Rubio: Foreign policy under Clinton a ‘disaster’

by Jesse Byrnes - 04/18/15 6:01 PM ET

Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), a Republican presidential candidate, blasted the Obama administration’s foreign policy this weekend, linking it to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Whether it’s the reset in Russia or the response to Benghazi or everything in between, the Obama foreign policy — during the Clinton years, especially, as secretary of State — have been a disaster for America,” Rubio said in an interview for CBS’s “Face the Nation” released Saturday.

Rubio, a member of the the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, had taken a more tempered approach to criticizing Clinton’s foreign policy credentials during the first week since announcing his own White House bid.

{mosads}The freshman Cuban-American senator suggested in his presidential announcement that Clinton was “a leader from yesterday” and joked about her Chipotle outing during a stop in New Hampshire on Friday.

But in the CBS News interview, Rubio questioned Clinton on foreign policy issues as well, arguing she has so far not distinguished herself “on a single issue from what the president is doing now.”

Rubio, a protégé of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, acknowledged in the CBS interview that the pair would likely be running against each other in pursuit of the Republican nomination in 2016.

“It’s a unique situation. I don’t think anyone could have envisioned it working this way,” Rubio said.

Bush and Rubio have publicly avoided criticizing each other, though ties between the two have reportedly started fraying as their respective presidential campaigns pick up.

“I just honestly believe that our vision for the future of this country is better than that of other people in the field on both sides of the equation,” Rubio told CBS.

Rubio insisted that should Bush launch a presidential bid, as is widely expected, he would “be a very strong candidate” and it would not affect their friendship.

“At the end of the day, it won’t change how I feel about Gov. Bush,” Rubio said. “He will remain my friend and someone I admire both personally and politically.”

Tags Marco Rubio