Marco Rubio responded to the news of a U.S. ordered airstrike on a Syrian airfield Thursday night by claiming Russia “should answer” for its support of the Assad regime.
“I imagine they were not the ones targeted,” the Florida Republican said in a response to question from CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “But, again, if the Russians are there on the ground assisting Assad in the commission of these heinous crimes, warcrimes, then they should answer for that.”
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“They certainly have put themselves into harm’s way,” he continued. “The second point I would make with regard to this is the absurdity of the Russian position.”
“I mean, with a straight face they’re arguing that these chemical weapons are because of the rebels, which is absurd. The third point is Russia should be embarrassed and ashamed. They are saying there were no nerve agents or chemical weapons left. We know that for the better part of this year Assad has been using chlorine bombs… and now yesterday a nerve agent, Sarin.”
Rubio further accused Russia of “covering for Assad, and if it were not for the Russians, Assad would not still be in power, and if it were not for the Russians, Assad would not have the capability and much less the gall to conduct the sort of attack we saw a couple of days ago.”