ICYMI: Rubio Joins Jesse Watters Primetime

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Jesse Watters Primetime to discuss the mishandling of classified documents. Click here to.watch the full interview

On the mishandling of classified documents:

“I think what the executive branch needs to do is hire better movers. But, look, anytime documents are removed from their proper setting, especially after someone's been serving for a while, it's a problem. I don't care who did it. 

“I think [Joe Biden’s mishandling of documents] is more concerning for the following reasons. Number one, we're talking about eight years of vice presidential service. Number two, and the one that's really bizarre, is [some of these] documents [are from Joe Biden’s years in] the Senate. 

“In the Senate it's not like you can bring these things into your office without the proper protocols being followed to begin with. And generally most members of the Senate can't do that if they don't have a staff member who's cleared to bring you documents to read, and the documents have to come in a special secure pouch that has to be locked, and that person has to have the clearance to be able to move it around. So for a senator to take classified documents they would have to do it almost deliberately. 

“But [what is most] concerning here is that a bunch of documents were moved to [Biden’s] center at the university. These documents [at Biden’s home] apparently were not. So at some point somebody had to go through these boxes to decide what goes to the center and what doesn't go to the center. So why were these left behind in the house and the others were delivered to the center? 

“These are the kinds of things we need answers to right now. We're not getting any answers from the Director of National Intelligence, but we will. And I think there's a bipartisan commitment, frankly, to get those answers.”

On the need to understand the potential national security impact of unsecured classified documents:

“That's one of the reasons why we've asked for a risk assessment. We asked for that after Mar-a-Lago too because we wanted to see if it justified an FBI raid. We need to know, what are these documents? 

“There are different levels of classification. Maybe some of them have since been declassified. I don't know. The bottom line is that there's the concern that these things in their totality or individually could pose, not just a counterintelligence threat, but could potentially expose both methods, meaning the way we got that information, and sources, meaning the people that gave it to us. It could endanger operations. 

“We don't know until we have answers. We haven't gotten any answers. I don't know anything more about what they found than what you read in the press today. And that's unacceptable for people on a committee that's charged with overseeing how America does intelligence.”