Sen. Marco Rubio said President Obama’s Sunday night speech did nothing to assure people he’s handling the Islamic State aggressively, and said instead that it showed Obama has lost control of the situation.
“People are really scared,” the Florida Republican and presidential candidate told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “People are scared not just because of these attacks, but because of a growing sense that we have a president that’s completely overwhelmed by them.”
“We heard tonight that the same strategy that has brought us to this point is the strategy that is going to continue,” Rubio said.
“You can’t just defeat them from an air perspective,” Rubio said, adding that the United States needs to support and perhaps field some ground troops in region. He didn’t say now many troops would be needed, but did say the U.S. doesn’t need to send 100,000 troops to get the job done.
Rubio also criticized Obama for showing more passion when attacking Republicans than when speaking out about how to defeat the Islamic State. “After Paris, the only emotion the president ever showed on his overseas trips is when he was attacking the GOP,” Rubio added.
The Republican response was near uniform in its opposition to the president’s address, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also pointed out that Obama’s plan hasn’t worked so far.
“Apocalyptic terrorists cannot be allowed to have sanctuary… Yet after more than a year… ISIS maintains its sanctuaries in Iraq and Syria from which to conduct and inspire attacks like Paris and San Bernardino,” McCain said.
“We will defeat ISIS but we cannot do so by continuing the current approach,” the Republican National Committee added.
