Elections

Rubio: Trump Should Be Able to Make His Foreign Policy Case

REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus

Jackson Richman Contributor
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Despite his past criticisms of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] said Tuesday that the presumptive Republican nominee should spend time persuading Americans that his vision abroad is the best for the country.

“People know where I stand, they know how I feel, and they know what our differences are,” Rubio said during an interview at the Hudson Institute. “He is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. I respect that and accept it. But that’s not going to change the reservations I have about his campaign or about some of the policies that he has established.”

In February, the Florida senator said on Fox News Sunday that Trump has not demonstrated a “fundamental understanding of foreign policy.”

During that month in South Carolina, Rubio said, “Donald Trump has zero foreign policy experience. Negotiating a hotel deal in another country is not foreign policy experience.”

In a foreign policy speech at the Center for the National Interest last month, Trump stated, “Since the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union, we’ve lacked a coherent foreign policy” and said that the Middle East has become “more unstable and chaotic than ever before.”

Trump also said, “We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide. Our actions in Iraq, Libya and Syria have helped unleash ISIS. And we’re in a war against radical Islam, but President Obama won’t even name the enemy. Hillary Clinton also refuses to say the words ‘radical Islam,’ even as she pushes for a massive increase in refugees.”

“After Secretary Clinton’s failed intervention in Libya, Islamic terrorists in Benghazi took down our consulate and killed our ambassador and three brave Americans. Then, instead of taking charge that night, Hillary Clinton decided to go home and sleep. Incredible,” Trump added.

Despite his skepticism of Trump’s policies abroad, Rubio said Tuesday, “My policy differences and reservations about Donald’s campaign are well established, and I stand by those. Those remain. And I hope they will be addressed.”

“That said, I don’t view myself as a guy who’s going to sit here for the next six months taking shots at him.”