Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said that he bought a gun on Christmas Eve to protect his family from ISIS. He also acknowledged that it was not the only weapon he owned.
"I think many Americans around the country feel the same way. I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. I have a right to protect my family if someone were to come after us," Rubio said, according to the New York Daily News.
"In fact, if ISIS were to visit us, or our communities, at any moment, the last line of defense between ISIS and my family is the ability that I have to protect my family from them, or from a criminal, or anyone else who seeks to do us harm. Millions of Americans feel that way," he continued, according to TPM.
Rubio felt that President Barack Obama was underestimating the threat ISIS posed, as Obama had said during his State of the Union address that ISIS "do not threaten our national existence."
"I think playing into their hands would be to ignore the reality of what ISIS has become," Rubio said, according to CBS News. "ISIS is not just some group of radicals on the back of pickup trucks. This is a group that's grown in both influence and sophistication. Can we defeat them? Absolutely. But only if we have a real war against them, which is to find them and destroy them. And if you capture any of them alive, send them to Guantanamo and find out everything they know. We've never had a group like ISIS that has an in-depth understanding of foreign immigration practices."
Rubio was also critical of Obama's handling of the Iran nuclear deal and the release of Iranian prisoners in exchange of Americans held in Iran. You can read more about that story here at HNGN.
"The president has pardoned them in exchange for a release of hostages which had done nothing wrong, and it proves once again that now nations and enemies of America around the world know there's a price for Americans. If you take an American hostage, Barack Obama will cut a deal with you, whether it's Bergdahl, what he did with the Castro brothers, and now what he's done with Iran," Rubio said of the exchange. While reiterating that he was "happy" at the Americans' coming home, "they never should have been held prisoner in the first place," Rubio said, reports CBS News.
