GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio said the Americans released by Iran should not be described as “prisoners,” telling CBS News that they were “hostages,” an article published on The Hill on January 17, 2016 described.
 “Well first, let me say ‘They’re not prisoners,’” the Florida senator said during an interview airing Sunday morning on “Face the Nation.”
“These people that were being held were hostages.
 None of them had violated any real laws. And in fact some of them weren’t even charged. One of them was a reporter. The other one was a pastor. They’d done nothing,” he said.
“The people America’s releasing – they were convicted in a court of law after due process of violating sanctions,” Rubio added. “The president has pardoned them in exchange for a release of hostages which had done nothing wrong and it proves once again now that nations and enemies of America around the world know there’s a price for Americans.
“If you take an American hostage, Barack Obama will cut a deal with you, whether it’s Bergdahl, what he did with the Castro brothers, and now what he’s done with Iran.”