.
“It’s one of those things that I really think we need to think about very soberly, because it’s a road no one’s ever been down…. We know what happens if you launch an ICBM against the United States. We know what happens if a Russian bomber intrudes on our airspace. No one knows what happens if you inadvertently poison the water system of a small municipality in the United States…. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. I’m saying no one knows what happens when you do that.”
On how the invasion of Ukraine will impact the U.S. economy:
“Joe Biden is waging war on oil and natural gas in the United States…. That’s made oil and natural gas from Russia much more valuable…. So I do think [the invasion] is going to impact us in terms of energy prices…. We could have prevented some of that if the U.S. were producing oil and natural gas.
“Food prices [will increase,] too. About 13 or 14 percent of the world’s supply of corn and wheat [comes from Ukraine]. That means the people that buy from them, if that’s disrupted, are now our competitors in the marketplace, raising prices for everybody.
“[But] if there isn’t … a price to pay for just taking over [another country], well, today it’s Ukraine, but I’m telling you it won’t stop with Ukraine. Iran has claims that they want to pursue that way, and obviously China does [as well].”
On concerns that the Chinese Communist Party will invade Taiwan:
“I’m concerned because [the Chinese Communist Party] ha[s] more capability and they’re becoming more aggressive. I believe that we won’t end this decade without them trying to do something about it.
…
“The problem is China isn’t going to end just with Taiwan. They also have claims over the South China Sea, which… [brings] them into direct conflict with Japan and the Philippines. And that’s one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. So if they control the most important shipping lane in the world, it now means we’re going to have to pay them a toll. Everyone’s going to have to pay China a toll for some of the most important products in the world.”
“It reminds us that we need to bring manufacturing back to this country. We can no longer be as dependent as we have become on China for things like medicine, telecom, all these high tech industry components.”
On the COVID theater at this year’s State of the Union address:
“COVID theater…has become a disease of its own. They want you to take a test, and wear a K95 mask, and sit up in the gallery, and go through a metal detector… I’m done with all that theater stuff.
“Back in March or April of 2020, we didn’t know a lot about this disease, and we were a lot more careful about it. Now we’ve got vaccines, we’ve got treatments. We know a lot more about it. At some point, we’ve got to end with this stuff.
“I’ll watch the replays on television. I don’t need to sit there and go through all of that just to make [Democrats] feel good about how ‘safe’ they’re being. Honestly, I’m just tired of all the COVID theater crap.”