If Saudi Arabia is responsible for the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., believes the U.S. must act fast to punish its Middle East ally.

The senator was responding to President Trump's comment Thursday that he is not considering halting the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia in light of the disappearance of Khashoggi, who is feared dead.

"They're going to buy them in the future. When you want to influence Saudi behavior on another topic, you're not going to have anything to threaten them with or hold over their heads. It isn't about the money," Rubio said. "I don't know [if] the president had just been briefed, that's how he used to express it, but bottom line is, the money — there's not enough money to the world to buy back our credibility on human rights. If we do not move forward and take swift action on this, if — in fact, if and when — it's proven to be true."

“What good does it do us?” Trump told reporters in response to questions about whether his administration would consider stopping arm sales to Saudi Arabia.

“We don’t like it, and we don’t like it even a little bit,” Trump said. “But as to whether or not we should stop $110 billion from being spent in this country, knowing the have four or five alternatives, two of them being very good alternatives, that would not be acceptable to me.”

Rubio said he would have phrased the president's statement differently and does not believe the president's overall argument.

"I would have phrased that differently, not about the money. [There's] plenty of other countries that want to buy arms. I would phrase it very differently. Important thing is that when you sell arms, it's true that they can buy from China, Russia or anybody else. When you sell arms to Saudi Arabia, it gives you leverage over them because they need replacement parts, they need the training ... you can't sanction a country by cutting them off if you never provide it in the first place. It is true that arms sales gives us leverage," Rubio said.

"Never accept this from anyone in the world. Undermines our credibility and our moral authority around the planet to go after regimes like Putin's or Venezuela or others. As far as the options are concerned, people talk about the arm sales, our relationship with Saudi Arabia extends well beyond arm sales as well," Rubio said. "And I would say it's, unfortunately, because Saudi Arabia is an important part of our Middle Eastern strategy, they are a key leverage and hedge point against the influence. That cannot supersede our commitment to human rights."