Sen. Marco Rubio says he can beat Hillary Clinton in a 2016 race for the White House — but then again, so can a lot of other people.
"Multiple people can beat her. Hillary Clinton is not unbeatable," the Florida Republican told radio show host Hugh Hewitt in a
wide-ranging interview Friday that touched on everything from a potential Clinton run to the immigration situation and on to basketball great LeBron James' decision to leave the senator's beloved Miami Heat.
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Rubio was quick to slam Clinton on her foreign policy background, foreshadowing a potential showdown if the two end up campaigning against each other about two years from now.
He told Hewitt he does not fear Clinton's history as secretary of state during the first four years of the Obama administration, and that he has one question for her: "Name one significant foreign policy achievement now or after you left."
Hewitt said Clinton would likely refer to Burma, about which she devoted several pages in her memoir "Hard Choices," but Rubio doesn't think that there is much success for Clinton to tout even there.
There is a persecuted Muslim minority in Burma, and Rubio said that "quite frankly, geopolitically speaking, I suppose if it works out, it's a good news story, but how does that compare to some of the major challenges?"
For example, Rubio said, "the reset with Russia has been a disaster. The Middle East is more unstable today than it's been in I don't know when, but certainly, and that's saying a lot."
In addition, the United States' relationships in Latin America have deteriorated, the Chinese are "increasingly aggressive," and America's allies around the world "view us as less reliable. Where is there one thing they've done successfully?"
In addition to a potential Clinton campaign, there are also urgent matters going on in the Senate. For example, Hewitt said, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has called for repealing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a move Rubio said shows a new battleground for debate.
"It's no longer about whether people have the freedom to live life as they choose," said Rubio. "It's now become about defining certain cultural values as unacceptable, traditional cultural values."
Reid and Democrats want to give the government power to force Americans to do things they find objectionable because of their religion, said Rubio.
"If you truly want to live your faith, especially the Christian faith, it impacts every aspect of your life where you work, how you raise your family, and certainly how you worship as well," said Rubio. "And there are protections for that in this country and our Constitution that he seeks to ignore. And I think they think they have a political winner."
Rubio said that he believes there are Democrats in key areas who would not vote for Reid's plan.
And he questions why the issue is now up for debate, given all that is going on in the world.
Israel and Hamas are on the verge of war, an Islamic caliphate is being established, the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran are likely to collapse or end in a "horrifying" deal, and the economy is shrinking rapidly, veterans are dying waiting for care, and "in the midst of all of these challenges, this is what they want to spend the next two out of the three weeks we have left in July in session debating," Rubio said.
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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.
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