Story highlights Florida Sen. Marco Rubio urged central Florida residents to donate blood

Rubio called the Orlando shooting the "new face of the war on terror"

Washington (CNN) Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said attackers like the shooter in the Orlando massacre are "the new face of the war on terror."

"They have said openly that they intend to target us here, and one of the hardest parts of this war is the individual who carries out an attack by themselves in a soft target like this, basically, in Orlando, Florida," Rubio said in a phone interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday.

"And it's a reminder that the war on terror has evolved into something we've never had to confront before -- individuals capable of conducting these sorts of massacres unexpectedly in places that you normally wouldn't associate with the kinds of attacks that you see," he said.

At least 50 people were killed and 53 injured in the early Sunday morning hours at a LGBT nightclub in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

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