Rubio Joins Mornings With Maria

Interview

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Mornings with Maria to discuss his op-ed on his Mind Your Own Business Act, the national security threat of Americans investing in Chinese firms, the crisis at the border, and more. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.

On the national security threat posed by Americans investing in Chinese firms:

"Well, on Evergrande, I think it's a reminder that we don't have any insight or any sort of understanding about the true numbers or the health of any of these companies in China. And so as we allow them into our market, by the way, we allow Americans and American funds to invest in them without any of the oversight or regulatory requirements that we would impose, for example, on an American company. We're putting potentially billions of dollars of American retirement funds and pension funds at risk. And so I don't know how we can continue to do that. And I hope this administration will be strong about it. We were making a lot of progress with the Trump administration in that regard. And we've kind of lost some steam here with this new administration.

"On the first point of the crackdown, I think it's pretty straightforward and that is Xi Jinping is sending a very clear message. He doesn't care if you're a billionaire or one of the largest corporations in the world or you're a celebrity--because they crack down on celebrities--or you're a company that's a big giant on social media. No one is bigger than the Communist Party of China. And I think he's putting everyone in their place and reminding them, you may get rich and you may get famous, but you're still under our control. And I think you're going to continue to see more of this in the years and months to come."

On how American investors are oblivious to the national security threat posed by Beijing:

"I haven't seen that confronting these kinds of issues has been a priority for this administration. And the first point is the one you were talking about is, look, there is a lot of people that have made a lot of money investing other people's money in China. There are a lot of people and a lot of companies that have made a lot of money gaining a small percentage of this very large market, and they want that to continue. For a lot of these people it's not about what's going to happen 10 years from now. They won't be here 10 years from now. They want to know how much money can they make for their fund, for their investors, for their company over the next two to three years. And by the time this crashes or whatever terrible thing happens, they'll be long gone.

"It's not--in many cases--their money that they're risking, but it's a risk for the country. It's a risk for the country because what we're dealing with here is not just a market failure. One thing is, I don't exactly recall now who said "this is the way things happen with investors'. It's true. There are market failures and you win or you lose. This is directed by the government. This is if the government decides that we want to collapse an industry, a company, an American investment in China, they can do it overnight. It will be a government action. It would be something that they would take on, in many cases deliberately as a geopolitical chess move. And this continues because we have a ruling class in American finance that is deeply invested in short term profits from China and care nothing about its long term implications on the country, our national security.

…

"The Chinese have learned how to play our own game, right? They go to these investors, people that are making money and they turn them basically into de facto lobbyists on their behalf. In some cases, they threaten them. In other cases, it's through incentive -- about how much more money they can make if they could get the Administration to make certain decisions, and that extends to Congress."

On the Biden Administration's incompetence:

"The Biden Administration is just generally disorganized and chaotic right now. I think the last week stands as a testament to incompetence and the fact that they're being overwhelmed by circumstances. Their woke rhetoric is crashing into real world situations, and it's not working out for them.

"Let's not let's not kid ourselves here. When you look at Wall Street and all of those industries and financial industries, they're enormous and big supporters of the Democratic Party and of Joe Biden, they generally align with them on virtually everything, except maybe capital gains tax and carried interest and a couple of other things. But in terms of social issues and the like, most certainly. And they're having an influence on this Administration, and they're telling them to back off.

"And part of the problem we're having here is this insane allergy to anything Trump within the Biden Administration. If Trump did it - it doesn't matter if it was a good idea - if Trump did it, they're going to do the opposite.

"I think the same is playing out a little bit here in China. If Trump was tough on China in one way, they want to be loose with China in another way. They want to do the opposite of everything Trump does. And that's gotten them a border crisis. It's gotten them a fiasco in Afghanistan. It has put them in a very difficult position and the country in a very bad spot."

On Rubio's Fox Business op-ed and Mind Your Own Business Act:

"If a company is going to boycott a state, if a company is going to pull a product off the market because it has an American flag on it and that might offend some people. If a company is going to make these decisions under pressure from either the woke culture or some employee uprising internally, that is pushing them in this direction, then they should have to justify to their large shareholders why they've done it and why that's in the best interest of the company.

"And if they're sued on those grounds, they should have a higher standard of proof, a higher burden to prove that this is a decision that we've made as a corporation because it's in the best interest of our business model. We're actually acting in the interests of our shareholders, not just kowtowing to pressure from China or pressure from the woke and cancel culture in America."

On vaccine mandates:

"I've always told people that my personal view of it is I'm vaccinated and I encourage people to get vaccinated, but I don't believe the government should be asking people to do this. There's something un-American about saying, "We're going to use the power of government to force you to do something or we're going to kick you out of your job, we're going to leave you unemployed, you won't even be able to go into certain places.'

…

"People think about Marxism as an economic mode, It has an economic component, [but] Marxism has never been solely about economics; it has been about power and about control, about having the power to force people to do what you want them to do or pay a very high price. That's what Marxism is about. That's what it's been for a hundred years, and that's what this neo-Marxism is about."

On President Biden's latest border crisis:

"I have a tremendous amount of affection and respect for the Haitian American community. These are hardworking people contributing a tremendous amount, and I feel terrible about what's happening in Haiti and has happened for 50, 60 years.

"Mass migrations are always bad because they're caused by some sort of tragedy, but they also are bad because they lead to tragedy. And that's what we're seeing now.

"People are coming for one simple reason. First of all, many of these people haven't been to Haiti in two or three years or any of the other countries, they are coming from Cuba, etc. They've been living in third countries and they see now is the opportunity to come because Joe Biden sent a very clear message in his campaign and as President: "I am not going to enforce our immigration laws.' That's the message that he's sent. What he said is, "It's going to be easier to get in,' and that's why they're coming in. It's terrible."

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