When explaining his criticism of President Obama’s speech this week at a Maryland mosque during Saturday night’s Republican debate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) worked in a claim that the Obama administration is discriminating against Christian groups.
Rubio criticized Obama for claiming that there is “widespread discrimination against Muslim Americans” before later mentioning discrimination against Christians.
The Florida senator referenced the Little Sisters of the Poor, who have sued the federal government over the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers offer health plans that cover contraceptives.
“I do believe it is important to recognize — you want to talk about religious discrimination in America. I don’t think Barack Obama’s being sued by any Islamic groups, but he is being sued by the Little Sisters of the Poor,” Rubio said.
He added that there are Christians with “traditional values” who face discrimination as the government forces them to “violate their conscience.”
Rubio was asked why he bashed Obama for “always pitting people against each other” following the President’s speech at a mosque and whether he would visit a mosque himself.
“I would. But that’s not — the issue — my problem with what he did is, he continues to put out this fiction that there’s widespread discrimination against Muslim Americans,” Rubio responded.
After acknowledging that Muslim Americans serve in the U.S. military, Rubio pivoted to terrorism.
“But by the same token, we face a very significant threat of home grown violent extremism. We need to have strong, positive relationships in the Islamic communities in this country so they can identify and report this activity. Especially mosques, for example, that are participating not just in hate speech, but inciting violence and taking acts against us,” he said.
