Donald Trump was not only wrong to attack former President George W. Bush on the 9/11 attacks but it proved that "he doesn't have a fundamental understanding" of what caused the assaults that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"It's just not true, it's wrong," the Florida senator told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner in an interview. "What he said is just not true."
"The truth is that President George W. Bush inherited all sorts of things from the Clinton administration, including intelligence agencies and others who weren't doing a very good job that were … not sharing information across agencies."
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The former Republican president also received "a government that under President Clinton had not taken seriously al-Qaida and the threat that they posed," Rubio added. "President Bush was only in office nine months when this happened, but that plot to conduct 9/11 and the steps that it took to bring it about — those began well before he was even sworn into office."
"It happened under the watch of President Clinton," Rubio said, referring to Bush's Democratic predecessor.
Regarding Trump on 9/11, he said that a new commander-in-chief must understand "the mistakes that we've made in the past so that we don't repeat them but also understands the mistakes that we're making now."
"Many of those intelligence gains that were made during the Bush years have eroded," he added. "They've gone away not just because of [Edward] Snowden and those revelations but because of changes the Obama administration has made as well."
Rubio then slammed Democrats for blocking legislation that would strip federal grants from "sanctuary jurisdictions" that don't cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement.
The bill, which failed on a 54-45 vote, was co-sponsored by Rubio, fellow GOP candidate Ted Cruz and 12 other Republicans. It was proposed by Louisiana Sen. David Vitter.
"These people are openly violating our laws and violating our immigration laws," Rubio said. "Then, you have jurisdictions in this country receiving federal funding and basically refusing to cooperate with federal authorities — and that is unacceptable and unexplainable."
"It makes no sense," he told Berliner. "It's just outrageous that these people can vote this way today and there will be no consequences and no accountability."