Rubio dismisses Cruz 'tough talk' on ISIS

By Al Weaver, Al Weaver

Published December 20, 2015

Marco Rubio continued his war of words with Ted Cruz Wednesday morning, dismissing his vow to "utterly destroy" the Islamic State despite supporting cuts to defense spending.

Appearing on Fox News, Rubio told host Martha MacCallum that the Texas senator's "tough talk" doesn't match up with his votes in the U.S. Senate, pointing to his votes against defense authorization bills and for budgets that "dramatically cuts defense spending."

"This is an important and complex issue, and we do need to have an in depth debate about our intelligence programs, about our defense capabilities," Rubio said.

"All this tough talk — you know, Ted said he's going to 'utterly destroy ISIS.' Anyone can say that. What are you going to do it with?" Rubio asked the host. "And when you support a budget like he does that dramatically cuts defense spending, when you vote against every defense authorization bill ever presented before you ... how can you then stand there and say that I'm going to utterly destroy ISIS, but I'm not going to pay for it or support what it will take to utterly destroy ISIS."