Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized anyone who supports pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil on First Amendment grounds but has also promoted censorship.
In a Sunday interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” when asked by host Margaret Brennan about First Amendment concerns coming from Khalil’s arrest by federal immigration authorities two weeks ago, Rubio replied that “I find it ironic that a lot of these people out there defending the First Amendment speech, alleged free speech rights of these Hamas sympathizers they had no problem, okay, pressuring social media to censor American political speech.”
“So I think it’s ironic and hypocritical,” Rubio said.
In terms of what the crime was to warrant the arrest, Rubio answered that “[N]egotiating on behalf of people that took over a campus, that vandalized buildings. That's a crime in and of itself, that they're involved in being a negotiator, the spokesperson.”
Rubio stated that “…if you tell us, when you apply for a visa, 'I'm coming to the U.S. to participate in pro-Hamas events,' that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States of America. If you had told us that you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa.”
In the interview, Rubio said that Khalil is “going to leave—and so are others.”
“We’re going to keep doing it,” Rubio said.
“But the bottom line is this, if you are in this country to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in acts of rebellion and riots on campus, we never would have let you in if we had known that. And now that we know it, you’re going to leave,” Rubio said.
Regarding anyone attempting to hinder the administration’s removal of dangerous individuals from the country, thereby making it safer, Rubio said that “[W]e don’t want terrorists in America. I don’t know how hard that is to understand. We want people – we don’t want people in our country that are going to be committing crimes and undermining our national security or the public safety. It’s that simple especially people that are here as guests. That is what a visa is.”
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