Been someone i been covering for over a decade since he first ran for the u. S. Senate back in 2010, senator rubio thank you for being here. Good morning thank you for having me. We are 49 days away from the election, you serve as chairman of the Senate Select committee on intelligence from that seat, what is the biggest threat to our president ial election in terms of foreign interference. I think first we have to break up foreign interference in the two categories, one is meddling in the architecture and mechanics of the election and the other is a message and psychological operations and warfare designed to get us to divide against each other, let me talk about the second one in terms of putting out messages and the like, that is yearround and what the adversaries basically do, they look at all the preexisting fractures in our society and they push on that, they use social media increasing what they are using to create a website somewhere and maybe hire americans to ride on the website and put that out there as real news content. That is an ongoing challenge and that is yearround all the time and that will continue to be developing over the years to come in the theory if you get a country to fight against each other internally which we do a good job by ourselves, then we divide that country in society over time. The second, related to the first, can i mess with the election, a lot of people think can you go in and change votes, thats the hardest thing to do in a meaningful way to influence outcome of the election, more concerning to me is a situation where you can get in to the election system, you could delete a bunch of voters from the voter role and you would do it strategically so all the voters are from one party and say you pick a democratic county or democratic election official and republicans are the ones when we show up to vote are not allowed and even though will get a provisional ballot and hopefully the vote will be counted, the narrative will get out there that republicans were not being allowed to vote or vice versa and then its a closed election and the new leisure influence operation to promote the narrative that in some parts of the county and country in certain counties, partisan Election Officials will preventing democrats or republicans or people from a certain racial ethnic makeup from voting, all of that designed to create chaos and questions about the legitimacy of the election, that would be their dream, that would be the biggest achievement that any adversary has ever scored against in the election cycle to bring us to the point where people honestly believe half the country believes the person who is going to be sworn in is not valid or the judgment elected and a great territory republic and the way i tell people, think about the 2000 election but on steroids. And its 50 times worse than that and it wont be about its about 70 cheating on purpose. Multiple adversaries have a capability to do it in at least three who have the intent to do it at some level. You mention state websites and fake accounts, facebook removed some of those things that were created by russian operatives, what news can you share in this final laugh of the campaign about what russia is up to in terms of meddling. I think its evolved beyond that and evolved beyond russia, not just a fake account and not just a name and a facebook account, im talking about you create websites in agency of some sort on the internet and its really promoted and sponsored by a state and then you hire americans who are wittingly or unwittingly using it to write up stories that look like news reports and then you get people to organically spread online as real means, i think that is one of the challenges that all of us need to be aware of and just because it looks like a News Organization does not necessarily become one that weve reached a point its very difficult to distinguish and ill be frank with all due respect a lot americans already question the mainstream outlet, they view them as places to promote narratives, not places that promote new stories, its a huge metal where people are naturally drawn to report and the story that further creates an ocean and affirm your preexisting beliefs to become attractive for people to read articles even if its a source you never heard of to read articles that come from your preexisting biased on politics. Thats an ongoing threat but one that we will see different from what we see in the past. Is a russian government stoking Racial Division at this time under social media. I dont think theres any doubt beyond russia, iran, china, particulate ironic russia in this case are constantly in search of, what are fractures and things that get american with the, helped him by weakening internally and the more were at each others throats in this country the less capable we are of governance internally or around the world but it also helps russia and iran domestically where they say these are the people that are lecturing us about democracy and freedom and their chaos and their destroying each other, this is what socalled democracy at least their version, the western version looks like, it helps them by weakening us and helps them geopolitically but also helps them domestically by going to people and saying this is our system of government better than the america and look whats happening over there, riots and their incapable of doing anything, fighting with each other all the time and there is no doubt if theres anything in america, they dont create a but they will drive it, they can do anything they can to drive it. Beyond russia, you mention china and iran, weve done a lot of coverage to russian interference, can you share any specifics to learn more about the extent interference in the