Foreign leaders are not "shocked" by revelations the U.S. has spied on them because "everyone spies on everybody," Sen. Marco Rubio said Friday.
"None of them are truly shocked about any of this. They're aware of it," the Florida Republican told CNN's "New Day."
"Everyone spies on everybody. That's just a fact. And, whether they want to acknowledge that publicly or not, in every country you have different capabilities," he added.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel called President Barack Obama Thursday amid allegations the U.S. intercepted calls made on her personal cell phone. A spokesperson for the German Chancellor said
Merkel told the president that, if true, the spying represented a "grave breach of trust."
Responses from foreign officials about spying are aimed at the people in their own countries, Rubio maintained.
"A lot of what you're seeing from these European leaders is for the domestic consumption of their own public," he said. "These leaders are responding to domestic pressures of their own country."
Officials traveling in foreign countries, whether a U.S. ally or not, need to be aware that anything they do could be subject to monitoring, Rubio said.
"If you are a U.S. government official traveling abroad, you are aware that anything you have on your cell phone, on your iPad, could be monitored by foreign intelligence agencies, including that of your own allies," he said.
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