Updated:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has since talked to Fox News' Neil Cavuto about the video remarks being censored, pointing out that "these are companies that selectively choose what they want to censor and take down," but the message isn't going to change."
When it comes to referring to Hamas as "savages," Rubio offered "maybe there's a better word, but I don't know any other word to describe a group of people that would go in and slaughter a bunch of babies, kill a bunch of teenage girls in the desert." He also reminded that Hamas attacked people at a concert.
"They did not attack IDF soldiers. They went after a concert. They went after settlements in which people had barely woken up or were still in their beds. They went after little children. They raped teenage girls. They abducted senior citizens and took them back with them. What other word in the English language describes these people," he thus wondered.
Rubio doubled down not only when it comes to speaking about the horrors of Hamas, but also how Hamas can't be trusted or a group to coexist with. "And how could any nation on earth be told, 'You have to somehow, not just coexist with that group, but figure out a way to work in agreement with them'? Those guys don't want an agreement," Rubio insisted. "I don't understand why we continue to not believe and take these guys at their word when they say that their goal is to drive every Jew out of the Middle East. Why don't we believe them when they say it, especially after what they did? Israel has to dismantle them."
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There is no hiding the brutality and savagery of Hamas.
— Senator Marco Rubio (@SenMarcoRubio) October 13, 2023
Big Tech cannot censor the truth of what Hamas did in Israel. pic.twitter.com/IKW7jPdqGi
Original:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been particularly vocal not just about standing firm in his support for Israel, but also calling out Hamas and the terrorism they inflicted on Israeli civilians last weekend. The senator's remarks though, as posted to Florida Voice's YouTube channel, were flagged and removed, as the outlet announced over their X account. Evidently, Rubio's comments about Hamas being "savages" violated the platform's "hate speech policy."
"Content that incites hatred against individuals or groups based on their protected group status isn't allowd on YouTube," the policy claims. Terrorists appear to qualify as a "protected group" then. "This may include dehumanization, using slurs and stereotypes, inferiority claims, and/or conspiracy theories," the policy went on to read.
Apparently @YouTube @Google has decided that calling Hamas terrorists who burned babies & raped girls “savages” is dehumanizing “hate speech” https://t.co/bjoZveYOR4
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 13, 2023
Rubio made the supposedly hateful remarks during a Fox Business appearance when speaking to Larry Kudlow on Thursday. The senator spoke to Kudlow about many details of Hamas, including the support they have from Iran.
"There is no Hamas as we know it today without Iran. And whether Iran knew that they were going to go last Saturday, or that they were going to use paragliders, all of that is irrelevant," Rubio said. "What is true is that all the things they use to carry out this butchery, all of it, they would not have had it had it not been for support from Iran. We need to start waking up," he insisted.
The comments that YouTube appears to have found problematic followed right after, as he also spoke to truth to power not just about the atrocities Hamas has committed, but also how one cannot simply reason with these terrorists.
"We can continue to project all the Western attributes we want on Iran, on Hamas, and on groups like that, but these guys are ideological," Rubio pointed out. "They’re ideological psychopaths, and they’re savages. They would, if they could, not just kill every Jew they could get their hands on, they would kill Americans in the process as well. In fact, they openly call for that. We should start believing these people in what they say."
It is not merely that 1,300 Israelis have been killed, making October 7 the bloodiest day in Israeli's history, when the most Jews were killed since the end of the Holocaust. Hamas didn't just kill people, including civilians. They also targeted women, the elderly, and children--even babies. Civilians were kidnapped, with women also being raped and their bodies desecrated. Israel has released images in recent days of bloodied infants who were murdered, some of them decapitated, others burned.
The comments are still available in a clip posted to Rubio's X account, as well as his YouTube account.
We need to stop projecting Western ideals on regimes like Iran and radicalized groups like Hamas that want to kill Americans and our allies. pic.twitter.com/cKitxDCowi
— Senator Marco Rubio (@SenMarcoRubio) October 12, 2023
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