election. When it comes to china their tactics and their goals are little different, chinas goals and i dont have any doubt in my mind that china doesnt want donald trump to be reelected, i think they measure that against her concern that is there involvement being revealed and that will be counterproductive but ultimately chinas approach, it is not new, and lobbied for years in American Corporation with big business interest in china and unleash in the political process and use leverage to in that regard but the chinese goal ultimately is to influence american policy towards chinas preferred position. And that could extend to going after individual candidates in an election and it takes all source of form from punishing a Congressional District that would trade measures, all the way they have the capability of doing everything russia dubs and more so, they have hack and leak capabilities you can foresee them one day and against individuals and the china hardliners and will have you. They have the ability to do it and its just a question, we would not see the intent to do it until after its been done, we have the capability to do everything russia does, they are more capability than russia in many cases and more capability than iran and its a question of deciding how far they want to go and i do think, not that they are more measured but because they worry more about backlash as her hand is revealed, they can be more cautious with we probably would not or about until after the fact. Senator rubio ive been reading your recent speech is a common phrase, good capitalism, if you took that and applied it to your work as chairman of the intelligence committee, you do support a free market but to show some Media Companies like facebook be more regulated with all of these threats from abro abroad . Thats a great question, that is a new question, are they a publisher or content site, i think they have, thats a good question, heres the problem and the perplexity that it raises, what is the fine line between foreign interference in narratives on social media than our domestic but that may not be true, the truth of the matter is, as an american the First Amendment does give your right to say things that are not true and obviously there are limits to that if its going to cause a panic or people to hurt each other, you cannot go to the ferber video screening or a movie house or theater but that said, the problem becomes when they start going after the speech of political figures because they dont agree with the political narrative then it gets complicated, its a tough issue to talk about and i think eventually we will have to grapple with, my view for the most part they have tried to be aggressive about going after it, some or than others particular facebook has been aggressive about identifying foreign sources of false information and tried to eliminate from the platforms, whether regulation omega closer and its something im always cautious about because im not sure in the end we can define or closely regulate how that content is dealt with, i would much prefer to enter it in a collaborative compact that eliminates the difference between domestic political speech and foreign efforts to interfere with the propaganda in our country, i dont have a 21st century issue of First Impression and a tough one to work through, i do think that social Media Companies are going to get into the business of being publishers where theyre going to edit out information one inverses not and as they should be treated as a publisher including for purposes of liability. It is something were going to have to grapple with, i dont have all the answers on it but i recognize the problem and were making some headway on some slides. You brought up now the challenge is on the domestic front which are happening in your own state, the nonConspiracy Theory, i was reading an article, the poster of Florida International university in your state said the Latino Community in florida is dealing with the onslaught of issues related to the queue and i nonconspiracy that is spreading around florida, are you alarmed about that inside your state and more broadly in the u. S. . I say two things, i dont think those conspiracy theories have anything to do with the outcome, in many cases the things that are being promoted after, all they are doing is reaffirming peoples preexisting positional politics, as far as conspiracy, this one in particular, yes its ridiculous, stupid to some extent very dangerous, one thing is to see these things out there and take it for what it is and another is to have someone who has some challenges in season stuff out there and decides to take action and somebody could get hurt, that concerns me very much, my deeper concern is that we are society in a country in which people are vulnerable to the sort of thing, at the core of every Conspiracy Theory is the fear that drives us, we reached the point of fear in insecurity in our country where people are likely to believe ridiculous Conspiracy Theory than they are with reported or what their leaders tell us, really is a warning to leaders and those who report the news about how important it is that they do Everything Possible to build up and protect and secure the credibility both to us in Public Service and those that report on our work because in the absence, you do lead a section of our population vulnerable to what could in some cases be very dangerous in some cases stupid and many other cases dangerous Conspiracy Theory that could leave and already deranged person to take violent action against someone because they believe that person is a pedophile or running a child sex ring. One more question on election security, you have seen this complaint, whistleblower complaint from an official same