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Marco Rubio: Don't blame George W. Bush for 9/11

Sen. Marco Rubio didn't back away from blaming the September 11 terrorist attack on former President Bill Clinton's inaction on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio speaks a campaign town hall meeting at the Crown Reef Beach Resort, Feb. 11, 2016 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio speaks a campaign town hall meeting at the Crown Reef Beach Resort, Feb. 11, 2016 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., attempted to clarify comments he made about former President Bill Clinton during Saturday evening's GOP debate. During the debate he said, "The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn't kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him." And on NBC's "Meet the Press" the Florida senator did not back away from blaming the September 11 terrorist attack on Clinton's inaction.

"If you're going to ascribe blame, don't blame George W. Bush, blame a decision that was made years earlier, not to take out bin Laden when the opportunity presented itself," he said.

CHUCK TODD: So I'm actually still not quite clear. Are you putting 9/11 on Bill Clinton?MARCO RUBIO: No, I'm putting it on his decision not to take out bin Laden, absolutely. This is what happens when you have a chance to take out the leader of a terrorist organization, and you failed to do so. And the results are something like 9/11.

Rubio also said he doesn't "trust" President Barack Obama to appoint someone to the Supreme Court seat left open by Justice Antonin Scalia's death and that it should remain vacant until the next president is elected.

"I don't trust Barack Obama on the appointment of Supreme Court justices," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We cannot afford to have Scalia replaced by someone like the nominees he's put there in the past."

Rubio said that the vacancy on the Court will be an issue in the upcoming election and that voters will get the opportunity to "weigh in."

"We're going to have an election, there's going to be a new president, I believe it's going to be me, and we're going to look for someone that most resembles Scalia to replace him," he said.

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.