Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tussled with Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly about the senator’s rhetoric on radical Islam during Thursday night’s presidential debate in Iowa.
Kelly questioned whether the proposals Rubio has put forward would withstand constitutional muster.
“You’ve advocated closing down — closing down — mosques, diners, any place where radicalization is occurring. You told me that,” Kelly said to Rubio. “But the Supreme Court has made clear that hateful speech is generally protected by the First Amendment. In other words, radical Muslims have the right to be radical Muslims unless they turn to terror. Doesn’t your position run afoul of the First Amendment?”
“Well, Megyn, that’s the problem. Radical Muslims and radical Islam is not just hate talk, it’s hate action. They blow people up,” Rubio replied. “Look what they did in San Bernardino. Look at the attack they inspired in Philadelphia that the White House still refuses to link to terror where a guy basically shot a police officer three times. He told the police, ‘I did it because I was inspired by ISIS.’ And to this day the White House still refuses to acknowledge that it had anything to do with terror.”
Rubio argued that the threat the United States faces from the Islamic State is “unprecedented,” and described it as “the best funded jihadist group in the history of the world.”
“We must keep America safe from this threat and yes, when I am president of the United States, if there is someplace in this country where radical jihadists are planning to attack the United States, we will go after them wherever they are, and if we capture them alive they are going to Guantanamo,” Rubio said.
When Kelly asked a follow-up question to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul about Rubio’s answer, Paul replied that he thought Rubio was making a “huge mistake.”
Rubio ranks third in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings. Paul ranks seventh.
