WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Sunday said one of America's biggest challenges in law enforcement and intelligence gathering is to confront violent radicals within the United States.

"Confronting the threat of violent homegrown ‎radicalization is one of the greatest counter terrorism challenges our law enforcement and intelligence community faces," Rubio, a Republican who had sought his party's nomination for the 2016 presidential race, said in a statement on a deadly shooting in Orlando, Florida.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Mary Milliken)