Marco Rubio in Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2015

On War & Peace: Civilian causalities unfortunate but inevitable

RUBIO: I don't think any nation on Earth takes more pains in avoiding civilian casualties than the United States. The reality, unfortunately, is that many of these terrorist groups deliberately operate from the center of civilian areas, because they want there to be civilian casualties for propaganda use. We've seen that as well used by the enemies of Israel on repeated occasions. Obviously, we're going to take great pains to avoid civilian casualties, but at the end of the day, no one has killed more civilians and more innocents here than ISIS has. And although we'll take extraordinary steps to avoid civilian casualties, there is, of course, no guarantee, especially, given the fact, that you're operating against these individuals, who have no regard for human life.

On War & Peace: Declare war on ISIS, fight via Sunni tribes and Kurds

RUBIO: This is clearly an act of war on one of our NATO allies and we should invoke Article 5 of the NATO agreement and bring everyone together to put together a coalition to confront this challenge.

Q: The question is how--Senator Lindsey Graham, says put 10,000 troops on the ground.

RUBIO: I think it's premature to say the exact numbers. I think that we need to begin to work more closely with the Sunni tribes in Iraq who do not want to work under the thumb of the central government in Iraq as well as the Kurds. The only way to ultimately defeat ISIS is for them to be defeated ideologically and militarily, by Sunnis themselves. But we are going to have to increase special operations attacks, targeting ISIS leadership and revealing that they are not invincible.

On Abortion: Abortion is complex issue; we must reduce the number of them

RUBIO: That's why this issue is so hard. There is no doubt that a woman has a right to her own body, has a right to make decisions about her own health and her own future. There's no doubt. And then, there's this other right. And that's the right of a human being to live. And these rights come into conflict when it comes to this issue. And, so, you have to make a decision.

Q: And that decision is.

RUBIO: Listen, you're 15 years old and you become pregnant and you're scared and you have your whole life ahead of you and you're facing this, that is a hard situation. I tell people all the time, "Don't pretend this is easy." This is a difficult question. But when asked to make a decision between two very hard circumstances, I've personally reached the conclusion if I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of life. I'll support any legislation that reduces the number of abortions.

On Drugs: Medical marijuana could be OK, but not recreational use

RUBIO: Well, I've said that I'm open to medicinal uses of anything, and particularly marijuana. And if, in fact, it goes through the FDA process and you can come up with a proven medicinal benefit to that substance, I'm open to that. I'm not in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, and I never have been.

Q: Would you then use the federal government to supersede the laws of states that have legalized?

RUBIO: Well, federal government needs to enforce federal law.

Q: You would enforce the law?

RUBIO: Absolutely. I believe the federal government needs to enforce federal law.

On Foreign Policy: Pre-conditions for Iran: end enrichment & ballistic missiles

A: Our foreign policy as a nation is not subject to what China wants to do or Russia wants to do; we have our own foreign policy. It needs to be in the national security interests of the United States. I would have never entered this negotiation unless we understood up front that Iran was going to stop enrichment activities, was going to stop their ballistic missile capabilities, & was going to stop sponsoring terrorism.

On Foreign Policy: End relations with anti-American communist tyranny in Cuba

A: I would end the diplomatic relations with an anti-American communist tyranny, until such time as they actually held a democratic opening in Cuba, allowed people to organize independent political parties, have freedom of the press and freedom of expression. In fact, all these conditions are laid out in the law right now in the Cuban Democracy Act.

On Immigration: No green card for 10 years for current illegal immigrants

A: Yes. Before you can ever be a citizen, you have to be a permanent resident. That means a green card. And you have to be in that status for three to five years. And what I have argued is, if you have violated our laws, you should not be allowed to apply for a green card for at least 10 years. And then, when you apply for a green card, you should have to do it through the normal, regular process, not through a special process created for you. So it could take a long time for someone to ultimately apply for citizenship. But I think that's a fair way to do it. It should not be cheaper or faster to become a citizen by having come here illegally.

