Marco Rubio Tells Brennan To ‘Watch The News’ During Heated Clash Over Fmr Columbia Student’s Revoked Visa

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that CBS host Margaret Brennan “watch the news” as they clashed over the revocation of Syrian-born former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil’s visa.

Khalil, 30, was arrested on March 8 by U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials following his involvement in a student encampment at the university last year, allegedly linking him to “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” according to the Associated Press. With both his green card and student visa revoked, Brennan asked Rubio on “Face the Nation” if there was any “material support” that Khalil had provided to Hamas.

“Well, not just the student. We’re going to do more. In fact, every day now we’re approving visa revocations, and if that visa led to a green card, the green card process as well,” Rubio said. “When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest. You’re coming as a student, you’re coming as a tourist, or what have you.”

“In it, you have to make certain assertions. If you tell us, when you apply for a visa, ‘I’m coming to the U.S. to participate in pro-Hamas events,’ that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States of America. It’s that simple. So you lied. If you had told us that you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa. Now you’re here. Now you do it. You lied to us. You’re out. It’s that simple. It’s that straightforward,” Rubio added.

Brennan, however, continued pressing the secretary of state, asking if there was “any evidence of a link to terrorism” or if it was simply “his point of view” that officials disagreed with.