FOX "Hannity"- Transcript: Border Security, Clinton Emails, and the Iran Nuclear Deal

Interview

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HANNITY: All right, joining me now with reaction, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio is with us. Senator, there's some good news in here. Not only are you tied for third in the poll, it -- they -- they had match-ups, Biden versus Trump, Bush and you. You did the best. Same thing in -- you actually were the only one to beat Bernie Sanders, of the other two candidates.

So in match-ups, you do really well, but not as well in the general poll. Why do you think that is?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I don't know. It really doesn't matter at this stage. I mean, other than the fact that it's determining who gets into the debates. The bottom line is this is a campaign. It's August, September, October, November, December, January, five full months lie ahead. (INAUDIBLE) think about five months to go (INAUDIBLE) what those polls said.

So the important thing is for someone like me who's running for president is to go around the country and tell people what it is I stand for, what I will do if they give me the chance to serve in the highest office in the land. And then ultimately, our voters get to decide, and they do so in individual states, of course, starting in Iowa.

That's what I'm going to focus on. I think that's what really matters. And ultimately, that's what's going to decide this race, and I'm excited about the chance to be a part of it.

HANNITY: Hillary Clinton was viewed by 61 percent of voters, the highest number ever, as being dishonest and untrustworthy. When the poll was asking, What word first comes to mind when you think of Hillary Clinton, the first three were "liar," "dishonest" and "untrustworthy."

So between that and the e-mail server scandal, how much trouble do you think she's in?

RUBIO: Well, it's a very serious issue. Look, there are people that have been charged with criminal offenses for less. On top of that, it's just highly irresponsible. I mean, look, I'm on the Intelligence Committee. I have access to highly classified information of the same level that she had access to, and we would never put that in an e-mail.

Quite frankly, you only look at that either in a secure environment or on paper in a secure environment. You never e-mail that stuff around. Someone did something very wrong here. She should have known it when it she saw it, and her staff should have known better, staff that she supervised. It shows sloppiness, irresponsibility, quite frankly, incompetence, and perhaps even criminality in regards to why there needs to be an investigation. And I'm glad to see that the FBI is taking it more seriously.

HANNITY: You know, I'm sure, as a candidate, you probably get tired of answering questions about Donald Trump. But I personally think there is a reason for the Trump tsunami that in part is the Republican Party's blame. 2014, they ran on the idea that they would stop the president's illegal, unconstitutional executive amnesty. They ended up funding it. They still never repealed and replaced "Obama care" or used the power of the purse.

Do you think those are the factors that have angered Republican voters so much?

RUBIO: Yes. Beyond it, I would say that -- look at this. Three of the last four elections have been change elections. Obviously, in 2008, that was the theme of the Obama campaign. In 2010, when I was elected, it was a massive counter-reaction to what Obama had done. In 2014, once again, the American people voted for change.

And nothing has changed. And so people are upset. They see that everything goes up in prices. Their paychecks are stagnant. America's getting weaker in the world. And people are angry, and rightfully so.

And the question is, what do we do with that anger? My answer is we need channel that anger into activism. We can't let anger define us, for example, as Republicans, but we do need to let it motivate us to finally do something.

And that's why this election's so important. This is not just about who you like more. We can't afford -- we literally as a nation cannot afford four to eight more years of the same stuff. And you know, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden or anyone, for that matter, they are all running on the promise not just to continue the Obama policies but to expand them. We can't afford that as a country. We just can't.

HANNITY: Senator, when I interviewed you the day you got into this race, I asked you about immigration. It has now become a huge issue in this campaign. You said to me that comprehensive immigration reform is impossible because the American people don't trust us. And you said you support securing the border first.

RUBIO: Right.

HANNITY: Can you tell us specifically what that border security would be? And should anybody who didn't respect our laws and sovereignty be ever granted citizenship?

RUBIO: Well, first of all, let's start with what you asked the question about, how to secure the border. There's -- there's -- we know how to do that. And we've done it in some parts of the border, and not enough parts of the border because people are still coming in.

It requires more fencing and more -- more -- you know, building a wall. But it also requires more sensors, more personnel, et cetera. That alone won't be enough, though, because as I've said repeatedly, four out of ten illegal immigrants entered the country on a visa and they overstayed it. That's why you need a mandatory e-verify system so you can't get a job if you're here illegally. That's why you need an entry/exit tracking system.

And what I've said repeatedly is until you do that and it's in place and it's actually working, you're not going to be able to do anything else. And anyone who believes that we can move on this in some massive piece of legislation at this point, after two illegal actions that you've outlined and the problem that happened at the border a year ago with minors, they're delusional if they think we can move forward on this with one massive piece of legislation.

Now, you asked about the people that are here illegally. Look, I think that if we do that, the first thing that I just outlined, the border security, and it's working -- and then we have to something else first, too, and that is we have to modernize the legal immigration system. We can't continue to allow people to come here based on family connection. It has to be based on merit, on what you can contribute economically.

After we've done those two things, I think people will be reasonable about, what do you do with someone who's not a criminal? If they're a criminal, they have to leave. But if they're not a criminal and they're going to -- and they've been here a long time, they have to -- you know, they're willing to pay a fine, pay taxes, they get a work permit.

And that's all they'll have for a very long time. And that's -- and some people say forever. I don't even think you can get to that part of the debate until you've done the other two things. Let's see how the other two things work first, is what people are saying.

HANNITY: Senator, this Iranian deal -- and I know you care a lot about national security. We're going to give the number one state sponsor of terror $150 billion. They're going to continue to spin their centrifuges. They continue to threaten the United States and to wipe Israel off the map. They'll build more conventional weapons. They made a deal with Russia about a missile defense system. And they'll continue to build their ICBMs.

How can you stop this horrible deal that will allow this radical rogue Islamic regime nuclear weapons? Is there a path to stop it?

RUBIO: Yes, my first day as president because the president -- this is not a treaty. It's not binding. It's not even law. The law is sanctions against Iran. The current president is going to use the national security waiver in that law to waive these sanctions.

On my first day as president, we're going to reimpose them. I said it earlier today here in South Carolina. People who vote for me will know they are voting to repeal the deal with Iran on day number one, not just impose the American sanctions that we have in place, increase them, and back it up with a credible threat of military forceful, In essence, as long as you're spinning centrifuges, we will have crippling sanctions on you. And if you try to build a weapon, we will destroy your program.

By the way, the most effective -- one of the most effective weapons against Iran in this fight is to allow America to drill for more oil and to export it. Today, we are banned from exporting. We export more oil to Japan, to India, to these other countries that are buying from Iran, that will also hurt the Iranian regime.

HANNITY: Senator, you mentioned five months and a week left until the Iowa caucuses on February 1. When do the polls start mattering to you? When do you begin to believe that they're real?

RUBIO: Well, ultimately, we've had elections in this country where the polls have been off. But certainly, as you get closer -- you're talking to someone that was 60 points down when I ran for the U.S. Senate, and it really didn't start to matter until later.

I think there are information pieces in these polls that are relevant, but ultimately, Americans in these early states in particular have shown the trend over the last few years of making up their mind near the end.

And we're -- what we're excited about is we think we have a message that really appeals to a lot of Americans, many Republicans. It sells conservatism. It applies the principles of limited government to the challenges of the 21st century. We're very confident in what that's going to mean in January and February of this year.

HANNITY: All right, Senator Marco Rubio, good to see you. We'll see you out on the campaign trail, sir.

RUBIO: Thanks.

HANNITY: Thanks for being with us.

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