JAKE TAPPER (HOST): How does this proactive approach when it comes to having people on your radar, in terms of the U.S. government looking for terrorists, how does it square with the fact that on Thursday, the day after the attack in San Bernardino, you and every Republican in the Senate voted no, except for Mark Kirk I should point out, you and almost every Republican in the Senate voted no on legislation that would have kept people on terrorist watch lists from being able to purchase firearms or explosives. President Obama calls it insane that people on the no-fly list can walk in and buy explosives or a gun.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: Because there are - the majority of people on the no-fly list are oftentimes people that basically just have the same name as somebody else who don't belong on the no-fly list. You know, former Senator Kennedy -- Ted Kennedy once said he was on a no-fly list. I mean, there are journalists on the no-fly list. There are others involved in the no-fly list that wind up there. These are everyday Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism. They wind up on the no-fly list. There's no due process or any way to get your name removed from it in a timely fashion. And now they're having their Second Amendment right being impeded upon. If these were perfect lists, that would be one thing, but there are over 700,000 Americans on some watch list or another that would all be captured under this amendment the Democrats offered. And that's the problem. The vast -- there aren't 700,000 terrorists operating in America openly on watch lists. They include vast numbers of Americans who have names similar to someone we're looking for. Sometimes you're only on that list because the FBI wants to talk to you about someone you know, not because you're a suspect. And again, now your Second Amendment right is being impeded with.
TAPPER: I don't think it's accurate to say that a majority of them are on the list by accident, but let me --
RUBIO: A very significant number of people on those lists are on there because they have names similar to somebody else. My office deals with dozens of calls every year from people that are on no-fly lists or identified lists of watch lists. It's not just the no-fly list.
TAPPER: So these watch lists should just be ignored?
RUBIO: No, they shouldn't be ignored. But they shouldn't be used as a tool to impede 700,000 Americans or potential [Americans] -- people on that list from having access to being able to fully utilize their Second Amendment rights. There are many people on no-fly lists that are not terrorists -- not just no-fly lists, I apologize -- on any of these terror watch lists, because that amendment was not just limited to the no-fly list. That is not a perfect database and it has a significant number of errors.
