Washington Free Beacon managing editor Aaron MacLean discussed CNN's foreign policy-focused Republican debate Wednesday morning on Fox and Friends.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked MacLean to analyze the candidates' foreign policy proposals in light of his experience as a combat Marine veteran.
"Aaron Maclean, a guy who fought in Afghanistan. We heard about how the wars were not working, [how] we shouldn’t have [gone] into Iraq all last night. Did anyone make sense to you?" Kilmeade asked.
MacLean partitioned the candidates into two groups: one that saw the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in terms of a greater fight against all of the major entities threatening the United States, and one that wanted to focus on the ISIS in particular.
"I think there was a real strategic divide between the candidates. One group thinking that the fight against ISIS has to be connected to a broader struggle, where we’re tough on Syria, we’re tough on Russia, we’re tough on Iran," he said. "Another group of candidates, I would include Trump and Cruz in this latter group, who want to focus on ISIS specifically but don't seem to me to want to face down the rest of that axis."
Kilmeade then asked MacLean who had the "best vision" out of all of the candidates.
"I think [a] group of them. I would include Rubio, Fiorina, Christie, Bush," he said.
"In that order?" Kilmeade said.
MacLean said he would maintain that order and said that he liked Marco Rubio’s broader vision that accounted for American values.
"I really enjoyed what Rubio had to say because I think he gets that we can't just keep ourselves safe by narrowly focusing on our self-interest," he said. "Our self-interest has to be tied with pushing for a world that respects American values. The safety comes from that."