Rubio Speaks to Action 97.9 FM Orlando

Interview

US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke with Dania Alexandrino of Acción 97.9 FM Orlando on the show "En Perspectiva" about the current effort by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to silence conservative voices, about the increase in Hispanic support for the Republican Party, on the current censorship of opposition voices and on the Durham report.

A lightly edited transcript of the interview is below.

On the House Hispanic Caucus' effort to silence conservative voices:
"First, let's be clear about what they're trying to do. They are not looking for a change in the laws. Well, they would like to, but what they are looking for is to put pressure on the corporations that own these stations and to create a series of controversies and pressure on these corporations. Remember that many of these stations, the owner is a public corporation that has a Board of Directors and others that are susceptible to this type of pressure.

"So what they're looking for is to put pressure on those companies to take [certain programs] off the air and also the companies that advertise on these stations. They know that if those people lose their ads, then they lose the funds and everything else. It is what they have sought to do for many years with Fox and also other entities. In terms of the law, here? we have a Constitution--in this country--that allows freedom of expression and this is an attack against that. So the most important thing we can do right now is not a law specifically, because the law exists. The most important thing we can do is raise our voice and say clearly that what is this? happening here is an effort to intimidate, to silence, to censor voices contrary to theirs.

"And that, as you rightly say, is a highly Marxist tactic. This is what the Marxists have done in all the countries of the world. And obviously, it bothers them that these are Hispanic voices because they thought they were the owners, the left thinks they are the owners of the Hispanic votes in this country. And, it bothers them when they realize that there are Hispanics who are not lending themselves to the madness that they are presenting and who are resisting and even have different ideas than theirs.

"A) Yes? that many of these people, for example, this congresswoman from Miami who just lost her election, is also an anti-Cuban person who has expressed herself in such a way on many occasions or on hidden cameras in different places where she has been. She has said things that she didn't know what to say in public. A) Yes? that there is also an element of that... And she lost? for a large number. I mean, did she win? in a special year, the worst year that Republicans have had electorally and she lost? Naturally, she did nothing in the two years she was there. She now she has dedicated herself to this and I think it's a combination of the madness that she has left, in combination with also that feeling that she has that she had lost and I think she blames him because she thinks she lost? to Cubans, Venezuelans,

On the growing trend of Hispanics in support of the Republican Party
"Here there is no propaganda ladies and gentlemen, here what is there is a reality. Are there people who are Hispanic who have lived here? many years, have worked here? many years, many years have been sacrificed and they wonder…. ' Come here? I have worked here? 20 or 30 years and I have always paid my taxes and now I am retiring and what they give me is a small check every month Social Security and here? Someone enters illegally from another country and they give him all kinds of help and they give him all kinds of things that have never worked .'

"Here? there are people who have told me, 70-year-old women who have worked all their lives and see a young and healthy person with a new cell phone, a car of the year and using Food Stamps and other help. And they wonder, but what? kind of abuse is that? In short, also people who have recently arrived in this country, have they been here? four or five years and they realize that at school they are telling their children that they are racist because of things that happened a hundred and something years ago that they were not even here? in this country. Not even your ancestors were here? in this country when that happened and they want to convince them that they are racist, or that they are part of a discriminatory system and everything else. Anyway, people who are tired of this madness and that their children come home with these ideas that are being instilled in them at the university and they ask themselves: Do I have to pay all this money to send my son to a university where a communist professor puts strange and strange ideas in the head [of my children] and do you have to pay for that? In short, in many cases you have to borrow money to send your children to university where they try to indoctrinate towards Marxism.

"Anyway, I think that's behind a lot of this. And on top of all that, there are so many Hispanics who own small businesses that inflation is taking them? eating [alive]. That is to say, everything costs more, they cannot continue raising prices and they are about to lose their business due to this Biden inflation."

On the current censorship of opposition voices
"Here? we have the Department of Homeland Security of the Country Homeland Security, which has said that one of the threats that exists in this country are people who have, in short, ideas different from what the press says. And, I'm going to tell you the danger that exists. If I, two years or a year and a half ago, had said on social networks that this virus had possibly come from a Chinese laboratory, they would have removed my account, they would have closed or blocked me and censored me because that at that time was disinformation.

"Later, now it has come out that this is very possible, even a 50 percent probability, that this is what happened? Now it is no longer disinformation. [When I said] that the Omnicron was less dangerous than the delta, [there were] people who wanted to blame me for it. So that is very dangerous, why here? [Democrats] are deciding what is the truth and what is the lie. And well, they are trying to silence the voices of not only people in politics, but ordinary people on a daily basis."

On the Durham report
"That has to be one of the biggest crimes that has been seen politically in the history of this country. You imagine that a private company--that had a contract with the White House was showing the Democrats the Internet traffic of the White House or setting up electronic surveillance of the [opponent's] campaign. And on top of that they were taking this information to federal sources for their federal sources to investigate. And then they can go to the press and say 'Look, the press is here? investigating so-and-so'. That's what they did.

"If that had been done by a Republican, if Trump had done that to Clinton, that would have dominated the press. But, since it was Clinton who did it to Trump, that is allowed and it is not talked about. It is that even, they are completely ignoring it in the press. That [shows you] everything. But anyway, this is an [issue] before the Federal Court. This is not about a political issue, so this is not going to be able to be hidden."

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