Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Monday came out against the armed militia currently occupying a federal wildlife refuge in rural Oregon, accusing them of breaking the law.
“Let me just say, first of all, you’ve got to follow the law,” Rubio said on Iowa radio station KBUR. “You can’t be lawless. We live in a republic. There are ways to change the laws of this country and the policies. If we get frustrated with it, that’s why we have elections. That’s why we have people we can hold accountable.”
A small group of armed individuals, led by anti-government rancher Ammon Bundy, on Saturday took over the unoccupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near the town of Burns, Oregon in order to provoke a standoff with the federal government. The group believes that federally managed land should belong to the locals who live there.
Though Rubio said he disagreed with the groups’ methods, he told KBUR that he agrees with their assertion that the federal government exerts too much control over land and resources in the western U.S.
“There are states for example like Nevada that are dominated by the federal government in terms of land holding and we should fix it, but no one should be doing it in a way that’s outside the law,” Rubio said.
Listen to an excerpt of the interview below via KBUR.
h/t Buzzfeed
Rubio…still trying desperately to have it both ways.
All of the Republican candidates however would like to transfer public lands and our national forests to the States to give out leases to private oil, gas and mining companies as they see fit in Western States…leaving all US taxpayers high and dry.
Sure, rub it in Marco. After these guys are convicted of felonies they are going to loose their right to vote for a while. That’s got to be ‘frustrating’.
“There are states for example like Nevada that are dominated by the federal government in terms of land holding…"
Yes, El Cretino, because these lands are held in trust by and for the people of the United States, not for the likes of Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Bros, or other 1% miscreants. Hence the designation “Public Lands”. Dumber than a Cuban cigar.
“and this is the part where he repeatedly gets asked why does he feel like this and what are his solutions for ‘fixing’ this; but he likely had places to go and more people to lie to.”
OMG, I still cannot believe these idiots either do not know the history of those old territories or just ignore the history when commenting on these issues. For Kriste’s Sake, when will anyone in the news media ask them about the reason why the federal government owns and manages all that land? If they answer truthfully, well, then that answers pretty much all of what these fools are “protesting.” My own question is when will BLM do their job in full – and actually put a lien on the Bundy Ranch and others, attach their bank accounts, etc.? Seriously, if one of us owed the feds upwards of $1M for a decade, we’d have already had our lives ruined.