in short, he was pressured by the white house, by dhs to stop providing intelligence analysis on the threat of russian interference, youre in the interview today having a candid conversation about interference, as chairman of the intelligence committee, have you ever heard about the white house or acting secretary dhs pressuring officials or analyst do not say certain things on russian interference. No, i havent and i have not seen in the reporting either, everything that ive seen the work done people been pretty straightforward and to the point on all these things including the Public Disclosure who will not be identified by name and sanctions and individuals in ukraine behind the russian effort, that said, there is a process in the law however, whistleblower complaint is handled when its revealed the congress, the committee has jurisdiction in this case ours intelligence matter has a process for handling it, we are to begin the process and we will handle it the way we will handle any whistleblower complaint that comes forward, we will take is hearsay and run into the book in our statues already looking on it and we will get to the in conclusion after weve done the work and we will treat any that comes out way and that process is already begun. Turned back to the tension between the freemarket conservatism that shape the early part of your career and some extent in your new focus on china. When you speak about the idea of common good capitalism and you look at the pandemic, should the u. S. Be doing more to ask pharmaceutical companies and ppe manufacturers to produce goods and products in the United States . First of all the final question why do we have a market if the purpose of our country in our people to serve the market and the economy, or is the purpose of the economy in the market to serve the people. I think the answer self obvious, we the economy and the end of the wellbeing of our country. I am a supporter of Free Enterprise and capitalism because i believe its the best system to deliver the best results for our people and for our country and the common good of our nation. That said, i recognize the free market the one thing i love about Free Enterprise it will be the most efficient outcome, will allocate capital to the most efficient use and often times that is a great benefit to the United States of america, every now and then it is not in the best interest of our country in the most efficient use of capital to make pharmaceuticals in china or to make certain manufacturing happening overseas. But that is not always in the best interest of the United States of america in our interest to depend on china or any country for that matter for an overwhelming percentage of the active for pharmaceutical ai would extend that, its not in our best interest to depend on china for a significant percentage of our minerals that we need for technology or manufacturing or installation capabilities and telecommunication and 5g, in those instances which the most efficient outcome is not in the best interest of our country, thats where the government has an obligation in my view to create incentives for the private market and Free Enterprise to do the activity within the United States, sometimes the best interest is because of National Security and sometimes the best interest is because the job the industry creates by the job that allows people to raise a family and have Strong Communities that they are part of and thats good for the country too. Senator rubio, lets say you have tax breaks or incentives for pharmaceutical companies to stay in the United States and a working american says why these Companies Get enormous tax breaks to stay in the United States and my Small Business does not get the same kind of basement level tax breaks. Again is not necessarily geared toward the Large Company for example one of the things we tried to do with the Small Business committee is find ways for moreover sta programs to be about making a possible smaller in new companies to enter that space and create competition. I would argue those incentives are already in place, our laws incentivize Large Businesses to do things. We have ten incentivize them to move manufacturing overseas and shipped things back into the United States for the Free Trade Agreement at very low prices, make goods somewhere else and send them into the United States for sale, were to have incentives in them saying the incentive is the wrong one and we will incentivize behavior and behavior that is good for america and behavior that is good for american jobs to be created because that is what will help our country be stronger in our communities be stronger, but i absolutely believe there is a role to play for example by modernizing as i tried to do were trying to do with the reauthorization of the Business Administration in a 21st Century Agency that tries to create a pathway to help smaller in new companies into the spaces where they can provide either as the primary manufacture or the primary company or a subcontractor to the Larger Company involved in the field. Senator rubio you may china overconcentration, the u. S. Ambassador to china Terry Branstad someone you known through your own political travels to iowa over the years is stepping down. Who should be the next ambassador and should be a hardliner on china or someone who is more agreeable with the Chinese Communist party. Ill tell you its not going to be me, i cannot tell you china, all kidding aside about that, thats a tough assignment but a very important one. Im not antichina and i dont consider myself a hardliner, im a realist, china is a rich and powerful country and itll be a rich and powerful country for the rest of my lifetime, my kids lifetime in my grandkids that do not exist life