Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he would try to derail Donald Trump’s signature proposal to ban Muslim immigrants from the U.S. if he wins reelection to his Florida Senate seat.
“That’s not a real proposal,” Rubio told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It’s not something that’s going to happen.”
The Florida senator, who announced last week that he was running to keep his seat after promising for months that he’d become a “private citizen” in January, said he would try to steer Trump “in a different direction” if they are both elected.
Trump’s campaign said over the weekend that the ban would now only apply to Muslims from countries that have “tremendous terrorism” in what was meant to be a slight walk-back. But the initial proposal in December called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” and the campaign has offered up several versions of it in the months since.
Rubio, a former candidate in the 2016 race, has heavily criticized Trump’s rhetoric towards Muslims, but made his own remarkable proposals on the campaign trail. After the terrorist attacks in Paris in November, the Florida Republican proposed “closing down any place — whether it’s a cafe, a diner, an internet site — any place where radicals are being inspired.”
Rubio told “Face the Nation” that he also opposed Trump’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, saying it would be impossible to carry out.
“The reality of it is, you can’t do it,” he said. “You can’t round up and deport 11 million people. There are people that need to be deported. Criminals need to be deported. But you can’t round up and deport 11, ten, nine million people. The American people wouldn’t stand for it once they saw what it would take to make that happen.”
