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During a Q&A on foreign policy Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio took a shot at an unlikely public figure: Pope Francis.
After delivering a meaty speech outlining his hawkish foreign policy priorities at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Florida Republican criticized the 78-year-old pontiff’s take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S.-Cuban standoff.
“His desire is peace and prosperity, he wants everyone to be better off. He’s not a political figure,” Rubio said. “Anything he can do to open up more opportunities for them, he’s going to pursue.”
Rubio contrasted that with his own approach.
“My interest as an elected official is the national security of the United States and embedded in that is the belief that it is not good for our people—or the people of Cuba—for an anti-American dictatorship 90 miles from our shores,” he said.
And asked about the Vatican’s support for separate states of Israel and Palestine, Rubio said the United States must stand with its ally Israel.
“It is the only free enterprise, democratic, pro-American country in the Middle East. If we had more free enterprise, pro-American democracies in the Middle East, my speech would be a lot shorter,” Rubio said.
Asked about his earlier support for separate states of Israel and Palestine, Rubio was dour: “I don’t think the conditions exist for that today.”
It won’t be the last time Pope Francis plays a role in U.S. presidential politics. He’s set to visit Philadelphia in September of 2015, as the presidential race gets even more heated.
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Marco Rubio Lays Out Hawkish Foreign Policy Doctrine Invoking Kennedy
NEW YORK -- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) set forth a foreign policy vision Wednesday that invoked President John F. Kennedy in an assertive call to project American power abroad.
NEW YORK -- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) set forth a foreign policy vision Wednesday that invoked President John F. Kennedy in an assertive call to project American power abroad.
In comments delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations, the conservative senator vying for the GOP presidential nomination said the world would be safer if the U.S. military had a bigger budget and America asserted itself more aggressively across the globe.
While the threats facing the United States have changed in the 21st century, America's global influence remains a benevolent force, Rubio said.
"President Kennedy, like most presidents before and since, understood what I believe our current president does not: that American strength is a means of preventing war, not promoting it,” Rubio said. “And that weakness, on the other hand, is the friend of danger and the enemy of peace."
"Sadly, I believe President Obama often disagrees with that simple truth," Rubio added. "He entered office believing America was too hard on our adversaries, too engaged in too many places, and that if we just took a step back and did some more 'nation building at home' -- ceding leadership to other countries -- America would be better liked and the world better off."
In laying out what his campaign calls the "Rubio Doctrine," the presidential hopeful said he was guided by three principles: "American strength," "the protection of the American economy in a globalized world" and "moral clarity regarding America’s core values."
From his seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio has already played a key role in U.S. foreign policy debates, often staking out positions that directly counter President Barack Obama's administration.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio has challenged Obama's efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with the island, saying that closer ties would only help the communist Castro government keep power. Rubio has also opposed the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, pressed for more support of rebels in Syria and advocated to increase aid to the government of Ukraine to counter Russia's influence in the east of the country.
In Wednesday's speech the senator also took a swipe at Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, calling her tenure as secretary of state "ineffective at best and dangerously negligent at worst."
Journalist Charlie Rose asked Rubio after the speech whether invoking Kennedy and the Cold War might make him appear backward-looking at a time that Rubio's campaign portrays other U.S. leaders as “trapped in the past." Rubio responded that the Kennedy statements represented "timeless" truths.