On War & Peace: Keep sanctions against Iran instead of Obama's nuke deal

A: The sanctions are already in place. And they would be reinstated. And that's what I would do as president. You don't need to have a Cabinet fully formed to do that. We will not use the national security waiver to hold back US sanctions against Iran, especially not as a result of this flawed deal that he's pursuing. I think that the sanctions were actually forcing Iran to the table. I think we should have asked for a lot more. It also requires us to help Iran technically, economically, develop themselves as a country and become a stronger regional power. That undermines our relationships with our Arab allies in the region and, of course, the state of Israel. I think it almost guarantees that there will now be an arms race in the Middle East.

On Foreign Policy: Opposes nuclear deal with Iran; but supported deal in 2012

A: Who would not be in favor of a deal if it would be a deal that Iran would allow themselves to walk away from any sort of enrichment or reprocessing? But that's not what the deal is. We now know what the outlines of the deal are and they're much worse than anybody anticipated. And in terms of saber rattling in our approach to terrorism: When you give these radical groups safe havens, whether it's in Syria or Iraq or Libya, they use those safe havens to carry out attacks against Americans and our allies, and increasingly here in the homeland.

On Immigration: Comprehensive immigration reform is politically infeasible

RUBIO: It's not that we bailed. It's that we don't have the votes to pass it. In fact, we have less votes for comprehensive immigration reform today than we did two years again when that passed, because of the last election, because of unilateral actions the president took through executive order, because of a border crisis, because of minors. So I still believe we need to do immigration reform. I still talk about that on the campaign trail. I outlined it in my book, "American Dreams." The problem is, we can't do it in one big piece of legislation. The votes aren't there.

On War & Peace: No mistake to invade Iraq in 2003; we thought Iraq had WMDs

RUBIO: Well, not only would I have not been in favor of it, President Bush would not have been in favor of it. And he said so.

Q: So, it made sense to invade Iraq in 2003, but now you say it was a mistake?

RUBIO: That was not the same question. The question was whether it was a mistake. And my answer was it's not a mistake. I still say it was not a mistake, because the president was presented with intelligence that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, it was governed by a man who had committed atrocities in the past with weapons of mass destruction.

On Drugs: No responsible way to recreationally use marijuana

In an interview, Rubio was asked whether he had ever smoked pot: "Here's the problem with that question in American politics: If you say that you did and suddenly there are people out there saying 'Well, it's not a big deal. Look at all these successful people who did it,'" Rubio said. "I don't want my kids to smoke marijuana. And I don't want other people's kids to smoke marijuana. I don't believe there's a responsible way to recreationally use marijuana."

He continued: "On the other side of it, if you tell people you didn't they won't believe you. The bottom line is, I don't think people should smoke marijuana." The senator has previously dodged the pot question, saying his own experience is "irrelevant" to drug policy.

On Education: Professor of political science at Florida International U.

Rubio's lectures reveal a tactical mind that explores "targets of opportunity" for both parties. He discusses demographic slices of the electorate as if they are pieces on the Electoral College chessboard.

Rubio explains the GOP's dilemma like this: "Basically, Barack Obama got eight out of 10 votes from the fastest-growing groups in America. And Mitt Romney got 90 percent of his votes from the group that is diminishing in terms of its overall percentage of the population.

Imagine, he tells his students at one point, that "despite your message, you can't get through [to minority voters] because they're convinced you hate them. That's going to be a problem."

On Health Care: All kids should get vaccinated, with medical exceptions

Several Republicans also have voiced support for vaccinations. "Unless they are immune-suppressed for medical exceptions, but I believe all children should be vaccinated," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said. "Absolutely, all children in America should be vaccinated."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said all children should be vaccinated, and didn't know if another law was required.

Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) helped fuel the controversy this week, saying parents should "have some measure of choice" in vaccinating their children.