Rubio: Eventual ‘grand, big-scale’ terrorist attack likely in US

by Jesse Byrnes - 11/19/15 7:10 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio suggested Thursday that while major terrorist attacks in the U.S. have been thwarted in recent years, it’s likely one will eventually be successful.

“The grand, big-scale ones we’ve been able to disrupt,” Rubio said in an interview with Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson that was highlighted by BuzzFeed.

{mosads}“But in my mind, the odds are that eventually one of them will succeed, and we need to be prepared for that reality,” the Florida senator added.

Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, credited law enforcement for thwarting many “active, ongoing plots to strike us here in the homeland” from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other groups.

He also noted the U.S. has had some terrorist attacks in recent years, including the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that left 13 people dead and dozens others injured.

“We are at war with radical Islam and they want to kill Americans here in the homeland and all over the world,” Rubio said on the radio program.

Rubio has called for bolstered U.S. surveillance capabilities domestically and a tougher response abroad to Islamic militants following the Paris attacks.

In contrast, GOP rival Rand Paul on Thursday panned calls for increased surveillance after the attacks, with the Kentucky senator describing such an effort as “bulls—.”

Tags domestic terrorism Marco Rubio Terrorism