Marco Rubio insisted that keeping the government running must be the top priority, particularly given instability around the globe. | AP Photo Rubio: ‘We cannot shut down the government right now’

Concerns about what message the United States would be sending the world are a significant reason why Washington should not allow the government to shut down after Friday, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday.

As part of negotiations between the White House and Congress over how to keep the government open, the Trump administration is fighting for funding for the proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Congressional Democrats have said they won’t agree to that.


Speaking on "Face the Nation" on CBS, Rubio insisted that keeping the government running must be the top priority, particularly given instability around the globe. "We have a potential crisis brewing with North Korea. We've seen what's going on, the ongoing crisis in Syria. We don't know what the outcome of the French election is going to be, but that could potentially throw the European Union and the NATO alliance into some level of consternation," the Republican senator said.



“We cannot shut down the government right now,” Rubio said. “That would just have catastrophic impact, in my view — or certainly [a] very destabilizing, I should say, impact on global affairs.”

Separately, Rubio raised concerns about human rights abuses in Egypt. Last week, An Egyptian-American woman who had been held in Egypt for nearly three years returned to the United States after the Trump administration negotiated for her release, a process in which President Donald Trump was directly involved, according to the White House.

Rubio applauded Trump for his work that led to the release of Aya Hijazi, an aid worker and the founder of a nonprofit organization that aimed to help homeless children in Cairo. But Rubio said he has “ongoing concerns.”

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“And my big concern in Egypt is that the way they govern that country now under President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi is going to lead to some sort of a violent crash, and some sort of potential overthrow, and a destabilizing change of government,” Rubio said, adding that he personally raised his concerns with Sisi three weeks ago.

“If you continue to abuse your population, in the long term there will be an uprising,” Rubio said. “There will be government instability. And that becomes the environment that breeds jihadists and radicals.”

