Marco Rubio Friday laid blame on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, along with the Obama administration, for the "mess" in the Middle East.
"Hillary Clinton is the architect of leading from behind, and that's what's led to this mess," the Florida senator and GOP candidate told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"You know, first of all, we have a president who believes that America is an arrogant, global power that needs to be cut down to size. That's how you get a foreign policy where we betray our allies and we cut deals with our enemies and weaken the U.S. military."
Further, he complained that President Barack Obama apologizes, especially in the Middle East, for the United States.
"So that's where you get a Saudi Arabia, which is a military ally of the United States, feeling vulnerable," said Rubio. "Because we cut a deal with Iran that is their Shia enemy and their mortal enemy."
The United States is leading from behind, he continued, and left Iraq and Afghanistan too early, leaving a space for ISIS to fill in.
"And Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state over much of these decisions, when these decisions were being made," he said. "Both she and President Obama are a complete and total disaster on their foreign policy."
The senator said he "can't wait" to run against Clinton in a general election, but he knows "she doesn't want to run against me, that's why they keep attacking me every day . . . We're going to talk about how she used her e-mail server irresponsibly and recklessly, thereby putting American information potentially in the hands of our enemies.
"We're going to talk about how she lied about Benghazi . . . and then this fundamental question, what part of the world today is America stronger or safer after Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and Barack Obama was president? The answer: is there is no such place."
But Rubio didn't only limit his attacks on Clinton, but also took shots at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, saying he doesn't believe "the next president of the United States, and the Republican nominee, should be someone like Chris Christie who supports Common Core, who has personally donated to Planned Parenthood, who got into politics to begin with in order to pass gun control.
"Who has seen his state downgraded six, seven times since he took over as governor in their credit rating."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.