Rubio: Obama Leaving ISIS to His Successor

Rubio: Obama Leaving ISIS to His Successor

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) argued that President Barack Obama was “clearly looking forward to leaving [ISIS] to his successor” on Tuesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel. 

“They’re [ISIS] going to have to be defeated by ground troops, now ideally, in a perfect world they would be local ground troops … that’s the ideal outcome, we have to be prepared, however, for the reality that that may not come together in time, that they will have to be confronted. And that point the choice we have is the following: if it doesn’t work out with the local troops, does ISIL get to stay? Do they continue to be able to operate or do we truly do what’s necessary to defeat them? And this president clearly is looking forward to leaving it to his successor to figure all of that out,” he stated.

Rubio also criticized the president as an “isolationist” whose “confusion” on foreign policy was preventing the US from forming a coalition against ISIS. 

“This president ran by basically bragging that he was going get us out of every conflict on the planet. He was going disengage us from the Middle East. This is not uncommon among isolationists like himself, people who believe that American engagement is actually the reason why these problems exist. He, in essence, believes it’s America’s fault in many instances that we have these enemies. And so he’s bragged about it for years. Now, suddenly, reality is forcing him back in.” And “the implications are that all these other countries we’re trying to create a coalition with, especially the Arab countries, they listen to his speeches, but they also listen to this confusion, and what they conclude is we’re not really committed to a true anti-Islamic terror campaign. He’s going to do what he needs to do in the short-term to deal with this, but we’re not going see it through under this president … it undermines our ability to successfully put together a coalition of nations to confront this threat.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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